General Motors invited some local media out to Detroit’s Belle Isle yesterday to check out their latest special edition Chevrolet Corvette: the IMSA GTLM Championship Edition. Built to commemorate Corvette Racing’s successful inaugural season with the C8.R, this limited run car gave us our first look at the 2022 C8 Corvette lineup. Chevy also took the time to explain some of the other changes coming for 2022, including the new paint colors, the $1,200 price hike, and some slight tweaks to the engine. There was something noticeably missing from yesterday’s event, however. More specifically, there was zero talk about the upcoming C8 Corvette Z06. Previous comments from a sales representative suggested the car was due to debut next month, but that seems entirely unlikely at this point. In fact, the team over at CorvetteBlogger are suggesting that the new sports car won’t be coming until the 2023 model year.
Production Adversity Continues
It is no secret that things have been a bit of a struggle for General Motors as it relates to the C8 Corvette this year. Production has never gotten to the place that GM had hoped, constrained by continued supplier issues as a result of the pandemic. Things are so challenging in fact that the automaker recently just cancelled allocations for the rest of the 2021 model year. Ordering for 2022 is slated to begin on July 1 however, with production switching to the new model year in September.
C8 Corvette Z06: A 2023 Product All Along?
With this timeline in mind, we decided to check in with some of our sources at Chevrolet to see if CorvetteBlogger is onto something. According to our own sources, General Motors always intended to launch the C8 Corvette Z06 for the 2023 model year. That may go against what been anticipated, but it is worth noting that no comments have ever been made about the car by GM executives. So while that is disappointing for everyone who was hoping to see the new sports car in the coming months, our sources maintain that the car is still on track for that scheduled 2023 debut.
So what does this mean for the C8 Corvette Z06? Well, it most likely means that we will see a debut happen sometime next spring. That would allow the automaker enough time to get the car ready to roll as soon as the 2023 model year kicks off. It also gives GM some time to try and resolve the ongoing issues they’re facing on the supplier front. As much as we’d like to see the car sooner, it genuinely doesn’t make sense to pull the cover off when production is still so uneasy. Considering how potent this thing appears to be, we’re sure the 2023 Corvette Z06 will be worth waiting for anyway.
Corvette Z06 s rock. Should be a beast like every previous Z06. Thanks for the great article
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We await the z06 and hope it doesn’t have too many large spats and wings as standard. The dohc V8 flat plane crank should be twin turbo charged but that will have to wait for the ZR1.