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.

Autoblog.com features 450-Horsepower Hot Rod Derived From Farm Truck

When any car manufacturer rummages through it's past and present parts bins to work on a new creation, the results are almost always awesome. Some of the combinations we have seen lately have been some of the most inventive ever, and when it's our beloved Chevy brand, we know the outcome will be amazing. The E-10 is an electric hot rod featured in Autoblog this past week, derived from a 1962 C-10 pickup.

The beginning frame is a bit like a modern-day Silverado 1500, where Chevy's concept-building team began by replacing the gas-powered drivetrain with parts from the Bolt. While full technical details have been kept amply secret, the spec sheet has on the list a double stack of electric crate motors that derive power from two 60-kilowatt battery packs. The power flows to the rear wheels via a 4-speed automatic transmission and the swap to electric bumps the C-10's output to 450 horsepower. The 0 to 60 mph drive time is right around 5 seconds, and the quarter-mile time resides in the high 13-second range. All of us here at O'Rielly Chevy of Tucson are not quite sure what the actual driving range is after a charge for this model, but the Bolt now is up to around 259 miles.

There is one characteristic of this creation that we simply couldn't love more: since noise is such a big part of the hot-rodding experience, the E-10 comes with a sound simulator on board. Included presets are an LS7 Z28 with track tuning, an all-around generic V8, or what Chevy now dubs as “futuristic” sound. But if need be, it can actually do burnouts in complete silence, which some still understandably see as sacreligious. This E-10 concept builds on the excitement and momentum that was seen by last year's eCOPO, pushing the envelope of the “crate” electric propulsion system further.

Just a few years ago, there were no solid examples of how hot rodders will still get to participate in their favorite pastime during the oncoming electric era. We love the pictures of this creation, which looks amazing in orange. The SEMA event was from October 30 – Nov 2 this year in sunny Las Vegas, and there were plenty of other awesome things for viewers to feast their eyes on such as the “Green Hornet” Mustang and 1958 Plymouth Fury “Christine” tribute. We will keep you posted here on the blog as the world of electrification begins its unified journey with Chevy models, and how the landscape of cars is changing for the future!