GM’s Corvette Concept Pushes C9 Into Radical New Territory

First of three Corvette concepts due this year is the work of GM’s new design center in the UK headed by Julian Thomson

                                        https://www.carscoops.com/author/chris-chilton-cc/                                    

Time flies when you’re having fun, which is why the C8, the mid-engined Corvette that reinvented the Corvette, turns six this year, and GM is already busy with its replacement. And here’s our first potential taste of how it could look, courtesy of GM’s brand new European design center in the UK.

This very hypercar-looking Corvette design study isn’t one of those concepts that’s essentially the production car but with a slightly sexier set of lights. It’s more of a traditional concept, one that explores potential design directions, but maybe drops a few hints about the future along the way.

Related: Corvette Sales Plunge 21% In Q1, While Colorado Shoots Up 73%

It’s one of three Corvette concepts coming this year from GM’s different studios spread across the world. The third version could make its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, Autocar reports, and will take inspiration from this UK car and go on to help shape the look of the C9 production Corvette due in 2028.

The images show a Corvette that seems to be a fanboy of hypercars like the Aston Martin Valkyrie (which was designed 11 miles / 18 km away), while also paying homage to the Vette’s past. So while the dramatic cutaway section in the nose, huge intakes on either side, and another set of intakes ahead of each rear wheel, means the lower half of the concept taps into the latest aero knowhow, the upper portion feels much calmer, more Corvette in comparison.

Split window returns

The peaked fenders nod to the lines of the 1965 Mako Shark Corvette concept, which previewed the 1968 C3 production car – you’ll also find those fenders on the current C8. And the visor-shaped windshield, while again being reminiscent of the C3’s, also looks like a tribute to the iconic split rear window of the 1963 C2 (the concept also has a split-rear-window treatment for good measure).

Pushing the lower aero so hard means there’s no need for a clumsy big spoiler on the rear deck, and although the images don’t show us the full interior from every angle, we can see that gullwing doors provide access to a cabin in which drivers grasp a lozenge-shaped steering wheel, just like in Aston’s Valkyrie.

Designed to Crack Europe

GM has opened its new advanced design center in Royal Leamington Spa in the English Midlands because it’s determined to crack Europe with Cadillac and Corvette, having sold off its former European arms, Vauxhall and Opel, to Stellantis in 2017. The facility is headed by Julian Thomson, who we last heard of when he was design boss at Jaguar, but has previously worked for VW and Lotus, where he created his most famous car, the S1 Elise.

“As part of the Corvette creative study, we asked multiple studios to develop hypercar concepts, which we’ll see more of later this year,” GM’s senior VP of global design Michael Simcoe said.

“It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette’s historic DNA, but each studio brought their own unique creative interpretation to the project. That is exactly what our advanced design studio network is intended to do – push the envelope, challenge convention and imagine what could be.”

What do you think of this Corvette concept? Would you like to see the production C9 taking cues from this Brit-designed study? Leave a comment and let us know.