The scene at the Bowling Green Assembly Plant has been tense lately, what with the production delays surrounding the vaunted mid-engine 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8. So who could blame two of the car’s engineers for grabbing a couple test models and letting off steam with a little race? For starters, the Kentucky State Police.
Automobile reports the two GM employees were arrested on Wednesday night after speeding side-by-side down Lover’s Lane in Bowling Green in a pair of pre-production Corvettes. Despite its quaint name, Lover’s Lane is a wide, mostly straight, 45-mph four-lane road with a fifth feeder lane running down the middle, and the trooper allegedly clocked them at 71 mph. (Correction: The men were charged with driving more than 26 mph over the posted limit, with an exact speed not given. We regret the error.) You can imagine the temptation of that 490-horsepower mid-mounted V8 was just too much. Both men were taken into custody for reckless driving and racing on a public road.
Automobile claims one driver is a CAE engineer specializing in induction and exhaust setups, and the other an electrical engineer. We’re not republishing their identities as we’ve been unable to confirm them ourselves. Automobile also reports both cars were impounded and had to be retrieved from the tow lot by GM representatives on Thursday.
Thanks to that aforementioned LT2 V8, the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette can grab 60 mph in 3.0 seconds (2.9 with the Z51 performance package) on its way to a top speed of 194 mph.
In a statement to The Drive, GM confirmed “an incident involving our test vehicles” and added that it was investigating the matter.
“Safety remains our overriding priority at General Motors,” the spokesperson said. “We have no further comment at this time.”
We also reached out to Kentucky State Police for any details and we’ll update if we hear back. This isn’t the first incident on public roads for the yet-to-be-released 2020 Corvette—it’s already been crashed twice by GM employees. But hopefully these two knuckleheads don’t lose their jobs over this effective-if-unorthodox demonstration showing the C8 has more than enough power.