Chevrolet chose an aircraft hangar in Florida as the location for the unveiling of the newest addition to the Corvette Stingray family, the 2020 Corvette convertible. The convertible Stingray follows on from the reveal of the the mid-engined C8 Corvette in July ... and it came with a surprise in tow.
Said surprise was the Corvette C8.R, the GTLM race car version of the Corvette’s new eigth-generation car.
“The C8.R is much more than just a race-tuned version of the 2020 Corvette Stingray,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. vice president of Performance and Motorsports. “It’s a culmination of many years of testing and development between GM Design, Propulsion, Engineering and the Corvette Racing team.”
The Corvette Racing team has been on the track for two decades, pulling top-line performance from Corvette-derived race cars. Corvette Racing has notched up 107 wins over that twenty years, including a bumper year in 2015 where it took flags at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. So with the new generation of the ‘Vette came the obvious plan to bring it to the races.
The C8.R No. 4 car that was on show has a new silver livery inspired by the 1973 Aerovette and 1959 Corvette Stingray Racer, both of which were in stainless. A No. 3 car will have the team’s traditional yellow color scheme with silver accents to complement its sibling. The new C8.R will debut at the Rolex 24 Daytona in January 2020.
Meanwhile, the main attraction was still the 2020 Corvette convertible, which features a hardtop that stows into the car’s body without affecting trunk space behind the engine and leaves the front storage compartment (“frunk”) unchanged. Chevrolet says it chose the hardtop design over a soft top in order to preserve the mid-engined ‘Vette’s look and to improve safety and sound dampening on the road.
The new Corvette convertible will enter showrooms in the US and abroad in the first quarter of 2020, shortly after the Corvette Stingray coupe enters the market. Pricing will start at about US$7,500 above the $59,995 price of the standard coupe.
Source: Chevrolet