Spectacular UK-designed Corvette concept revealed

Nothing chants U-S-A with as much patriotic gusto as the Chevrolet Corvette. It’s been a symbol of the American dream since the original C1 landed in the ’50s, with presidential endorsements and countless movie appearances cementing its status. General Motors even laid on a trio of Corvettes for the Apollo 12 and 15 crews to position itself front and centre in moments of national pride. But times are a-changin’, and GM now sees the Corvette as a car of the world, not just the USA. So it’s called on its secretive design office in Britain to draw up a vision of what a Corvette of the future may look like – and this is the striking result.

Referred to as a case study, the UK-designed Corvette is one of three concepts, the other two coming from its facilities in Warren, Michigan, and Pasadena, California, with a fourth and final design set to appear at an ‘automotive event’ in August. Reading between the lines, that should mean a reveal at this year’s Monterey Car Week, unless GM springs a surprise on us and decides to bring its new concept to our Annual Service. One can dream.

If the final concept takes even a smidgen of inspiration from the UK-designed ‘Vette, it’ll be quite the showstopper. While Corvettes of the past typically erred on the GT side of the sports car market, the arrival of the mid-engined C8 at the turn of the decade pushed it towards the ultra-competitive supercar scene. And it’s here where the British team’s concept picks up, with a thin layer of bodywork veiling a Le Mans prototype-esque underbody comprising of huge ducts to direct air below and around the car. There’s almost a whiff of Valkyrie about it, only without the fiddly F1-style front wing and humongous ground effect tunnels. 

Little wonder the team has gone for the minimalist look, given the studio is headed up by Julian Thomson, designer of the original Lotus Elise and former JLR man. Speaking at the car’s reveal,. Thomson said the brief from GM design boss, Michael Simcoe, laid out some “basic” criteria, such as the size, but the team was otherwise left to their own devices to come up with a design. “[Our] car is quite skeletal and it’s got a lot of exposed aero, and that’s something Michael was very interested in. We did another car that wasn’t like that. He didn’t like that one.”

As pared back as the concept is, it is recognisable as a Corvette. The most eye-catching feature is the spine running from top to toe, starting with the tip of the arrow at the front bumper’s leading edge and continuing on through the windscreen and rear window to the very back. That means there’s only a single A-pillar, which makes the concept look almost like a fighter jet canopy, while the split rear window is of course a callback to the back of the C2 Stingray. Lower down, the front air ducts look to have been inspired by the shrouding of the light pods on the C8.R GTE machine, while the diffuser contains 12 sculpted blades that act as a heat sink for the powertrain.

That’s right, this Corvette doesn’t come with a red-blooded American V8 in the middle, but a battery-electric motor setup instead. No power or performance figures were given, probably because the C9 is still a long way off and, even then, GM doesn’t seem keen on making the electric switch for the next generation. That being said, Simcoe believes an EV Corvette is inevitable. “There will be in electric Corvette eventually”, he says, right after stating that an electrified ‘Vette already exists in the E-Ray. “Now, what we’ve done here doesn’t promise that in the next generation or anything close to that. So it is a concept, but giving it an electric propulsion system means you could do a lot more with the aero, like a more efficient underbody and [air] flow through the body.”

All that clever aero will come in handy when the hypothetical Corvette hits the hypothetical track. Not only has the UK team come up with a ‘road-going’ concept, but it’s dreamed up a racing version, too. Unbound the rules of real-world motorsport or even physics, the circuit-prepped concept goes big on active aero, with moveable flaps to change the aero profile on the go, much like next year’s Formula 1 cars. It’s also packing a set of fans, which can either be used to suck the car to the ground or help clean up airflow passing over the top. Even the colour scheme is futuristic, with the designers choosing a certain shoe brand that’s popular with the ‘yoof’ in a bid to make the ‘Vette more appealing to young people.

So keen is GM to shake off the sports GT stereotypes that it hasn’t put a big enough storage compartment in for a set of golf clubs. Instead, it’s created an area for a ‘set’ of frisbees. Yes, that’s right. Fortunately, the designers haven’t turned their collective backs on convention with the rest of the interior design. Of course, there’s the obligatory oval (or is it rectangular?) steering wheel, but the single-pillar, jet fighter canopy opens the cabin up beautifully, with ambient lighting running around the bottom of the windscreen to create a halo effect. It looks rather luxurious in person, something you wouldn’t normally associate with a Corvette.

And that’s the whole point of getting the British team involved in the concept stage. After all, the current C8 is the first Corvette to be offered in right-hand drive, and there are plans for further expansion into Europe with the next iteration, so getting a local perspective certainly doesn’t hurt (especially when it looks as good as this). “[The UK studio] had ideas about what a Corvette should be”, says Simcoe. “As we were introducing Cadillac and pushing Corvette [into Europe], it was appropriate to have a local – and therefore a customer’s – idea of how they thought about it, and particularly how they thought about an American icon.”

Interestingly, GM hasn’t roped in its studios in Seoul, South Korea, and Shanghai, China, both of which are situated in lucrative markets where the C8 is currently sold. Simcoe believes that getting too many design offices onboard could hamper the development of other models. “The moment you put a job like a Camaro or Corvette into a studio, all of a sudden the oxygen gets sucked out of everything else. Everyone wants to sketch a Corvette”, he says. “You’ve got to be careful that you put a design to a studio that’s going to test the formula and push the envelope.”

It’s a testament to the quality of the team that Thomson has put together at the fledgling UK outfit; the Leamington studio, which serves as GM’s European design base, has only been around for a couple of years. It’s an impressive facility, too, with much of the exterior and interior design teams positioned right on the studio floor next to whirring robots chiseling out minute alterations to a life-sized clay model. There are even virtual reality workspaces, where designers from the UK and US can congregate and critique each other’s work as if they were under one roof. So while the Corvette you see here has been predominantly designed in Britain, the US teams that also putting concepts forward are constantly in contact to share ideas.

You’ll see the Warren and Pasadena offerings in the coming months, with ideas from all three influencing the final concept that’s due in August. It won’t be a “Mr Potato Head” of different design elements, jokes Simcoe, but it may take the balance of proportions from one and the surfaces from another. At the end of the day, though, it’ll still be an American car, one that’s built in the US and where it’ll receive the most interest. But with the Z06 now available to order here in Britain and with more Corvette showrooms set to spring up across Europe, the all-American sports car’s presence on this side of the Atlantic looks to be set in stone (providing tariffs don’t get in the way). Either way, the next generation ‘Vette could be the most extreme one yet, and we’re here for it. Bring on Monterey.