Will Next-Gen Mid-Engine Chevy C8 Corvette Have a 6.3L with 490hp?

On April 11th, 2019, Chevrolet confirmed a mid-engine Corvette is happening.

The car (covered in camouflage) drives through the streets of New York with a date 07.18.19 stamped on the side confirming the release date.

Within the date, the number 8 is highlighted in red, signifying it’s the 8th generation of the Corvette.

Will the C8 Corvette have a 6.3L with 490hp?

This is complete speculation, and of course, we could be wrong, but here’s our thinking…

Car and Driver report that “Initially, the C8 will use an upgraded version of the current car’s pushrod 6.2-liter V-8, which we suspect will be upgraded to produce somewhere around 500 horsepower.”

Upon Chevy releasing a soundless (we are sad there’ no exhaust note to listen to) video, the plate numbers on the back of the car caught our attention.

Note the plate number is 063-490.

Those numbers seem to be relatively close to the speculated numbers.

The numbers on the side of the C8 Corvette are significant, and the highlighted red 8 is significant.

So could it be that the numbers on the license plate are also significant?

Could an upgraded version of the 6.2L mean Chevy push it to a 6.3L?

The current 6.2L V-8 (LT1) engine from Chevrolet puts out 460hp.

Is it unreasonable to think they can squeeze another 30hp out to make it 490hp from a bored-out/modified LT1?

Perhaps the numbers on the plate are just pure coincidence and don’t mean anything at all?

Maybe Chevy tried to get 062-500 but it that was the closest they could get.

Zora

General Motors has registered the name Zora with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Zora Arkus-Duntov was a General Motors engineer responsible for much of the design on early Corvettes.

Perhaps the Zora edition will be a souped-up version?

There is also speculation of an electric motor-driven AWD system. A 5.5L twin-turbo engine and a possible hybrid electric version in the future.

Chevy has posted a page on their website to sign up for updates and more information on the C8 Corvette.

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