[SPIED] C8 Corvette ZR1 Sheds Its Camouflage and It’s Even Better Than We Thought!

It was in August that we heard the rumors that the C8 Corvette ZR1 was headed to the Nürburgring and today the first photos of the new “King of the Hill” captured the 4th C8 variant on the famous German track without its trademark black camouflage. Keep reading to the bottom and then check out our full gallery of spy photos from the Nürburgring.

Prior to its Nürburgring reveal, the ZR1 prototypes had been spied working out in Colorado for some high-altitude testing and some of the previous hints we observed all seem to make sense now that the curtains have been lifted to reveal the car. During its stateside testing, Chevrolet engineers were driving the ZR1s wearing the Z06’s high wing and that has been replaced with a ZR1-specific rear wing that’s even crazier than what we saw on the 2019 Corvette ZR1.

But perhaps the biggest change is to the widebody design itself. We see that engineers are using an air extractor on the front hood for the first time in the C8 era, much like we see on the Z06 GT3.R race cars that Chevy will be campaigning in 2024. The rear fenders also have new air scoops on the top and the side intake “spear trim” has been replaced with what looks like another air scoop on the rear quarter panels.

As for the front of the ZR1, the fascia looks very similar to the Z06/E-Ray with the front aero shows the dive planes on the corners while the front splitter appears to be exaggerated at the corners as well. The rear of the car also looks to be very similar to the Z06/E-Ray widebody. We see the ZR1’s center-mounted quad exhaust also looks just like the system on the Z06.

When you look at the rear wing head on, it appears to be very straight, but photos of the Corvette ZR1 from the side show that there is a curve that follows the shape of the rear hatch. We are looking closely to see if that rear wing may offer active aero, something that Chevy aggressively trademarked leading up to the C8 generation, but we can’t tell from the photos if that is the case.

When vehicles test on the Nürburgring, they wear a special set of decals if the cars have a hybrid powertrain with batteries so that emergency personal can identify the correct process for dealing with the car if was involved in an on-track incident. The E-Rays wore the stickers last year, but we are not seeing them on any of these prototypes. That could mean we finally have the answer to how the ZR1 will be making its power and with those rear scoops on the back, we are almost positive the car will be turbocharged and not have the AWD hybrid set up like the E-Ray.

Our spy photographer said there are multiple Corvette prototypes at the track, and one of them also has the Z06 High Wing equipped as well. The different wings could point the larger wing being on the “Performance version” while the Z06-style wing may show the car in its base set up. With the amount of power the ZR1 will be making, estimated to be around 800-850 hp, a rear wing is probably required to provide adequate downforce.

Recently, multiple sources have confirmed that the Corvette ZR1 will be coming in 2025, however, the rumor is that Chevy has sort of been going back and forth on whether it will be a 2025 or 2026 model and it’s still quite possible that the UAW strike and the carbon fiber supply chain issues could push the car back to the 2026 model year. Stay tuned as we’ll bring you the latest news on the ZR1 as it breaks!

Source:
Photo Credits: sbmedien

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