![[RUMOR] Rapid Blue Exterior and Two-Tone Tension Blue Interior May Be Gone for 2026](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2025/02/022625_13b.jpg)
When it comes to stirring the pot, nobody does it better than my friend Rick ‘Corvette’ Conti. Rick has been selling Corvettes for 30 years and his passion for the car as well as the people who drive it are why he works so hard to uncover the latest news on America’s Favorite Sports Car.
In the time that I’ve known Rick, he has always seemed to have a nose for which exterior colors for the Corvette are coming or going, and he’s been right about these things more often than I can count. So, when he starts talking about exterior and interior colors going way in his latest Tuesday night video, it’s time to start paying attention.
GM retired seven colors for the 2025 model year, and they did so with very little advance warning to customers and dealers. That late notice may have prevented some customers from rushing to their dealership to make sure they can order the car in the color they want. For you fans of Rapid Blue or the two-tone Tension/Twilight Blue interior, time may be running out to order it. Based on the earlier timeline Chevy put out to dealers, the final order cycle for the 2025 Corvette will be held in March, and then the 2026 Corvette orders can be initially added on April 3rd with the first allocations coming on April 17th.
Back on January 11th, we went through the C8Tracker.com website to pull out the current ranking of 2025 Corvette exterior colors. Rapid Blue was 9th out of 10 colors, and that’s only because the 10th color – Sebring Orange Metallic – didn’t start until later in the model year, and once it did start it has outperformed Rapid Blue every week since. Rapid Blue is also a color that has been offered on all six model years of the C8 which started in 2020, so perhaps a change is due.
The Two-Tone Blue Interior (HTO) has also been on the C8 Corvettes since inception, and last year it was produced on just 1,313 Corvettes out of the 42,934 Corvettes produced in 2024 which is just 3% of total cars produced. For 2025, buyers also got the Blue Stitching option so at least there is something else to choose from should another blue interior fail to materialize.
As far as what is happening with those initial ZR1 orders that were paused by GM, Rick says that dealers still have not received any new communications about the high wings or when those orders will advance back to 3000 status again. Way to kill the joy in the ZR1, GM.
And finally, Rick talks about the possibility of the ZORA being an option as opposed to a standalone car. We always believed that the ZORA was its own model going back to the well-regarded Don Sherman report on Hagerty in April 2020. But due to Tadge’s comments about the ZR1 being the top dog in the C8 line-up (or dare I say King of the Hill?), many are taking that to mean that the ZORA all-wheel-drive performance hybrid will become a checkbox option for the ZR1. Rick throws it out there that putting the “E-” in front of it would be a terrible idea, but he does like “ZR1e” with the little “e” downplaying the electrification of the ZR1. Not sure I like that one, buddy!
You can check out his latest video here, and he also casually drops in there that he thinks the Grand Sport is now a 2027 as well. Why the change? Check it out below!
Source:
Rick ‘Corvette’ Conti / YouTube
Related:
2025 Corvette Exterior Colors Ranked Through January 4th
Hagerty Outlines the Entire Future of the C8 Model Lineup from Leaked Documents
Is this the New Rapid Blue Peeking Out From Under the C8 Corvette’s Camouflage?
Subscribe Now:
Never cared for the Rapid Blue anyway. It did look better with the full length stripes though.
Twilight blue is what throws it. If there had a been an exterior dark blue befitting Twilight, that might have been different. But Hysteria is blurple, and isn’t that.
Tension blue would have worked better contrasted with black; just like SCG and Habanero.
If Rapid gives way to Midnight Blue or something–then maybe that is a good thing. But adding a dark blue to the lineup just as you’re nixing the dark blue interior option…is misguided.
And I am 100% ok with calling it an ER-1 instead of a ZR-1; but I know many will lose their minds. Or perhaps a ZR-A (since that not only fits the name, but keeps the same format)–and the “A” could also stand for AWD–which it would be. I think I like ZR-A most of all.
@IPD I’m already at DMV to claim my ZoR-A tags
I’m waiting to order a 2026 – sure hope the of Rapid Blue being discontinued is not true – by far my favorite color and my first, second and third choice for my order.
Comments are closed.