Bin the burgers: this Corvette is as British as fish and chips. General Motors has marked the opening of a new design studio in the UK with an "advanced design study" Chevrolet Corvette concept car developed by the Royal Leamington Spa (about 30km from Birmingham) team.
The new studio is led by Julian Thomson, a designer whose CV includes Ford, Lotus and Jaguar. The UK facility joins other GM centres in places as diverse as Detroit, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Seoul.
The new Corvette is in no way intended for production. It's the first in a series of concepts to be revealed from various GM studios this year, as part of a global project exploring different design ideas for GM's legendary sports car.
"Our advanced design team’s mandate extends well beyond creating production vehicles," says Michael Simcoe, senior VP of global design.
"While they collaborate within our global design network on production and concept vehicle programmes, these teams are primarily tasked with imagining what mobility could look like five, 10, and even 20 years into the future and driving innovation for GM.
“As part of the Corvette creative study, we asked multiple studios to develop hypercar concepts, which we’ll see more of later this year,” says Simcoe. “It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette’s historic DNA, but each studio brought their own unique creative interpretation to the project.
“One of the most unusual and significant aspects of our concept’s design is a feature known as Apex Vision,” says Julian Thomson. “A nod to Corvette’s centerline focus, and inspired by the iconic ‘split window’ 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, this feature emphasises a singular vertical central spine that is also a structural element, also providing a panoramic view of the road and surroundings.”
The upper half is intended to capture the Corvette’s classic design elements, but in a futuristic way. The lower half focuses on technical design, including EV battery technology embedded into the structure and aerodynamics elements designed to channel air efficiently without the need for wings or spoilers.
