Chevrolet Corvette CX Concept First Look: The Future Is Coming
Plus, the Corvette CX.R Vision Gran Turismo imagines a racing version you’ll be able to download soon.
You’ve seen what a future Chevrolet Corvette could look like if it were designed in the U.K. or in California, now it’s Detroit’s turn to imagine a would-be next-generation Vette. Well, it's Warren, Michigan's turn, specifically. Home of the legendary General Motors Design Center, the Corvette CX Concept is our best, closest-to-home look yet at the future of Chevy’s flagship sportscar.
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Is This The C9?
Chevrolet says no, this is not the next-generation Corvette, which will go by the internal code "C9" when it arrives in a few years’ time. It’s purely a concept, company representatives said, before conceding it will have “heavy influence” on the C9. In fact, it was specifically named “CX” to get designers thinking not about the C9 but the C10, the car that comes after the next one when the current-generation C8's time is up.
Though it shares a lot of design ideas with the previous two concepts designed overseas, Chevrolet says it’s mostly coincidence. Each team came up with their own design independently, then all three worked together to refine them.
And yes, despite the exotic parts you’re about to read, it’s still a Chevy. An internal plan to spin Corvette off into its own sub-brand with multiple models appears to be dead. Chevy is emphatic these concepts are meant to “elevate the Corvette name within the Chevrolet brand.”
2,000 HP, 4 Motors
Like the previous car in this series, the California Corvette Concept, this one is an EV. (The first car, from the U.K., had neither a special name nor a powertrain.) This one allegedly sports four electric motors, one at each wheel providing all-wheel drive and active torque vectoring and good for a combined 2,000 hp. We say "allegedly" because all of these specs are just as made-up as the cars themselves. A 90-kWh lithium-ion battery located somewhere low in the chassis for ideal weight balance and center of gravity provides power.
Chevrolet says the pack would reside in an all-carbon-fiber chassis designed with aerodynamics in mind, similar to an Aston Martin Valkyrie. Massive ducts under the car would direct air, enhanced by a fan system to suck it to the ground like a McMurtry Spéirling. Finishing off the aero are an active front splitter and rear wing, the latter of which, when extended, exposes more of the taillights.
What’s more, all the aerodynamic elements are legit. The Warren team collaborated with GM Motorsports Aero Group, part of the racing division down in Charlotte, North Carolina, to validate all the ducts, wings, and fans along with the control arm suspension, the components of which are exposed and wing-shaped in profile to improve aerodynamics.
Canopies, Yokes, and HUDs, Oh My!
Like the California concept, the CX replaces its doors with a massive single-piece canopy which incorporate the windshield, roof, and hood and articulates forward for access. Unlike the California car, this one doesn’t come off, partly because it uses the entire windshield as a head-up display (HUD). Invisible pixels embedded in the glass can be activated to show everything from instruments to navigation. Remember Tom Cruise/Ethan Hunt’s BMW i8 spy car in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol? Like that, but in real life. Yes, it’s real. Chevrolet says the technology is still in the prototype stage, but it’s no longer sci-fi.
Driver and passenger will look through it from fixed seats formed into the carbon-fiber chassis, like some high-end supercars already do, though the upper backrest and head rest will be adjustable. For the driver, the steering wheel and pedals will move to a comfortable position.
The steering wheel is replaced with a yoke and features a combination of touchscreen and physical controls at its center. The idea is to give the driver as much information as possible but also provide physical controls which can be manipulated without looking for critical vehicle functions. Everything else can be handled through the touchscreen when the vehicle is stopped.
The bright red interior—made from a "ballistic textile"—is a lot, but it and the silver paint were chosen deliberately to pay tribute to the 1959 Chevrolet Sting Ray Concept. Milled aluminum, low-gloss carbon-fiber, and synthetic leather accents break up all the red.
It’s (Kind of) Real
Unlike the other two concepts, this one is more than just a rendering. A physical concept vehicle was unveiled today at The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering event during Monterey Car Week. Alongside it was a racing version coming soon to the Gran Turismo racing game franchise.
Meet The CX.R Vision Gran Turismo
Not content to simply match what California and the U.K. did, Warren went and designed a racing version, too, called the CX.R Vision Gran Turismo. Sony PlayStation Gran Turismo 7 players will be able to download and virtually race it later this month.
Given the current limitations of battery technology in racing environments, the CX.R concept is a hybrid. Under the rear glass is a “small-displacement" 2.0-liter twin-turbo dual-overhead cam V-8 augmented with an electric motor in the eight-speed gearbox and two more on the front axle, each driving a front wheel. Combined, the system makes the same 2,000 hp as the CX Concept except it runs on renewable fuel rather than traditional gasoline. The V-8 alone allegedly makes 900 hp and revs to 15,000 rpm.
Racing enhancements include a lower ride height, a big, fixed rear wing and reworked aerodynamics, and racing suspension. Inside, the interior is stripped down and a roll cage, racing seats, and racing harnesses are installed. Weight has, of course, been reduced compared to what the CX's might theoretically be. As for theories, let's hope this one becomes less theoretical and more... production C9. How about it, Chevrolet?
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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