The design and prototyping of the Corvette C8 was perhaps the longest that Chevrolet had ever worked on a project. This would make sense as they were almost literally reinventing the wheel over nine and a half years, as well as making their first ever mid-engined car. Every little detail needed to be reworked, rewired, or plain old changed to make the C8 not just look like a sports car, but a Corvette.
However, in the time since the Corvette’s unveiling in April 2019, many aftermarket companies and manufacturers were already working on their own prototypes of modifications that would be applicable to the supercar. Some of the first orders for C8’s were not actually destined to customers, but to companies that wanted an actual vehicle to finalize their designs against.
Even the global pandemic of 2020 and 2021 couldn’t slow these companies down, with intakes, exhausts, splitters, wings, and even ECU computers coming out seemingly every day. To say that the aftermarket options for a C8 are many and varied is not understating the fact. There are so many things out there to mod your Corvette with that one literally has a buffet to select from.
Let us guide you, then, towards some of the tastier mods, the ones that actually have an effect on the C8 and are not just purely cosmetic. There is nothing wrong with cosmetic mods either, before you grab torches and pitchforks, it’s just that we prefer to suggest items that make your Corvette go a little faster, have a little more power, and make a little more pleasant noise!
“Cold Air” Intake
While a bit of a misnomer as the C8 already has the perfect cold air intakes via its side ducts, what happens inside the rear of the car is what really matters. Airboxes, intake plenums, even bypasses can all add some power and noise to the car.
This is true for both the C8 and C8 Z06, as both engines love to get oxygen rich cold air delivered to their cylinders so they can make nicer explosions happen in said cylinders. Do keep in mind that all of the claimed HP gains many companies advertise are at sea level. If you live in Colorado, the effectiveness of such an intake system is not as effective as claims, but anything that increases the amount of cold air going into your engine is a benefit.
Halltech Hornet C8 Cold Air Intake
The Halltech Hornet C8 Cold Air Intake can give you anywhere from 5 to 15 wheel HP for a pretty damned good price. Replacing the stock airbox, the Hornet is truly a bolt-on mod that uses all the stock fittings already at the back of your engine bay. How it works is that it does not restrict the airflow through the box, instead directing it with two separate chambers towards the engine’s intake without slowing down the flow. A high-flow oval filter makes sure nothing nasty from the outside gets into the air being sucked forward to the intake manifold of the engine.
It is built to be very easy to install, without any modifications to mounting points or adding any braces or brackets to the car. Simply pull out the original airbox, put the Hornet in, and you can get from 5 to 15 wheel HP added to your C8, with the average being between 7 to 9 WHP.
Not bad for $795, which is significantly less expensive than a lot of intake replacements for the C8.
Eventuri Z06 Carbon Fiber Intake System
Let’s get the biggest thing out of the way first: This intake is very expensive at $2,695, but with an engine derived from a race car, you really do want the best air delivery system you can get.
The Eventuri system works by replacing the stock air box with two shaped channels that use the Venturi effect to effectively cause a decrease in air pressure within the intake, increasing air velocity, before shaping that air back to a higher pressure without losing the velocity. Put simply, it’s using science to act as a sort of organically shaped mini-supercharger.
The real world dyno tests of this system net a mid-range performance increase of over 40 wheel HP, with a peak total power gain across the entire rev range of 17 or more wheel HP and 22 lbs-ft of torque. It also doesn’t hurt that it looks absolutely stunning, and comes with a clear cover so you can pop open the rear truck of your C8 Z06 to show it off!
They distribute primarily through Paragon Performance, but may have a local dealer near you.
Upgraded Throttle Body
While the intake is part of the airflow to your engine, probably the biggest thing between that cold air and the intake ports of your cylinders is the throttle body. It quite literally is the gate to more performance, and varies depending on how far to the floor your foot is.
This is why replacing the stock throttle body with a bolt-in aftermarket one can have you seeing significant gains. It depends on if you use a ported, bored, or larger diameter throttle body, but for now, we’ll focus on direct drop-in, bolt-on OEM replacements.
Soler Performance SE8223 Throttle Body
While it doesn’t have a supremely sexy name like “Air Max” or “Tornado,” the Soler SE8223 is not the kind of throttle body that needs extraneous amounts of marketing about it. It even comes in a regular old brown cardboard box, for example.
That said, it is one hell of an impressive bit of engineering. A direct bolt-on replacement for the stock throttle body, the SE8223 takes the 87mm stock body size and through some very clever shaping of the air channel, makes it as effective as a 91mm throttle body. The OEM one flows about 900 cubic feet per minute of air, and while 4mm doesn’t sound like much, the SE8223 flows 1,165 cubic feet per minute of air.
In simpler math, 4mm gives you damned near 30% more airflow… without increasing the throttle body size above 87mm so you can use the stock tubing. That is worth the $440 Soler asks for one, we think!
Soler Performance SE3793-040 Z06 Throttle Bodies
Quite honestly, we searched far and wide for throttle bodies for the C8 Z06, and every single storefront out there was selling the Soler Performance SE3793-040 kit. We checked BBK Performance, we checked Jenvey, we checked Precision Performance, and even all of them were selling the Soler throttle bodies.
We can understand why as well, when you look at the specs on these beauties. Featuring active contouring to increase air pressure just that little bit as it passes through the throttle body, it also is bored and shaped to have absolutely no protrusions into the airflow apart from the butterfly valve. In fact, the interior bore is finished by a 16 Ra diamond polisher to make it literally flawless.
While it may not give you as big a bump in power and performance as the previous throttle body for the Stingray, what these throttle bodies provide you is sharper, more immediate throttle response, as well as more air-to-power ratios at literally every position above idle. Much like the SE 8223 above, we think the SE3793-040 throttle bodies (one kit has two throttle bodies) are well worth the $700 Soler wants for them!
Intake Manifold
Following on from intakes and throttle bodies, another area the C8 has a few bolt-on modifications is in the actual distribution of all that intake air. There are currently (September 2024) four major companies making intake manifolds, although three of them are making manifolds beyond bolt-on, as they are meant for turbocharging the LT2 or LT6 V8.
As such, there is only one bolt-on intake manifold that will need a little bit of work to install, and will likely need an ECU tune at your local tuning shop, but is otherwise meant for the LT2 V8.
Lingenfelter Performance Design LT2 Carbon pTR Manifold
Our priciest bolt-on mod recommendation, as it also will need either a Lingenfelter or Soler Performance 95mm throttle body, the Lingenfelter LT2 Carbon pTR manifold is one of those bits of engineering that just makes us happy. Underneath the gorgeous carbon fiber manifold cover are 8 independent intake plenums, one per cylinder, optimized to give each cylinder the same amount of air at the same amount of pressure when its intake valves open.
It will require a full day in the garage to bolt on, mind you, but it also comes with all the hoses, clamps, gaskets, fasteners, connectors, and a kitchen sink in the box for good measure! Okay, maybe it doesn’t have the sink, but if you pair this manifold with an air box and a high flow throttle body, you’re looking at a realistic 35 to 50 wheel HP bump without needing to do anything but turn a wrench, with the manifold adding 25 HP alone.
So, now that you’re looking at this manifold with hungry eyes, it is $2,395 without a throttle body. We would recommend the Soler Performance SE9871 95+mm throttle body ($390.50) or the Lingenfelter LT5 Ported throttle body ($480.95) to go with it.
Aftermarket Exhaust Upgrades
Probably the area with the most amount of bolt-on mods, the C8’s headers, cats, and exhaust are all relatively easy to access to work on. Unlike previous generations of the Corvette, having the engine in the middle of the car does mean that there are very limited runs from the exhaust ports to the exhaust tips. This means that mods like long-tube headers don’t truly exist for the C8 generation.
That said, there are several cat-back exhaust options available, with some headers and sport cats that can be bolted in a the same time.
Corsa Performance 1.875×3.0 C8 Headers
The Corsa Performance 1.875×3.0 headers are designed to be truly bolt on, maintaining the same bolt pattern and run length of the stock headers from the ports to the cats. Where the performance increase comes from is from having longer runs from the ports to the cat flange, with the collector portion about 3 inches from the cat.
This allows each exhaust port to have a maximized flow, and also allows the exhaust pulses a little more length to bounce around in the pipe so you get a deeper sound to the exhaust. It gives it more “muscle car rumble” through even the stock exhaust, but paired with a cat-back bolt on exhaust you’ll likely get a better sound and some extra wheel HP.
These headers are not exactly inexpensive, but they are the most highly rated set out there right now. Made of mandrel bent 304 stainless steel with hand-done welds, the Corsa Performance C8 Header kit is $1,891.99.
Fabspeed C8 Z06 Sport Cats
The LT6 is one hell of an engine, one of the best V8s of all time. However, GM was forced to meet noise restrictions and emissions laws, curtailing those last few percentage points of performance that the 5.5L flat-plane crank beast can give.
Fabspeed’s C8 Z06 Sport Cats are the answer. Despite allowing better flow and much more of each cylinder’s exhaust pulse to travel out through the exhausts, these catalytic converters meet the extremely restrictive Euro 6 regulations, meaning by default they exceed US emission regulations. Even better, they come in 9 lbs lighter than the stock cats.
That lightness comes from a serious reduction in cell count but not efficiency. The OEM units are 700 cell cats, while these cats are made using German HJS HD tri-metallic 200 cell internals. Constructed from T304L stainless steel, the Fabspeed sport cats also come with included heat wraps for aftermarket tuning, with the cats and blankets able to handle up to 2,200 F (1,200 F). To put that into context, that is 1/5th the temperature of the surface of the sun!
Internal Fabspeed testing shows that these cats also add some serious power, giving roughly 25 wheel HP and 28 lbs-ft of wheel torque on their own. They are direct bolt-on replacements, and don’t even require an ECU tune, and are compatible with stock sensors so you’ll also get no check engine light. The Fabspeed C8 Z06 Sport Cats are $4,995.95.
