Possible Chevy Corvette Grand Sport spy photos show fat tires
At first glance, the C8 Chevy Corvette prototype you see above doesn't seem to look too different from old camouflaged cars or even the current model. But looking closely, it features some seriously wide tires, and probably wider bodywork to boot. It suggests a higher-performance model, though details from our spy photographer suggest it's not the future Z06 or ZR1, but rather a new Grand Sport.
Zooming in on the front and rear tires reveals the specs on the sidewalls. The wheels are an inch taller than the standard Corvette's at 20 inches in the front and 21 inches in the rear. They, and the tires mounted to them, are wider than the regular Corvette, too. Up front, the tires are 275 mm, and at the the rear they're 345 mm. That's an extra 30 mm of front tire and 40 mm of rear tire compared to the base model. Compared to the C7 Grand Sport, the front tires are 10 mm narrower, but the rear tires are 10 mm wider. Naturally, to cope with this extra width, we expect that the fenders of this Corvette have been widened noticeably, but it's hard to make out how that affects the looks because of the heavy camouflage.
With so much extra tire, it would also be reasonable to wonder if this could be a Z06 or ZR1 model. In fact, the Z06 has been reported to have tires with these specs. But the various sightings and reports of the ultra-high performance Corvettes have suggested they will have a wild-sounding overhead-cam, flat-plane crank-equipped V8. Our photographer reported that this prototype sounded like a regular C8. This prototype also appears to have normal exhaust tips, whereas Z06 prototypes have sported unique designs. That would be consistent with the last Corvette Grand Sport, which benefitted from the extra tire size, bodywork and suspension of the Z06, but with the standard V8. It's hard to say when we'll see this new Grand Sport revealed, but it could appear sometime next year at the earliest.
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