Chevrolet unveiled a pair of hyperpowered Corvettes Monday aiming to carve a place among global supercars and vanquish rivals like Porsche's 911 on the endurance racing circuit.
Calling it "the big nasty," Mark Reuss , General Motors' new head of global product development, introduced the street-legal 625 horsepower Corvette Z06 as "America's supercar" at the Detroit auto show.
Next to that was the Z06's meaner sister, the C7.R GM hopes will dominate the Rolex 24 at Daytona later this month as well as the Le Mans 24 hour classic.
Based on the seventh generation Chevrolet Stingray introduced a year ago, the two high performance racers were developed closely in parallel, Reuss said, stressing the Z06's track-ready abilities even if the C7R is now the official racing machine of GM, the parent of Chevrolet.
They share an all-aluminum frame and a chassis much stiffer than their predecessors.
"The family DNA is more than skin-deep," he said. "The Z06 and the C7.R were in fact developed together."
The ZO6 will only be available at the beginning of 2015, and the pricing has not been set.
GM trumpeted the Corvette's dominating record on the GT circuit in the United States, and said it will field two C7.Rs this year, starting with the January 25-26 52nd Rolex 24 at Daytona.
"Racing motorsports and winning is a part of who we are," said Reuss.
Chevrolet unveiled a pair of hyperpowered Corvettes Monday aiming to carve a place among global supercars and vanquish rivals like Porsche’s 911 on the endurance racing circuit.
Calling it “the big nasty,” Mark Reuss , General Motors’ new head of global product development, introduced the street-legal 625 horsepower Corvette Z06 as “America’s supercar” at the Detroit auto show.
Next to that was the Z06’s meaner sister, the C7.R GM hopes will dominate the Rolex 24 at Daytona later this month as well as the Le Mans 24 hour classic.
Based on the seventh generation Chevrolet Stingray introduced a year ago, the two high performance racers were developed closely in parallel, Reuss said, stressing the Z06’s track-ready abilities even if the C7R is now the official racing machine of GM, the parent of Chevrolet.
They share an all-aluminum frame and a chassis much stiffer than their predecessors.
“The family DNA is more than skin-deep,” he said. “The Z06 and the C7.R were in fact developed together.”
The ZO6 will only be available at the beginning of 2015, and the pricing has not been set.
GM trumpeted the Corvette’s dominating record on the GT circuit in the United States, and said it will field two C7.Rs this year, starting with the January 25-26 52nd Rolex 24 at Daytona.
“Racing motorsports and winning is a part of who we are,” said Reuss.
