BRASELTON, Ga.– Chevrolet is about to begin a new chapter in its fabled racing heritage with the introduction of the new mid-engine Corvette race vehicle. Called the C8.R, this newest Corvette will be Chevrolet’s first mid-engine race vehicle to compete in IMSA’s GTLM course as well as the initial clean sheet race automobile layout because the C5.R debuted in 1999. It will make its official auto racing launching at the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Jan. 25, 2020.
The C8.R is based upon the excellent Racing design structure established with the production of the 2020 Corvette Stingray. There is a much deeper degree of innovation transfer in between the race car and production Corvette than in the past, which aids add to much of its improvements. Therefore, the C8.R shares a larger percentage of parts between the manufacturing and race auto than any previous generation.
” It was very important for us to create the brand-new race automobile together with the production car, so that each product could properly capitalize on the brand-new architecture,” said Ed Piatek, Corvette chief designer. “The advantages of this mid-engine supercar, including its incredible balance and connected-to-the-road feel, will be obvious on the street and also the track.”.
Because certain attributes of the 2020 Corvette Stingray aren’t needed in an auto racing setting, the design and also layout groups discovered ingenious methods to get advantages out of every part of the car. For example, on the C8.R, a single centrally-mounted radiator was placed in the location made use of as the front storage compartment on the production Corvette. Ultra-bright auto racing fronts lights were packaged on the race automobile where the radiators are located on the manufacturing automobile.
A new compact Xtrac six-speed consecutive transmission was developed in order to give area at the rear of the C8.R to package a race car details diffuser.
” We have looked forward to competing a production-based mid-engine Corvette for a long time,” stated Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. vice head of state of Performance and also Motorsports. “The debut of the C8.R is the outcome of immense partnership between GM Design, Propulsion, Design and the Corvette Competing team. As Corvette Competing enters its 3rd decade of competitors, we’re delighted to start the following chapter.”.
The use of computer analytics made it feasible to start the design of the race car well in advance of any production Corvette components being available. Racing Chevrolet’s state of the art Driver in the Loop Simulator was heavily utilized to evaluate numerous chassis and aero-design concepts. The engineering and design teams produced thousands of 3D-printed rapid prototype parts for chassis and wind tunnel testing. The use of these development tools resulted in a race car with improved aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics and weight distribution.