2023 C8 Corvette Production Tops 50K Units!!! (& GM Spotted Testing the ZR1?)

The 2023 C8 Corvette lineup has topped 50,000 units, making it the third-most-popular Corvette model year ever made.

The C8 Corvette is an amazing car that captured the world’s attention when it debuted in 2019. GM’s response was to set a manufacturing goal of 50,000+ units per year. But, as we all remember, 2020 went sideways in every conceivable way, setting up supply chain shortages and production setbacks that continued for years. This led to long wait times and large dealer markups. But the 2023 C8 Corvette (Stingray and Z06) has finally hit GM’s targeted milestone, making it one of the most popular Corvette model years in history.

Per a recent report on Corvette Blogger there have been over 50,000 2023 model year Corvettes built. It is the first time since the 1984 model year this has happened. And it is only the third time in the 70-year history of the model. The most Corvettes ever built in one model year was 1979 when 53,807 Corvettes were produced. Corvette Blogger estimates that, if production continues on the same track before the model year ends, 2023 may end up in second place, so stay tuned.

But that is not the only exciting Corvette news. A video was recently posted on the Rick Corvette Conti YouTube channel that discusses this build milestone but also shows a glimpse of what is likely the C8 ZR1 or C8 Zora undergoing some tests. The cars are still heavily camouflaged, but they are clearly C8 Corvettes, and they sure aren’t regular Stingrays. Exciting times indeed. (More on this below.)

2023 Corvette Production

GM has produced, as of this week, 50,298 2023 C8 Corvettes, which breaks down as follows —

• Corvette Stingrays: 40,657
• 70th Anniversary Stingrays: 4,164
• Corvette Z06s: 4,628
• 70th Anniversary Z06s: 849

That is a lot of Corvettes, but the number that jumps out at us is the Z06 production. 5,477 Z06 cars have been built for 2023. That is a big number. We know that the Z06 will not be around forever, and there will likely never be one with an engine like this again. But for those speculators out there thinking that these would be made in tiny numbers and should be treated as investments, we have some advice. Drive your car. As amazing as the Z06 is, it is not a rare collectible. They are still hard to come by as demand has been through the roof. And folks are still paying a premium to get one. But a 1969 ZL1 it is not. Prices of these will eventually come back to earth especially when the ZR1 and/or Zora hits the street.

ZR1 / Zora

Speaking of the ZR1 and Zora they may have been spotted testing in Ohio. In a short video clip posted to Rick Conti’s YouTube channel (below), we see the cars being unloaded from a trailer and staged in a parking lot. With all the camouflage we can’t tell a whole lot about the car itself.

But we can tell a lot by the car that accompanies it.

In plain sight is a 991.2 generation Porsche 911 GT2 RS. It would seem to us that GM is using the GT2 RS as a benchmark for whatever model they are testing. For those not familiar this Porsche, it was built in 2018 and 2019 and is a 700-horsepower turbocharged track weapon that set lap records all over the world. Whatever GM is testing they are setting a pretty high bar.

Images: Joe Kucinski

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