'Zora' May Be The Mid-Engined Corvette's Moniker

TopSpeed

By Sidd Dhimaan

Published Jan 6, 2019

This further solidifies the rumor of a mid-engined ‘Vette in the making

Last month, General Motors filed for the ‘Zora’ name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), claiming the name to "motor land vehicles, namely, automobiles.” Chevrolet is ‘refreshing’ this trademark, and not filing it for the first time as the name is historically associated with GM’s flagship sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette.

Why Is ‘Zora’ Special for GM

General Motors has previously attempted to claim rights for the ‘Zora’ trademark in mid-June to early July of 2014, issuing claims with at least 23 intellectual property offices including the USPTO. The company has not been active about it since then, and only filed it for the first time in 2018.

He was quite vocal about having a mid-engined Corvette with which General Motors flirted several times, but could not reach logical end within Zora’s life before he passed away in 1996. According to Corvette fanatics, perhaps this is why GM decided to trademark the name and use it for the mid-engine Corvette to pay tribute to the engineer who was a visionary in his own sense before the automaker was even ready to make the leap. Zora was so immensely respected in the Corvette community that his ashes were kept at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

It is no secret that a mid-engine Corvette is in the making and with this fresh trademark, the news of it has just gotten more concrete. This is just us connecting the dots; nothing has been confirmed officially. It is surprising that it went unnoticed when the information on the C8 got leaked earlier this month, although some of the other names specified in the claimed leak have a comparable paper trail with intellectual property offices, making the link of any name to the C8 questionable until confirmed by GM.

2020 Chevy C8 Corvette "Zora" Debut Date

Talking about the C8, its unveiling was pulled off at the last second due to an electrical system problem. What are your thoughts on this new name tag that could potentially be for a mid-engine Corvette? Share them with us in the comments section below.

Why Is ‘Zora’ Special for GM

2020 Chevy C8 Corvette "Zora" Debut Date

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