What will be new for Next Year's Corvette? Slash Gear Outlines Changes

The 2021 Chevy Corvette C8 is getting ready to make its way to many dealerships like ours right here at O'Rielly Chevy of Tucson, and the word is that several highly-requested tweaks have taken place. The Slash Gear blog provided coverage this past week about the expected changes, as the 2021 Corvette Coupe and Convertible will see adjustments to some of the options and trims. It is fair to say that Chevy as a whole surprised many with the launch of the 2020 Corvette C8 and finally produced a mid-engined model after decades of speculation.

Even though this is a high-powered machine that doles out 460 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque, the modest price was a real winning factor with journalists and car experts alike, as well as decent offerings on a standard trim. Now that it's time for a new model year, it does seem like Chevy is not straying too terribly far from what has already worked so well. The biggest change is in regards to the Magnetic Ride Control suspension. Until this year, if you've wanted this ingenious system, you needed to opt for the Z51 package.

It puts to use magnetorheological fluid which can be altered according to a magnetic field, to make changes to the suspension from soft through to firm. This year the suspension system will be offered as a standalone option, so you can opt to withhold the Brembo brakes, performance exhaust and rear axle ratio, electronic limited-slip differential, heavy-duty cooling system, and performance Michelin tires. Another change of major interest to buyers is the wireless CarPlay support. It will now be standard across the 1LT, 2LT, and 3LT trims, and means that you can now connect directly with your iPhone and use the Apple interface without needing a dangling USB cable.

For the last year's model, wireless charging was only standard on the 2LT trim and above. On the outside, there are a few new color choices: the Blade Silver Metallic and Long Beach Red Metallic Tintcoat are no longer available and have been currently replaced by Red Mist Tintcoat and Silver Flare. The “Stingray R” package will add special graphics and matching wheel caps, and there will be a new assortment of full-length rain stripes available. There is the addition of a center hood “Stinger Stripe” option, available in Edge Yellow, Edge Red, Midnight Silver, or Carbon Flash.

The 3LT trim will now flaunt a Strike Yellow color scheme with Sky Cool gray inserts, and the other will use Jet Black with Sky Gray inserts. More carbon fiber accessories are coming, and the LPO High Wing and Door Intake Trim will be available in Visible Carbon Fiber. At the beginning of March, Chevy attended the Work Truck Expo and one of the displays featured this 2020 Corvette Stingray doled up as the Gray C8.R. It does make sense for the Chevy to focus on a “C8.R replica” as owners have always been passionate about the race team, and many would like to dress up their Corvettes to appear like those on the professional track.

WhichCar.com Blog Provides the Scoop on C8 Corvette Cluster Headed up by GM Boss

Last week in this video posted by California-based realtor George Kenner, six C8 Corvettes are spotted driving along a road in Yuma, Arizona. Covered in camouflage as many spy shots and videos are, you can still make out enough visuals to stoke the imagination a bit and envision how exciting the fantastic and high-powered C8 will be when it arrives on the lot here at O'rielly Chevy of Tucson. Just after the 8:38 mark is where Mark Reuss can be spotted with a hefty smile on his face, enjoying the raw ability and power of the C8, and obviously enjoying killing it at his new responsibilities after being appointed president of GM earlier this year.

At the tail end of the fleet is the current C7 Corvette model, which the videographer thought for a split-second was an Audi R8, due to the clear mid-engined proportions that catch your eye first. Reports gleaned previously from Motor and Wheels Australia have gradually alluded to the final word regarding the next-generation Corvette, which has already been officially shown to Chevy dealers nationwide. Different leaked documents and computer-generated drawings lead many experts to believe that 4 different V8 engine configurations are likely for the C8.

The 6.2-liter LT1 V8 will most likely be one option, and a turbocharged 5.5-liter unit with a hybrid system will also likely be in the works. The folks on duty at the Road and Track blog had a great feature last month chock full of details regarding the arrival of the C8, and here you get to see a cool video of a fleet of five C8s testing in the snow-covered mountains of California. At this point, we are still under the impression that the car won't debut until early summer of this year, and some are keeping their eyes on the New York Auto show in April.

When we mull over the many various reasons we have to be thrilled about the coming of the C8, the time spent innovating and designing the engine is one of the elements at the top of the list. Many hours of studying and testing were put into the design of the cover that has been made with aiding cooling in mind, which may be why the rear of the car was always seen covered so frequently during testing. Another batch of photos featuring the C8 testing on the famed Nürburgring track revealed two very distinct cut lines on the roof, which makes us wonder if a removable roof panel will be part of this very exciting and track-ready contender.

Another patent that was dug up while gleaning the various newswires was one that GM filed for a clutch-by-wire system: it could potentially replace the traditional hydraulic master-and-slave cylinder mechanism by means of a high-tech electronic actuator situated in the transmission. A system like this would ultimately result in a much simpler actuation of the clutch, which would be of great benefit to a prototype featuring an engine located in the middle of the frame. We are definitely excited about the potential of seeing a run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans once this slice of heavily-horsepowered heaven hits the market, and we will all soon see the vision materialize that spanned half a century and many various drawing boards during the making!