Japan First to Get Factory Right-Hand-Drive Chevy Corvette C8s
We knew that RHD versions were coming to the U.K. and Australia, too, but Japan is the first to get them.
We got our first look at the mid-engined Chevrolet Corvette C8 back in July of 2019, and even at that early date, GM confirmed that the C8 would get factory-built right-hand-drive (RHD) versions for those associated markets: Australia, Japan, and the U.K. But it's taken this long for these RHD Corvette C8s to debut, and Japan is—at last—the first market to receive them.
This is the first time a Corvette has had a factory RHD variant, which is great news for consumers in those countries but less great news for the cottage industry of LHD-to-RHD conversion outfits. And also not great for potential buyers in Japan who wanted to own one, since the allocation of 300 units apparently sold out almost immediately after it was announced early last year.
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Owners in Japan were invited to watch a special event at Fuji Speedway late last month, which combined a presentation with some demonstration runs by pro drivers. There was an interview with Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter, too.
Expect the Corvette to roll out to the other RHD markets soon. In the meantime, here are some rad photos of right-hand-drive Corvettes tearing up Fuji Speedway.
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Like a lot of the other staffers here, Alex Kierstein took the hard way to get to car writing. Although he always loved cars, he wasn’t sure a career in automotive media could possibly pan out. So, after an undergraduate degree in English at the University of Washington, he headed to law school. To be clear, it sucked. After a lot of false starts, and with little else to lose, he got a job at Turn 10 Studios supporting the Forza 4 and Forza Horizon 1 launches. The friendships made there led to a job at a major automotive publication in Michigan, and after a few years to MotorTrend. He lives in the Seattle area with a small but scruffy fleet of great vehicles, including a V-8 4Runner and a C5 Corvette, and he also dabbles in scruffy vintage watches and film cameras.
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