Pete Brock and Ian Callum are reincarnating the C2 Corvette as a 2000-hp EV
Oh no! Here comes another top-dollar, top-tier, craft-beer, battery-powered automaker coming to RUIN YOUR CLASSIC!
Put in another, far more sincere way, there’s a new automaker in town—in Enniskerry, County Wicklow, Ireland, to be exact. AVA Studio has recruited Pete Brock, the creator of the C2, and Ian Callum, the guy who designed the Aston Martin DB7, to reimagine the second-gen Corvette as modern EV with Ferrari-killing performance and classic American style. You don’t have to take my word for it, either; Pete Brock himself is looking forward to adding a chapter in the C2 Corvette’s history book. Meet the Hyperclassic from AVA Studio.
Like all startups, AVA Studio is keeping its cards close to the vest. The general sense of the venture is given on its website: “AVA breathes energy of the future into cars of the past, reviving the classics to make them more powerful, more enchanting, more evocative than ever before.”
The fledgling firm previously EV-swapped a Ferrari 308:
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“AVA,” in case you were wondering, is an acronym for the Latin words Ad Vitam Aeternam, which translates as “To Eternal Life” or “To Everlasting Life,” depending on which synonym you prefer in Cassell’s. Like, awesome.
AVA Studio is an Irish startup created by serial entrepreneur Norman Crowley, and its first creation is based on inspired by the C2 Corvette. (I know most folks call it a C2, but it’ll always be a midyear Corvette to me.) So according to the Irish Times, this new take on the midyear Corvette is likely to cost between 1.4 to 2.4 million dollars and possess somewhere between 1200 and 2000 hp. Wonder what Zora would say to that.
The website’s language is far from concrete, but the car’s power and price is believable considering the engineering behind Rimac’s vehicles and powertrains. When you consider that Rimac’s technology already underpins Pininfarina’s Battista hypercar, why not put a restrictor plate (so to speak) on that beast and turn it into a grand tourer worthy of a midyear Corvette’s body? The idea is both believable and possible. Rimac’s handiwork has the potential to be the Ford Fox-body of hypercars by providing the basis for hot rods for the ultra-wealthy … if the AVA Studio’s cash flow remains sufficient.
Don’t worry, Pete Brock (probably) won’t let the AVA Sting Ray insult the original. He was also quoted in the Irish Times’ article saying: “To be involved in this project is a tremendous responsibility. The Corvette Sting Ray is already an accepted icon in the world of automotive motor design but we want to take all the best aspects of that design and make it crisper.”
Is this the time to get into the stonk market and Gamestop your way to your own AVA Sting Ray? Only time will tell.
