Just when it seemed like Chevrolet’s mid-engine Corvette was enough to make our knees weak in excitement, a report from Sportscar365 reveals that the American automaker is also developing a race car version of the mid-engine powerhouse. The race-dedicated website was able to get its hands on spy photos of a heavily camouflaged car that’s believed to be the mid-engine C8 Corvette race car. The photos were taken at Road America in Atlanta, which suggests that the car was doing some test runs in its natural habitat.

Would you look at that beauty right there? As tempting as it sounds to say that we expected Chevrolet to develop a mid-engine Corvette race car alongside the production mid-engine Corvette that we already know about, the truth is that this caught us by surprise. Sure, it was always possible for Chevy to do it, but it was still surprising to see that it’s already at this stage in its development. Then again, surprises are some of the best parts of being in this business and, quite frankly, we can’t get enough of them.

The car itself is heavily camouflaged, which is to be expected given the fact that the production model is being given the same treatment. That’s usually the case when an automaker circumvents something deemed traditional, which, in this case, is a front-engine Corvette, and does something you didn’t expect it would do, which would be a mid-engine ‘Vette. This is not your normal Corvette, so discretion in keeping as many details about it secret is always of extreme importance.

That said, the photos do reveal a few bits about the race-spec, mid-engine Corvette. It has a few interesting aerodynamic components that are clearly identifiable. The large rear wing is a dead giveaway, and the lower section of the rear end clearly shows what can only be described as an aggressive diffuser setup. The front and rear fenders look larger and the engine cover, though a bit hard to see, has a vented quality to it.

The race-spec, mid-engine Corvette should also carry a similar powertrain setup, which in this case is expected to the be same V-8 unit powering the production model. The engine will be tuned for racing purposes so there should be more power at its disposal. Likewise, the race car’s transmission will also be race-spec, likely of the sequential racing transmission variety. Ultimately, we can expect this Corvette to line up in a racing series at some point in the future. Considering that Corvette Racing only competes in the GTE class in the IMSA series, there’s a big chance that this model will be a GTE-spec racer.

If you’re as excited as we are to see the two mid-engine Corvettes without any of the thick camos wrapped all over their bodies, Sportscar365 says that both models will debut at the 2019 North American International Auto Show.

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