A C8 Corvette is Already in the 10-second Quarter Mile Range

C8 Corvette with drag radials and a small shot of nitrous got down to 10.65 in great air.

It has been less than two weeks since the first 2020 Chevrolet Corvette was delivered. Some of the first cars shipped out of Bowling Green may not have been delivered yet, but a C8 owner has already run well into the 10-second quarter mile range. Mark Carlyle, owner of Carlyle Racing, took delivery of his Sebring Orange on March 10 and in less than a week, he has become the first C8 owner to run in the 10-second range. He didn’t just crack into the 10s, either, getting down to a 10.65 at 130 miles per hour.

The Carlyle C8 Corvette

Carlyle picked up his 2020 Corvette Stingray on the afternoon of March 10. Less than four hours later, he shared a video of the Sebring Orange C8 on a Dynojet dynamometer. The car had only 25 miles on the odometer, but it still made 440 horsepower and 408 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels.

By the afternoon of March 11, Carlyle’s Corvette had been fitted with a drag pack wheel setup. This starts with Forgeline GS1R wheels measuring 18×5-inch wheels up front and 18×11-inch wheels out back. The rear lightweight rollers are wrapped in 305/40/18 Mickey Thompson ET Street S/S drag radial tires while the fronts feature Mickey Thompson Sportsman SR skinnies.

Finally, later in the day on March 11, Carlyle’s shop posted a picture of his C8 with the frunk open, revealing a Nitrous Outlet bottle. Keep in mind that this nitrous setup is was run without an engine tune, as the LT2 system is still locked, but even without a tune, it makes significant difference.

At that point, Carlyle was ready to hit the track, but he ran into a problem. He couldn’t find a track that was open on the weekend of March 14 – 15 in his general area. Fortunately, Marion County International Raceway in Larue, Ohio agreed to open just for Carlyle to test his new Corvette. That proved to be a smart move, as Marion County International Raceway would be the site of the first C8 to run in the 10-second quarter mile range.

Carlyle started off gently, getting a feel for his C8 Corvette with some easy launches. Those runs yielded times in the high-11s. As the day went on, he worked down into the low-11s, eventually running 11.0s without the nitrous oxide.

Once the nitrous was engaged with a 50-shot, the orange Chevy sports car quickly got into the 10s. At the end of the day, Carlyle went home with a best time of 10.65 at 130 miles per hour. That officially sets the first record for the quickest C8 in the world. That run is shown at the top of this piece. For those wondering, density altitude was around -987 feet for the quickest runs.

That number is sure to be beaten soon as other owners modify their cars, but no other owner will be the first ever to put a production mid-engine Corvette in the 10-second range.

Photos: Carlyle Racing

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