On February 5th, tours of the Bowling Green Assembly plant were officially suspended “due to manufacturing advancements,” with “no confirmed date for plant tour resumption.” Those were the direct quotes from the National Corvette Museum that sent waves of speculation throughout our community. Shortly after this startling announcement, CorvSport canvassed social media to find the top three speculations for the tour suspensions.
Would you like to guess what the top speculation was?
#1 (with 45% of the vote):
♦ ZR1 preproduction for mules/prototypes and tooling
Well, the social media enthusiasts nailed it because we now have confirmation that the first EX-VIN ZR1 has been built. What exactly is an EX-VIN? Simply put, an EX-VIN denotes the vehicle as an experimental prototype (which, unfortunately, will eventually be destroyed following its testing).
The Timeline of the Latest ZR1 Developments
♦ February 8th: New pictures of camouflaged ZR1s from San Diego, California, started circulating on popular social media pages (full CorvSport feature here).
♦ February 15th: John, the co-founder and admin of the popular (and news-breaking) MidEngineCorvetteForum, made the following proclamation, the key takeaway of which is: “This is not a rumor; this is confirmed fact.” Here is the full post:
♦ February 15th: Our friends at the Corvette Blogger speculate about a 2025 model year release:
“So far as we know, the ZR1 is still on track for a 2025 model year reveal, and we previously detailed a 2023 meeting at the Bowling Green facility between plant officials and those from Detroit, with the outcome being the new Corvette ZR1 slated for a 2025 release. However, with the first EX-VIN prototypes now coming off the line, it still feels like we are about a year away at least from having the car ready to produce for customers.”
♦ February 16th: Notable enthusiast and YouTuber Brink of Speed releases an in-depth video titled: “HUGE NEWS! C8 ZR1s are being BUILT this WEEK!” [Full video below]
The Evolution of the Great Engine Debate/Summary of ZR1 Powerplant Theories:
- LT7 Twin-Turbo based on the flat-plane crank 5.5L LT6 out of the C8 Z06
- 670hp LT6 in concert with the E-Ray’s 160hp 1.9 kWh electric motor on the front wheels
- LT6-based Twin-Turbo with TWO electric motors
- 6.2L cross-plane crank V8 (most likely with twin turbos)
- 5.5L cross-plane crank Twin-Turbo LT7 with VVT and AFM
So, CorvSport community, is this just more senseless speculation? The news for the incredible C8 ZR1 has been all over the map, but these recent developments certainly seem reliable and real! If you want to keep up to date with all the fresh Corvette news and maintain a pulse on the lifestyle and culture of this exciting, iconic brand, CorvSport has the fastest-growing Corvette community on our Facebook page, with over 173,000 followers (54,000 since January 2023!). Come join other hardcore enthusiasts and say hello, Douglas B.
