C8 Corvette Z06 sketch hints at new capabilities and features

Now that the long-awaited mid-engine C8 Corvette is a reality, the wait begins for higher performance variants. We may have gotten a big hint about what’s next, buried in a stack of styling sketches that General Motors provided to CNET’s Roadshow to give some perspective on the design process to create the latest version of America’s sports car. It turns out that one of the images provided is a drawing of a Corvette cockpit with a “Z06” logo clearly located on the bottom section of the C8’s somewhat controversial square profile steering wheel, so this may be our first look at the interior for the next hi-po Corvette.

Chevrolet more or less dismissed the significance of the logo, saying that the image was “an early render of a potential interior,” just “one of the proposals.” However, the interior in the drawing, signed by stylist Tristan Murphy, appears to be very close to how the production car came out, with some slight additions for the Z06.

There is the aforementioned square steering wheel and a gauge cluster that appears to be the same as on the production car, as do the infotainment screen, HVAC controls, and gear selector buttons. In addition to those stock production features, the sketch shows a couple of items that haven’t yet appeared in the announced plans for the C8. The steering wheel has a large red button labeled “Spec Mode,” and the instrument panel shows that something called “ARM” has been activated. Those could be new features or, as GM suggested, just a drawing.

The upcoming Z06’s track capabilities may be hinted at by the fact that the instrument panel is displaying a profile of the course at the Mugello Circuit, in Tuscany, Italy.

We won’t know for a while if the drawing genuinely teases the new Z06 interior, however, as the recently settled labor strike against GM by the United Auto Workers has pushed back the start of production for the eighth-generation ‘Vette to February of 2020, with first deliveries now scheduled for next March.