Here’s The Corvette C8.R Race Car That Gatecrashed The Corvette Convertible Reveal

While all eyes were focussed on the imminent reveal of the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray convertible at the Kennedy Space Center, the company decided to reveal its first-ever mid-engined race car too—the Corvette C8.R.

Both street and track versions of the upcoming mid-engined sports car have much in common and, as Jim Campbell, Chevrolet US VP of Performance and Motorsports explains, they also benefit from the decades of knowledge and experience of the extremely successful Corvette Racing program.

“The C8.R is much more than just a race-tuned version of the 2020 Corvette Stingray. It’s a culmination of many years of testing and development between GM Design, Propulsion, Engineering and the Corvette Racing team,” said Campbell, “The collaboration between these teams has allowed us to take these vehicles’ performance to the next level, both on the street and the track.”

Since 1999, Corvette Racing has won 107 races—besting every other professional sports car team in North America—and in 2015, Corvette Racing became the first sports car team in 15 years to win endurance racing’s Triple Crown in one season with victories at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The C8.R No.4 car is finished in a silver livery, which was inspired by the iconic Corvette concepts such as the 1973 Chevrolet Aerovette and the 1959 Corvette Stingray Racer. The No.3 car will be finished in the traditional yellow color scheme with silver accents that continues the lineage of the successful GTLM racing Corvettes of the past 20 years. Both race cars will be making their racing debut at Rolex 24 at Daytona in January 2020.

Images courtesy of Chevrolet