Art.Nr. 31014
. Standing in front of me is the C8R with the number 3. In this configuration, with the three drivers Taylor, Catsburg, and Garcia, the car competed in the GTLM class at the 12 Hours of Sebring and finished 11th overall, 4th in the GTLM class (the GTLM class was won by a Porsche 911 RSR—more on that later).
Since 2020, CORVETTE RACING has been fielding the car C8.R in the IMSA SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. The C8.R is based on the production C8 model and has C7.R replaced the highly successful .
In 2022, the GTLM class in the IMSA SportsCar Championship was replaced by the GT Daytona Pro (GTD Pro) class featuring GT3 cars. Since Corvette did not have any GT3 cars on the market (the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R is not scheduled to be released until 2024), the Corvette was allowed C8.R to compete in the GTD Pro class with a GTD kit.
The GT racer is being built by PRATT & MILLER and CHEVROLET. PRATT& MILLER Engineering is headquartered in Lyon Township, Oakland County, Michigan. The company has been active in motorsports for more than 25 years and, during that time, has helped make CORVETTE RACING the most successful team in the history of the American Le Mans Series. It has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans 8 times, the 24 Hours of Daytona 2 times, and the 12 Hours of Sebring 9 times.
The Corvette’s main rival in various series is the Porsche 911 RSR. What do both cars have in common? The mid-engine layout! With this change, in 2020, the Corvette moved away from the front-engine layout and Porsche from the rear-engine layout in motorsports. It seems to have been proven that placing the engine in the middle has paid off. The engineering effort is immense, but apparently the front-engine layout hadC7.R reached itstechnical limits.
Why all this effort? PORSCHE has swept every title there is to win at the European level (FIA WEC Super Season). And now they want to be just as successful in the IMSA series. It’s a battle between American small-block engines and PORSCHE’s water-cooled flat-six engines.
PORSCHE is hot on CORVETTE’s heels!
