Chevrolet last year began selling a 2023 Corvette Z06, based on the eighth generation of the American sports car – and now the Bowtie brand has launched a GT3 specification version to be offered as a customer race car.
The new Corvette Z06 GT3.R race car made its debut over the weekend during the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona and will be offered as a turnkey solution for customer teams. It will be ready in time for the 2024 motorsport season, Chevy has confirmed, and will be eligible for multiple competitions (both sprint and endurance) where it will compete against other racers based on the Aston Martin Vantage and Porsche 911, for example.
We can expect him to compete in future seasons of the IMSA SportsCar Championship in the GTD Pro and GTD classes, as well as in the comparable GTE Pro and GTE Am classes of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen a Corvette-based GT3 customer race car. Callaway Competition of Germany, the European distributor of US-based Corvette tuner Callaway, has offered GT3 customer race cars spanning multiple Corvette generations. This time, Chevy was responsible for developing the car itself, in partnership with Pratt Miller Engineering.
2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
According to Chevy, the Z06 GT3.R and road-going Z06 share a chassis and aerodynamic characteristics, and the LT6 5.5-liter V8 is essentially the same unit for both cars, sharing about 70% of their parts. The Z06 GT3.R has also benefited from lessons learned from the hardcore Corvette C8.R, the racer it replaces.
Major modifications from the street car include a steel roll cage, wheels, tires, springs, dampers and brakes, all designed for racing. The aerodynamics package has also been modified to optimize downforce and cooling.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R race car
Chevy is currently registering interest in the Z06 GT3.R. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2023 and pricing will be announced closer to that date.
As for the C8.R, it will complete full seasons of both SportsCar and World Endurance Championships before retiring at the end of 2023. Chevy, through its Corvette Racing team, fields one and two C8.R cars in each competition in the all-important Le Mans round of the World Endurance Championship.