Listen to the New Chevrolet Corvette C8.R Race Car’s High-Revving V8 Wail
GM hasn’t confirmed any specs yet, but this sure sounds like a howling flat-plane crank.
General Motors made darned sure that everyone knew it'd reveal the convertible 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Wednesday night, but the Detroit company told nobody that it planned to launch the hardcore, wickedly designed C8.R sportscar racer.
Still better, event attendees got to do more than stare at the car on a plinth; Chevy actually started the machine up and gave it a few revs for good measure. Multiple people filmed the scene and have since shared the videos online.
One video uploaded to Facebook by user Ray Saez Jr. depicts the C8.R's audience visibly flinching when the Corvette's V8 roars to life. This means that despite all the differences between the C8.R and its front-engined C7.R predecessor, they'll have at least one thing in common: being thunderously loud. So loud, in fact, that the audio in Saez's video clips/peaks, losing most of its quality. (Fortunately, that’s not the case with the video embedded above.)
But what does the C8.R sound like under load, at full throttle? A video released by GM offers hints of what its newest race car will sound like on-track, and reinforces speculation that the C8.R's V8 will use a flat-plane crankshaft rather than its traditional cross-plane design. Though flat-plane cranks tend to increase vibrations, they can also reduce weight, which, in a race car, is an eminently beneficial tradeoff. Because this type of crankshaft also requires a different firing order, the resulting noise isn't one most people would expect a V8 to make. Listen for yourself to decide if it's something you like, but we’ll go ahead and say: it’s not too shabby.