Chevy C8.R Race Car Is Based on the New Mid-Engine Corvette

From Car and Driver

• Chevrolet debuted the C8.R race car, based on the new mid-engine Corvette, at an event in Florida today.

• Corvette Racing will run the car in the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series.

• The car is rumored to have a different V-8 engine than the one that powers the production C8.

Chevrolet showed us the C8.R race car today in a surprise unveiling at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The car is based on the mid-engine eighth-generation Corvette and has a silver livery with yellow stripes and red mirrors.

Chevy was shy with details but said more information would be released next week at the IMSA Petit LeMans race next week. Chevrolet will race the car in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship starting in January 2020.

GM factory driver Tommy Milner fired up the car during the reveal event, and the engine sounded distinctly different from that of the production C8. It has been rumored that the C8.R would have a version of the flat-plane-crank V-8 suspected to power the forthcoming Z06 variant. Flat-plane-crank engines are typically lighter and have higher rev limits than their crossplane-crank counterparts, but Chevy's flat-crank engine, if gossip rings true, will feature DOHC heads, which will make the new engine heavier than its pushrod predecessor. Chevy representatives at the event wouldn't comment on the engine's design.

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