The Corvette Z06 and its flat-plane V-8 will debut October 26

Just a few weeks after seeing our first spy shots of Chevrolet’s C8 Corvette Z06 in skin-tight camo, we now have an official reveal date from Chevy itself: October 26, 2021. In a teaser video released earlier today, Chevy gave the digital equivalent of a “mark your calendars” with a video filled with the glorious noises of a thumping flat-plane V-8 at full honk. Take a gander at that video below.

Unsurprisingly, Chevy is dropping a few hints by showing the car at various famous racetracks, including the Nürburgring, and Circuit de la Sarthe, where Chevy’s C8.R race car will battle it out this weekend for the prestigious top step at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race famous for allowing some teams to achieve greatness—and others to have bad luck rip their hearts out.

There’s a heavy emphasis on the shared DNA between the C8.R and the Z06, most notably in the powertrain department. When we first saw the C8.R at Petit Le Mans two years ago, it was rumored that the Z06 would get the same 5.5-liter flat-plane DOHC V-8 as the race car. Through a teaser video released earlier this year, Chevy confirmed that this Z06 would indeed run a flat-plane setup. And while the race car is limited to 500 horsepower because of an intake restrictor, expect the street car to be pushing well north of 600 hp, especially because the previous-generation C7 Z06 cleared 650 with the help of its supercharged LT4 V-8. These numbers only tend to go one way.

One thing that we’re particularly curious about is other tech transfer between the two cars. No doubt the Z06 is wider than its more staid road-going brethren currently on sale, but we can’t stop looking at that massive rear wing. The Z06 should come replete with a fully integrated downforce package of some sort, likely with an option to turn the aero up even higher via a Z07 package, as was the case on the C7.

We won’t have long to wait to find out all the particulars. October is just a few short weeks away. Consider our calendars circled, bowtied, squared, and every other manner of marked. We’re looking forward to this one.