Tag Archives: Corvette

Tuning

Meet the 1,586-HP Yenko/SC Corvette E-Ray

Once upon a time, the Corvette was America’s attainable supercar. Now? With the arrival of the ZR1X and its twin-turbo V-8 hybrid powertrain, Chevy has kicked the door down on hypercar territory—and then Specialty Vehicle Engineering showed up with a sledgehammer.

Meet the Yenko/SC Corvette E-Ray, a car that takes Chevy’s all-wheel-drive hybrid C8 and turns it into something so violently powerful it makes a Bugatti Chiron look like it’s been hitting the gym only on leg day.

SVE’s starting point is the Corvette E-Ray, already the most usable and underrated C8 variant thanks to its front-mounted electric motor and standard AWD. But SVE wasn’t content with “underrated.” They wanted “obscene.” So they gutted and rebuilt the 6.2-liter LT2 V-8 with forged pistons, a forged crank, beefed-up rods, ARP hardware, a custom camshaft, and a new intake system designed to feed what came next.

That would be a pair of water-cooled, ceramic-bearing turbochargers—because, in the world of modern hypercars, forced induction is no longer optional.

Combined with the E-Ray’s electric motor, the result is a staggering 1,586 horsepower. That’s more than a Bugatti Chiron. That’s more than a ZR1X. That’s more than any Corvette in history by a margin so large it feels disrespectful.

The eight-speed dual-clutch transmission has been fortified to survive this madness, and SVE adds a boost-by-gear system so the tires don’t immediately dissolve into smoke. With all-wheel drive helping claw the car forward, this Yenko could very well become the quickest street-legal Corvette ever built. No official numbers have been released, but SVE hints at quarter-mile times in the low-eight-second range, which is drag-strip-terrorist territory.

Visually, the Yenko/SC E-Ray will stand apart thanks to custom forged wheels—20 inches up front, 21 inches out back—plus unique graphics and badging. There’s a bespoke exhaust, color-matched brake calipers, and light interior tweaks, including new floor mats and skid plates. It’s more hot-rod than haute couture, and that’s exactly the point.

And here’s the truly wild part: SVE backs the twin-turbo engine with a three-year, 60,000-kilometer warranty. That’s a bold move when you’re asking a GM-designed small-block to output more than one and a half megawatts of power. After that coverage runs out, though, you’d better keep your savings account well fed—because the LT2 was never supposed to live this kind of life.

In an era when hypercars cost seven figures and arrive with velvet ropes and long waiting lists, the Yenko/SC E-Ray offers a very American alternative: buy a Corvette, give it to a tuner with no fear, and embarrass everything short of a rocket ship. For an automotive journalist with a weakness for outrageous machines, that’s about as good as it gets.

Source: Specialty Vehicle Engineering

Auctions

A $290,000 Corvette ZR1 Just Sold with No Warranty

The 1,064-hp Chevrolet C8 Corvette ZR1 isn’t just another chapter in America’s supercar coming-of-age story—it’s the plot twist. With four-digit power and track manners that nip at the carbon heels of Europe’s priciest exotics, the ZR1 has officially entered the chat with the big dogs from Maranello and Zuffenhausen. And judging by the latest Bring a Trailer sale, the hype is more radioactive than ever.

GM has been trying—politely, then not so politely—to keep early-build ZR1s from becoming instant flip machines. Their solution? A simple mandate: resell within 12 months and your warranty goes poof. Despite that deterrent, someone just paid $290,000 for a car with five miles on the odo and exactly zero factory warranty. In other words, they bought a bomb ready to detonate all 1,064 horses with no safety net.

The Spec: Full Send

As 2026 ZR1s go, this one is about as close to the poster build as it gets. Starting with a base MSRP of $191,400, the first owner stacked on the $27,350 ZTK Performance Track Package—a greatest hits compilation of go-fast hardware: carbon-ceramic brakes, a stiffer performance suspension, and a wind-tunnel’s worth of aero including canards, a front splitter, and a skyscraper of a rear wing.

The Jet Black paint keeps things low-key, but the Edge Blue racing stripes and matching 20-/21-inch forged wheels ensure the car doesn’t blend into anyone’s parking lot. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R rubber, engineered specifically for the ZR1, promises the kind of cornering grip that leaves passengers regretting lunch.

Inside: Still a Corvette, But Cleaned Up

GM didn’t waste the interior budget. GT2 bucket seats wrapped in Jet Black Nappa leather feature Santorini Blue stitching and matching belts—a subtle nod to the exterior accents. The cabin gets its fair share of Alcantara, plus a 14-speaker Bose system strong enough to drown out the ZR1’s industrial-grade exhaust note.

The 2026 model year also brings a welcome ergonomic evolution: a new 6.6-inch display sits to the left of the main 14-inch cluster, and the controversial “wall of buttons” from earlier C8s has been banished. The cockpit now feels more modern jet fighter and less 737 overhead panel.

Sticker Shock, Meet Market Shock

This car left the factory with a $220,745 window sticker. Warranty now voided, it should’ve been a slightly risky buy for any sane person. Instead, bidders locked arms and fired off paddles until the hammer fell at $290,000—roughly a $70,000 payday for the original owner, GM’s anti-flipper policy be damned.

That number stings even harder when you consider the more powerful, all-wheel-drive hybrid ZR1X starts at just $205,400—assuming you can catch one at MSRP before the market scalpers do their thing.

The Takeaway

If the goal of GM’s warranty-void warning was to rein in speculation, it’s not working. If anything, it has become a badge of honor—or at least a calculated risk—for buyers desperate to be first. And with a car as outrageous as the 1,064-hp ZR1, maybe the real surprise isn’t that someone paid $290,000 for a no-warranty example.

It’s that we’re not sure they overpaid.

Source: Bring a Trailer

CONCEPT CARS

Corvette CX and CX.R VGT – America’s Sports Car Goes Sci-Fi

You’d think after seven decades of building loud, V8-powered, tire-vaporizing icons, Chevrolet would be content to sit back, sip some bourbon, and let the Corvette coast on its legacy. Nope. Instead, they’ve taken America’s sports car, put it on a diet of space-age materials and electricity, then hurled it straight into the future. Meet the Corvette CX and its unhinged sibling, the CX.R Vision Gran Turismo.

Unveiled at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering – the sort of place where billionaires compare carbon-fiber weave patterns while wearing $10k loafers – these two concepts aren’t destined for showrooms. Not yet, anyway. Instead, they’re Chevy’s wild, unfiltered ideas about what the Corvette might look like if nobody in finance got to say “no.”

The CX: Corvette Unplugged, Overclocked, and Over 2,000 hp

Look at it. The CX is lower than your Instagram likes after a breakup, with a roofline under 41 inches tall and a cockpit canopy nicked straight off an F-35 fighter jet. The nose lunges forward like it’s late for a track day, while the trademark twin taillights sit under a set of bodywork creases that trace Corvette DNA all the way back to 1953. It’s futuristic, yes – but still, unmistakably, Corvette.

And then there’s the tech. Fans – literal vacuum fans – suck the car into the ground like a giant automotive Dyson, generating ridiculous downforce in real-time. Active diffusers and wings twitch and flex like a caffeinated hummingbird, all to make sure 2,000 electric horses don’t immediately turn the tires into black smoke. Yes, two-thousand. Four motors, one at each wheel, serving up torque-vectoring wizardry and AWD grip that would embarrass a hypercar.

Inside? Think “Top Gun: Corvette Edition.” The fighter canopy rises automatically when you walk up, like the car’s saluting you. Inferno Red ballistic textile seats clamp you in place for cornering forces that’ll redecorate your insides, while a digital windscreen turns the entire windshield into a sci-fi display of speed, g-force, and probably how much courage you’ve got left.

The CX.R VGT: Because Racing Games Need Nightmares Too

But Chevy didn’t stop at “road-going spaceship.” No, they made a race version for Gran Turismo 7 – the CX.R Vision Gran Turismo – because even your PlayStation deserves to suffer.

This one ditches the plush touches for pure aggression. Yellow-and-black livery nods to 25 years of Corvette Racing, while the aero package looks like it was designed by a mad scientist with a wind tunnel and zero adult supervision. Inside, it’s raw carbon fiber, suede-wrapped seats, and enough headrest padding to suggest you’ll need a chiropractor after every lap.

And the engine? Oh yes, the CX.R refuses to go fully quiet. Behind the driver sits a 2.0-liter twin-turbo V8 – revving to a shrieking 15,000 rpm – paired with three electric motors. Total system output: another neat 2,000 horsepower. But this time, it’s burning renewable e-fuel, because saving the planet is cooler when you’re doing 200 mph.

Not Just Vaporware

Normally, carmakers wheel out this sort of madness and then lock it in a basement. But Chevy’s actually gone further, sketching out the drivetrain, chassis, and aero in detail. And, thanks to a partnership with Polyphony Digital, you’ll be able to drive both concepts in Gran Turismo 7 later this month. Which means, yes, your console will get a 2,000-hp Corvette before reality does.

Corvette has always been about democratizing performance – big speed for less money than the Europeans demand. The CX and CX.R VGT? They’re not democratizing anything. They’re Corvette unleashed, a neon-glowing love letter to the future. Will we see a production version? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing’s clear: the future of America’s sports car is going to be loud – even if the noise is just electric motors and your own heart trying to escape your ribcage.

Source: Chevrolet