Several years ago, rumours surfaced that General Motors was considering making the Corvette name a sub-brand within its automotive empire. These rumours included the marketing of several different models bearing the Corvette name, including a sedan and an SUV, in addition to the traditional variants of the familiar sports car.
We don’t know what’s happened behind the scenes since then, but it appears that plan is dead and buried. During an episode of Jay Leno's Garage devoted to the new 2025 Corvette ZR1, GM president Mark Reuss ruled out the idea of the Corvette name becoming a brand in its own right.
Reuss thus confirmed that the Corvette will remain within the Chevrolet family, making the point that it embodies the very essence of the brand - the best of all worlds in terms of value for money, here in the case of a high-performance model.
Deliveries of the 2025 Corvette are due to start soon, but the ZR1 variant is not expected until next year. Prices haven’t been announced, but considering the level of performance, we can expect it to be the most expensive model in the range. We can expect a price point somewhere between $170,000 and $225,000 in Canada.
Incredibly, the ZR1 variant could be eclipsed by another performance version. Test models have been spotted and could well be the Zora variant (named after one of the Corvette's fathers, Zora Arkus-Duntov), which would combine the 5.5L twin-turbo V8 of the ZR1 variant with the electric motor of the E-Ray hybrid variant.
The ZR1 version already offers 1,064 hp. It's hard to imagine how far this madness could go.
