[SPIED] Video Captures the Sound of a Flat-Plane Crank V8 in this C8 Corvette Z06 Prototype

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[SPIED] Video Captures the Sound of a Flat Plane Crank V8 in this C8 Corvette Z06 Prototype

Screen Capture from Jim Lill / Facebook


Here’s a huge catch by a Corvette enthusiast named Jim Lill who posted a photo and a video to Facebook of a camouflaged C8 Corvette widebody with an engine note that sure as shootin’ sounds like the C8.R’s flat-plane crank V8. The heavily-cladded Corvette prototype was spied out in California on Monday afternoon in the mountains east of San Diego.

Like the C8 Z06 spy photos that came out last week, the Corvette Team is testing a prototype with visibly larger rear tires and wider side rockers. The prototype’s brakes and internals are hidden with a dull black wheel cover that only allows access to view the lug nut holes. I said previously that they are reminiscent of the C4 “sawblades” but without the teeth.

Also like last week’s spy photos, this prototype isn’t wearing a rear spoiler. However, there are two cutouts in the rear camo where one might be mounted. This seems to confirm the rumor of a larger rear wing similar to that on the new C8.R that may be headed to the C8 Z06.

But the big story is the 12-second video showing the C8 prototype rounding a corner. We hear the sound of the DCT and a flat-plane crank engine downshifting as it makes its way around a big curve, and the video cuts off as it disappears around another corner of the two-lane mountain road. The video was posted to a C8 Corvette group on Facebook and can’t be embedded, but you can see it here. Update! GM Authority has it here:


As a parting shot, we also see is that the prototype is wearing Arizona license plates which is different than the Michigan manufacturer plates we are used to seeing. In fact, I cannot ever remember a non-Michigan plate on any of the C8 Corvettes previously. The most likely answer is that the car is based out of GM’s Proving Grounds in Yuma, AZ.

[SPIED] Video Captures the Sound of a Flat Plane Crank V8 in this C8 Corvette Z06 Prototype

Photo Credit: Jim Lill / Facebook


As Corvette Racing will run a DOHC 5.5L flat-plane crank V8 in the new Corvette C8.Rs, it’s all but a given that a version of the engine will be headed to the C8 street cars. FIA rules state that at least 300 engines be placed into street vehicles from the same manufacturer for the engine to be homologated for racing.


Source:
C8 Corvette Owners / Facebook

Related:
[SPIED] Did Chevy’s Prototype C8 Corvette Z06 Just Get Caught Testing in the Snow?
[PIC] Chevrolet Shares Early Sketch of the C8 Corvette Z06’s Cockpit
The Corvette C8.R, Homologation Rules, and the C8 Corvette Z06

 



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3 COMMENTS

  1. Actually sounds a little mean! As long as the Corvette retains the small block V8, I won’t mind a flat plane!

  2. We were expecting the C8 Z06 to have a 5.5 liter DOHC 4-valve motor. The photos of the engine bay of the new IMSA GT1 2020 C8.R racer show a pushrod V8. 🙁

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