Official: incredible new Corvette concept previews next-gen US supercar

Are we looking at the next-generation C9 Corvette? Yes! And also No! This new concept car will definitely influence the styling of the next-generation Corvette, but it’s not quite as simple as sticking on some number plates and giving it the thumbs up.

It’s the work of GM’s new Advanced Design Studio in Leamington Spa (about 20 miles from Birmingham if your UK geography is a bit rusty) and one of three Corvette concepts that will be shown this year. The second will come from GM’s LA-based studio, and finally - probably around August - we will see a concept made at the Detroit studio that uses elements from both… and is a proper preview of the C9.

GM has several of these ‘satellite’ studios around the world – in Shanghai, Seoul, São Paulo and now the UK, as well as LA and the mothership in Detroit – tasked with bringing different influences and perspectives to GM’s conceptual design work. And perspectives don’t get much more different than asking a UK-based studio to design the next-generation Corvette. The brief from Detroit really was that simple, and this is the result, something a whole lot more svelte, elegant and subtle than the current mid-engined C8.

“As part of the Corvette creative study, we asked multiple studios to develop hypercar concepts,” Michael Simcoe, senior VP of global design 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. Which is exactly what our advanced design studio network is intended to do – push the envelope, challenge convention and imagine what could be.”

And let’s just get this out of the way early: yes this is imagined as a fully-electric Corvette (although no tech specs have been offered) which allows several benefits. Simcoe again: “What we’ve done here doesn’t promise it [pure EV] in the next generation or anything close to that, it’s a concept, but giving it an EV propulsion system means you can do more with the aero - a more efficient underbody, and flow air through the body.” So fear not, the next-generation Corvette won’t be pure-electric… the V8 will live on.

Despite being electric, they’ve stuck with a classic set of mid-engine proportions. The car is split into two distinct halves - the top surface, which is as uncluttered and pure as possible, and the bottom half which is all about aero and function, creating this two-tone effect. The lower material is 3D printed, made from recycled tyres and wears the printer grain with pride.

Viewed from the front might be its best angle - huge intakes, low nose, and it wears that top surface like a sheet draped over it with arches bulging through, not dissimilar to the Aston Martin Valkyrie. More division: a line that splits the bonnet, splits the windscreen, runs down the roof and splits the rear-screen too, is a nod to the C2 Stingray split-window. But it’s not just nostalgia… it enables something called Apex vision. Essentially, there’s no A-pillar here, just a wraparound windscreen that allows a panoramic view as you carve around corners. The wing doors are also hinged on that line, so half the windscreen screen comes with them.

Through the side pods and around the back there’s a whole load of negative space which lets very clever things happen with the aero. There are fans hidden back here, designed to help pull air through the car when cruising - creating a virtual longtail, like the GMA T.50 - to reduce drag and improve efficiency. But in track mode dorsal fins on the rear deck pop up, and the air flow is diverted for maximum downforce. Best of both worlds then, on road and track, and you get to keep this sculpted, wing-free surface on top.

“Corvettes have been done outside of the US before, as concepts. Final engineering is always done in the US,” Simcoe told us. “Our Chinese and Korean studios weren’t involved this time because of the amount of work they have going on, and frankly putting it into the UK studio was a test for the guys. It’s a different way of thinking about the car.”