It’s not every day where we get to see a C8 convertible in the wild. In fact, we have yet to see one on the street anywhere. Obviously, the cars have yet hit the showrooms…. unless you live in Southern California and you’re called jay Leno. The car you’re looking at on this page is the very first C8 convertible in California — with Jay Leno being the sole individual outside of General Motors to drive one as of this writing. We’re officially jealous.
Moving on, it’s quite a special example, because not only is it a drop top, but it’s also a Z51 car with plenty of nice optional features. Sprayed in the $995 optional Sebring Orange Tintcoat hue, it also features carbon fiber trim pieces and the rear spoiler. On the inside, is white leather interior with the body color-matching orange seat belts.
Chevrolet’s Executive Chief Engineer, Tadge Juechter, walks Jay Leno through the finer details and often-overlooked features of the car, from the way the factory headers and exhaust system are routed, and the interesting hidden front truck release that’s blended into what was once considered to be the front grille of the Corvette.
Being a pre-production model, that’s “99% of the way there,” there are a few details that may need ironed out but now that C7 production has finally wrapped, we’re inclined to think that we’ll be seeing C8s hitting showrooms between April-May, as originally planned.
We could breakdown the whole video for you, but we feel that would defeat the purpose of hosting it in the first place.
It’s nearly an hour long, but there’s so much information to unpack and to take in, you might as well set some time aside after work or on the weekend, to watch it. It’ll be worth the wait.
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of GMEFI Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the brand’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next modifications for his own cars.
