The Corvette Coyote Daytona Prototype is an extremely fast car, especially when it’s only competition is against cars vastly older.
Way back in the heady days of 2012, when America still had a President with a sense of class and the economy was just starting to recover from the global recession, Chevrolet introduced the Corvette Daytona Prototype. Designed to best all others in the Prototype Class of the now-defunct Rolex Sports Car Series, the Corvette Daytona represented the pinnacle of American engineering know-how.
After the Rolex Series closed shop in 2013, the Daytona ‘Vette was retooled to compete in the IMSA Tudor SportsCar Championship Series( which is now called the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship). This meant a new lightening regimen filled with carbon brakes, a carbon clutch, a much larger carbon fiber rear diffuser, and a host of other aerodynamic upgrades.
Power as ever has come from a 5.5-L port injected LS7 V8 producing between 550 and 600 hp. Back when it was driven in Daytona that was a lot of power, but it hasn’t been in that racing series since 2016.
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The Corvette Daytona Prototype is sure to be replaced by the C8 mid-engine Corvette when it eventually makes its debut. For the older C7, it was time to be put out to pasture in the Historic Racing Car Series.
Which actually doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because there is nothing in the HSR series that even comes close to the Daytona Prototype’s power.
As you can see in the above video, the Corvette Daytona just blows right past old Trans-Am stock car racers and LMPC cars alike. It has to slow down on multiple occasions just to avoid plowing into the back end of some car that’s over a decade older.
Driver John Reisman must have been having a blast lapping everyone at the qualifying session of HSR’s recent Mont Tremblant round. However, we’re thinking the actual race will be a bit anticlimactic if he’s actually allowed to race in that thing.
Even though the HSR is mostly to show off classic designs, some people still like to race in those antiques, and when they’re forced to compete against something so much newer it sort of skews the field.
Oh well. We’re sure race officials will figure something out. Maybe the Daytona will get its own class just for itself.