Bored last night, I decided to toy around with the 2020 Corvette C8 Coupe configurator. It’s been live for a while now but I haven’t played with it much. And with pricing available, I figured it would be fun to subject Chevy’s newest performance halo car to the “how high can the MSRP go?” game.
The answer? High. Very high. Keep in mind that this is the “base” model C8 Corvette. That’s the critical point here. This is not the convertible. Not the inevitable Grand Sport. Not the more-than-likely ZR1. This is the bottom-barrel, standard-issue car. If you can call it that.
In the past the Corvette has punched well above its weight class when it came to performance-per-dollar. And now with the engine behind the driver, the ‘Vette has the opportunity to punch even higher. But the price is rising as well. We knew this would happen but now we can definitively see it firsthand.
“My” build was a combination of function and form. Without adding totally unnecessary add-ons like production-line delivery, car covers, or purely cosmetic items like colored seatbelts and center caps, the final tally was still a big number: $96,845. Yes, I added everything relating to performance like the $5,000 Z51 package and the $1,895 Magnetic Ride supplement. Carbon fiber items? Check. Deep red paint? Of course. Sure, I was checking boxes to see how expensive a “base” C8 could get. But I was also genuinely curious to have it as a reference point.
Then I went back through and checked the boxes for all those tacky little add-ons. Car cover and center caps included. $104,815. Only $15k less than the outgoing end-all, be-all of front-engine Corvettes, the ZR1.
When it hits dealer lots, I expect the C8 to have interior quality below its price point but performance well above. Even at nearly $100k it should be a surprising amount of car for the dollar. Just as a Corvette should be, regardless of where the engine is.
Oh, and for shits and giggles I built a 718 Cayman S to see how high I could ring the Porsche’s price to. Yes, it had “Fuse Box Covers in Leather” and “Headlight Cleaning System Covers in Deviated Exterior Color.” And yes, the MSRP out-shocked the Corvette’s: $144,080. Yes, really.
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