Hold all the phones: That future 800-hp C8 Corvette could be the ZR1, not Z06

What we have here is a case of dueling Corvette rumors. We recently posted on an Automobile report claiming the coming C8 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 could have as much as 800 horsepower and more than 700 pound-feet of torque produced by a twin-turbo DOHC V8 of unknown displacement. Following a years-long trail of rumors, and a chart of engine and horsepower progressions starting with the C6 Corvette Z06, we wrote that getting “800 horses for the C8 generation is eminently reasonable” from a presumed 5.5-liter displacement. Now Muscle Cars & Trucks has run a piece effectively saying, “Cool story bro.” MCT says an 800-hp C8 Corvette is on the way — but it won’t be the Z06, it’ll be the ZR1.  

This alternate Corvette universe rearranges the entire lineup. According to MCT’s rumormill hand grenade, the ZR1 engine “could be larger than five liters,” could use a flat-plane crankshaft “if for nothing else than an exotic soundtrack,” and shift through the entry-level C8 Stingray’s eight-speed dual-clutch.

As MCT writes, plenty of Z06 fans weren’t happy that the C7 version added a supercharger and a lot more curb weight. However, it’s hard to separate how much of that unhappiness came from the fact that the Z06 overheated during hard track use, the issue so dire and widespread that owners filed at least four class action lawsuits. Steering well clear of that possibility for the C8, MCT says Chevy will take the Z06 closer to its lo-fi roots with a naturally aspirated V8 producing somewhere around 600 hp. The outlet says, “It’s safe to assume that a target for the C8 Corvette Z06 engine output would be to one-up the Ferrari 458 Speciale engine as the most power-dense atmospheric V8 production engine,” which would mean besting 597 horsepower from 5.5 liters, or 132.67 hp/l.

We have two questions about this Z06 intel. The first is that all of the engine rumors for the C8 Corvette have posited two twin-turbo V8 engines in 4.2-liter and 5.5-liter displacements, and one naturally aspirated 6.2-liter, so where does the NA engine come from? Yanking the turbos off the TTV8s seems far-fetched, since wringing high power out of an atmospheric, small-displacement engine would be another huge change to the Corvette playbook; the C6 Z06 got 505 hp from a 7.0-liter NA V8. If Chevy used the 6.2-liter in the Z06, beating Ferrari’s 132.67 hp/l means getting at least 823 horsepower, putting us right back at the beginning of all this rumor back-and-forth. The second issue is that we think it’s strange Chevy would want to fight a power battle with a four-year-old, out-of-production Ferrari, but hey, these are strange times.

The Automobile piece left room for the C8 ZR1 as the purported all-wheel drive, electric-motor-assisted Corvette with 1,000 horsepower or so at the top of the range. MCT says no, that would be the Zora, which “could be GM’s take on the Porsche 918, for a sliver of the price.” Aside from the fact that competing against the Porsche 918 would be fighting a different, even more irrelevant battle, we don’t know what to make of any of this, but we do find it all rather exciting, and we can’t wait for answers straight from the Bowtie’s mouth.