Rumors have been around for the last few months regarding the 2022 Chevrolet Corvette C8 Z06, as to when it would first appear on the scene. Chevrolet and GM have not given much away but a post on the Mid-Engine Corvette Forum suggests that the company is starting pre-production of the new C8 Z06 as early as next week. The forum post says that N50 prototypes will join the 2021 customer Stingrays on the production line. The N stands for the 2022 model year and 50 means pre-production, fuelling the speculation.
Bowling Green Plant Location For These Pre-Production Builds
This is all happening at the Bowling Green Assembly plant, the home of the Corvette. These vehicles will be testing how the car will translate into the production line process and test the assembly line, but equally allow any issues with the cars to be ironed out when they are being taken for a test drive. The possibility of these pre-production models being built is incredibly exciting, being they are much closer to the final production model than testing prototypes. This all comes amid further rumors around the powerplant in the Z06.
The post on the forum states that these pre-production models are to be integrated into the production line from next week onwards in a test mode. There is speculation as well as to how much wider these Z06s will be compared to standard Corvette’s, but only a rough figure if 5/8” is given. Expect Chevrolet to try to keep this under wraps as much as possible, with the cars set to go to top members of the Corvette team for testing.
Sources: Mid-Engine Corvette Forum, Chevrolet