Video: CorvSport Catches E-Ray HTC Roaming In The Wild

It was a cold (for FL!) late December day as my girlfriend Kristen and I were leaving our scheduled pit stop along I-75 in Alachua, FL. Kristen knows the game. We look for any generation Corvette while on the road and yell when we see one. It was a dull trip, and oddly enough we had not seen any Corvettes in the first 850 miles, but as we hit the on-ramp the startling yelp came. Honey a ‘Vette, punch it to catch up! Easier said than done, as we were in our 163hp “no worries beat-it-up” road trip rental (versus my “brittle that’s-a-new-noise” 2000 FRC).

Despite the hurdles, I mashed the pedal to the floor and wound up that 1.5-liter turbo, and as the not-so-crisp CVT rowed through the non-gears we eventually started to get this bright yellow Corvette in our sights. At first glance, I thought wow I didn’t realize how wide the base C8 is. As we got closer, I started to appreciate the controversial rear end more, and my eyes “confirmed” it was a base model due to the side exhaust tips.

Never for one moment did I think we were behind a pre-production E-Ray! I mean, what are the odds?

But the puzzle was quickly solved as we pulled up alongside the E-Ray, (which spent most of its time behaving in the center lane), when I immediately noticed the best design feature, that crazy widebody I admired just minutes prior. Then, I began searching the databases in my head, and could not recall ever seeing a black-striped Accelerate Yellow E-Ray HTC in ANY of the pre-production CTF (captured test fleet) videos. I’ve included our video archives below if you want to double-check for yourself.

Could this be a 1 of 1?

Now, onto the burning questions that my mind produced after this cool Corvette sighting.

Why are these pre-production E-Rays still driving around, and when will they stop?
How many total pre-production (CTF) E-Rays are there? Google was not very helpful.
Have you ever seen a pre-production Corvette in the wild?
Is this example really a ONE of ONE?

Yes, I know that at the end of the day, this isn’t really huge news, but given the amount of hype and excitement surrounding the 2024 E-Ray, I thought our faithful CorvSport readers might find the spotting (and questions surrounding it) interesting! Do you have any answers? We have the fastest-growing Corvette community on our Facebook page, with over 165,000 followers (46,000 since January!). Come join other hardcore enthusiasts and say hello, Douglas B.