Before the start of the 2013 24 Hour of Le Mans, Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan stated in an interview that his team will begin testing the racing-bound Corvette C7.R in July. The team currently races two wide-body C6 Vettes in the American Le Mans Series powered by a modified 5.5 liter LS7 V8 small block with CNC ported aluminum heads making 491 horsepower (@ 5800 rpm) and 604 lb.-ft. of torque (@ 4800 rpm). The vehicles finished fourth and seventh in the GTE Pro Class at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Speaking on the basis of anonymity, a source familiar with the vehicle development operations at Corvette Racing told us that the C7.Rs look “phenomenal” and “extremely aggressive”, making the current C6.R look “dated”. Considering that the current-gen C6.Rs already look great in our opinion, we can’t wait to see the C7 in racing guise.
And while we can more or less imagine how the body of the C7.R will look like (imagine the general 2014 Corvette C7 Stingray but lowered and race-readied), we’ve no idea whether it will continue to be powered by the modified 5.5 liter LS7 V8.
The new C7.R will make its official racing debut at the beginning of the 2014 ALMS season, although it’s likely that we’ll get a first glimpse of the beast on and off the track before that. We’re sure we’re not the only ones who can’t wait.
