New C8 Corvette Door Rendering Seeks To Reveal The Car Early

Could the aggressive side intake openings on prototypes be fake?

There’s barely a week to go before we no longer have to guess as to what the new mid-engine Corvette will look like. That doesn’t mean we aren’t any less interested when good spy shots or exceptional renderings show up in our inbox, which is why we offer this detailed creation from Chazcron, one of the C8 rendering gurus over at MidEngineCorvetteForum.com.

This time around, particular effort is given to the C8’s door. As we’ve speculated previously, it’s quite likely that most Corvette prototypes have some generous fake padding beneath the camo wrap on the doors, and the close-up rendering above seeks to dial some of that out for a more streamlined look. This interpretation still includes soft lines beneath the mirror, but the rocker treatment is straight and true. Whether this is an accurate recreation remains to be seen, but obviously, there won’t be long to wait.

Another interesting aspect addressed here is the C8’s large side intake. The prototypes we’ve seen have intakes canted sharply forward, with extensions reaching well into the doors. The new renderings depict that design, with the extension leaving a rather large, awkward-looking piece just hanging when the door is open. There’s plenty of speculation that these vents are actually purposefully exaggerated to throw us off from the true design. In fact, looking back through our extensive archive of spy photos, it’s hard to see such aggressive intakes on earlier prototypes wearing heavy black camo coverings. And actually, our oldest shots from 2016 (below) seem to show no major side vents at all.

Obviously, we’re talking about very early prototypes which would differ significantly from the production model. But still, we’ve seen changes in the side vents throughout the prototype phase. Could these forward extensions be a clever red herring on Chevrolet’s part? Here’s a small montage of spy photos showing the side vents on various prototypes in the last couple years. Take a look and decide for yourself.

The concept for a mid-engined Chevrolet Corvette was the brainchild of Zora Arkus-Duntov over 50 years ago. Often referred to as the father of the Corvette, he guided America’s supercar through the 1960s and championed some of the most legendary ‘Vette models of all-time. When the 2020 C8 Corvette is revealed on July 18, it will literally be the culmination of over a half-century of discussions, designs, and numerous prototypes. Motor1.com will be there with live video and photos of the special occasion.

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