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The Last C8 Series Corvette is heading back into the shop and preparing for one of the last chapters in the C8's history. The 2027 Corvette Grand Sport and Grand Sport X are coming, bringing several tweaks to the mid-engined platform and updated powertrains. The Grand Sport and Grand Sport X variants will sit above the Stingray and replace the E-Ray in the lineup. We're going to see the new Grand Sport series go into production at the brand's Bowling Green factory by June 8, 2026. As far as a

A Record Year for the Corvette ZR1 The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 has been making headlines this year, setting a series of performance records hard to ignore. Chevrolet brought a pre-production ZR1 equipped with the ZTK Performance Package to some of the most demanding tracks in the US. This resulted in five new production-car lap records – at Watkins Glen, Road America, Road Atlanta, and both the Full and Grand layouts at Virginia International Raceway. These laps showed the range of capability bui

A Problem You Won’t Even Notice A few days back, GM hit pause on Corvette C8 sales because of a rear turn signal issue – one so subtle that most owners would never spot it unless it happened to them. At first, it looked like a small-scale problem, affecting only about 3,300 cars. But that number didn’t stay small. According to the official recall document, the issue now stretches to nearly 33,000 cars – basically every recent mid-engine Corvette, from the 2025 and 2026 coupes and convertibles to

The Corvette ZR1 Makes More? Automakers typically advertise crank horsepower, which is always higher than wheel horsepower due to drivetrain losses. So when Hennessey Performance dyno tested a stock Chevrolet C8 Corvette ZR1 and recorded a peak output of 1,050 horsepower, the result immediately raised eyebrows. Chevrolet lists the C8 Corvette ZR1 at 1,064 horsepower from the factory, a figure that represents crank output. Under normal circumstances, wheel horsepower should be noticeably lower on

Buying a brand-new Corvette is already something to be proud of, and owning a mid-engine sports car or supercar is certainly exciting, but Chevrolet is about to make the experience even better, reopening its Corvette Engine Build Experience this spring. The program was previously available for the LT6 of the Corvette Z06, and now it's being reopened to the Z06, as well as being made possible with the ZR1 and ZR1X pair. The news was announced on LinkedIn, via Ray Theriault, Corvette Plant directo

A Bigger Story Hiding Behind the Headlines Chevrolet’s latest update brings Grand Sport and Grand Sport X badges back to the C8, the first time these names have appeared on a mid-engine Corvette. That’s what most people noticed right away. But tucked into the official announcement is a bigger change. The standard Corvette Stingray is set to replace its familiar LT2 V8 with a new LS6 engine. This isn’t just a minor update – it’s a change that will reset expectations for what a base Corvette offer

General Motors is planning a roughly month-long shutdown of its Flint Assembly plant in Michigan, temporarily halting production of the Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD. The pause stretches the usual holiday break into a five-week idle window so GM can complete maintenance and project work tied to future truck updates, rather than responding to a sudden drop in demand or a fresh parts shortage.

Another Small Car Returns Taller Since the start of the decade, demand for crossovers has been undeniable, so much so that several automakers like Ford have discontinued their sedan lineups in the U.S. Meanwhile, some brands have leaned on nostalgia by reviving old nameplates as crossovers, such as Mitsubishi with the Eclipse Cross – a move that can be good or bad, depending on the context. Over at Chevrolet, the Bowtie brand has debuted a new crossover called the Sonic, essentially reviving the

General Motors has issued a stop-sale notice covering certain 2025 and 2026 Chevrolet Corvette C8s, and the reason is more frustrating than it is dramatic. The problem lies in the Rear Brake Light Outage Detection system, a module responsible for alerting drivers when a rear turn-signal lamp stops functioning. When this module misbehaves, the car simply stays quiet when a turn signal goes out, which means there's no warning light and no chime. GM has identified 2,886 affected units from the 2026

General Motors is spending fortunes on new Gen 6 V8 engines for trucks, and a new teaser shared to social media by Chevrolet Performance may be our first look at what the automaker is planning. The teaser, captioned "Something BIG is coming..." shows a close-up of a pushrod V8 engine in a bay, and it looks like a production engine, not a concept. We see the intake manifold, painted in black with white stripes and a white Bowtie logo, and though we can't be certain, the packaging of components li

Replicating Chevy’s Record: The Mission Behind the Madness DragTimes set out with a very specific objective: prove that Chevrolet’s headline-grabbing 8-second quarter-mile claim for the Corvette ZR1X wasn’t a one-off, factory-controlled miracle. Instead of a prepped press car with engineers on standby, this was a customer-owned example, piloted under real-world conditions at TX2K in Dallas, Texas. The goal was simple on paper: replicate Chevy’s reported 8.6-second pass while validating whether t

Last month, Chevrolet announced a new Stars & Steel collection, with some limited-edition Corvette ZR1s (just 250 examples will be made) joining the party to celebrate America's 250th birthday in 2026. At the time, the automaker also announced a one-off ZR1X that would be auctioned off at the Barrett-Jackson Winter Auction (January 24) in aid of the Tunnel to Towers non-profit. Now, Chevy has shown us what that looks like via a post on Instagram (embedded at the bottom of this article), and

West Coast Customs At It Again California-based West Coast Customs has built its reputation on headline-grabbing celebrity projects. This time, the Burbank shop took on a twin-SUV commission centered on the supercharged Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. The 707-horsepower performance SUV already sits at the top of Jeep’s food chain. In factory form, it blends family-hauler practicality with Hellcat-derived brutality. For Chief Keef, stock was never going to be enough, and West Coast Customs chief 

A Rotary Revival Aims for the Skies A report from CarNewsChina says Changan, via its Harbin Dongan Auto Engine subsidiary, has completed the first ignition of the R05E – China’s first high-power rotary engine prototype – on December 19. The milestone underscores China’s broader push to capitalize on the low-altitude economy, a sector projected to be worth as much as 3.5 trillion yuan (roughly $490 billion) by 2035. The low-altitude economy refers to commercial activity and services conducted in

Why China Pulled the Plug on Rock-Bottom Prices China's long-running price wars on electric vehicles have officially come to an end, and US buyers will probably never experience the kind of rock-bottom pricing it produced. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) made the decision to bar all vehicle manufacturers from selling cars at less than manufacturing cost. This puts an end to the brutal homegrown competition that’s projected to have cost the automotive industry $68 billio

China Signals a New Direction for EV Design A Bloomberg report says China has officially banned the trendy flush-style car door handles often associated with Tesla’s electric vehicles, marking a world first. While talk of the regulatory change has circulated for some time, its formal adoption is now expected to have a meaningful impact on several automakers, particularly as the required redesigns could prove costly. The report stated that a person familiar with the design process at a Chinese EV

The global autonomous vehicle landscape just witnessed a significant shift. XPeng, looking to take on Tesla, has officially rolled the first mass-produced robotaxi off its assembly line in China, marking a major milestone as the first Chinese automaker to achieve this through entirely in-house development - both hardware and back-end software - without using any LiDAR. The Vehicle Itself Rather than engineering a purpose-built, undriveable pod—a strategy currently favored by the Tesla Cybercab a

Premium automakers, especially those deep in the EV space, have developed a notable affection for retractable door handles, famously found on all Tesla models. They look clean, reduce drag, and fit the futuristic image many electric cars aim for. But while the design wins style points, safety concerns have piled up. China has now drawn a line in the sand. From January 1, 2027, retractable EV door handles will no longer be allowed on new vehicles sold in the country. Regulators argue that electri

Do We Really Want Pop-Out Door Handles? If there's one design trend that nobody's really asked for but we're stuck with, it's pop-out door handles. Whether it's mechanical or electronic, it's on a lot of cars these days, especially EVs. Automakers say it's for aerodynamic and aesthetic reasons, but one can say that no one really goes out of their way to get a car with it. These door handles have also sparked controversy over recent years. There have been cases of these being inoperable after acc

Drawing the Line China is set to impose the world's first hard cap on electric-vehicle energy consumption beginning next year. According to CarNewsChina, newly produced EVs weighing around two tonnes (about 4,400 pounds) will be limited to 15.1 kWh per 100 km, which translates to roughly 139 MPGe under Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) metrics. That efficiency target places the rule in roughly the same territory as the Tesla Model Y. Officially titled Energy Consumption Limits for Electric V

It’s been around two years since the AUDI brand (stylized in all caps) was launched in China. Co-owned by Audi (the luxury brand we know well) and SAIC Motor, the AUDI’s vehicles are based on SAIC’s technology but have a unique design not shared with traditional Audis. They also don’t have the traditional four-ring logo.  It was a curious branding exercise, and it seems as if Chinese customers haven’t warmed up to it, either. AUDI’s first car, the E5 Sportback, has failed to match the sales figu

Tesla, Chevrolet, Ford, and Hyundai dominate the EV conversation in the US, yet they all rely on lithium-ion battery technology that's more than three decades old. The industry knows its limits, which is why the race to crack solid-state batteries has become so intense, with Toyota aiming to launch the world’s first solid-state EVs by 2027. China, however, is moving on a different timeline and with a different strategy. The real story is not simply about building a better battery, but about who

Chery has launched its first battery electric pickup in China under its Rely pickup brand, with pricing starting at 127,800 yuan, about $18,300, and running up to 158,800 yuan for higher trims. The truck is positioned as a work-ready electric option with mainstream sizing, multiple drivetrains, and a tech-heavy cabin, arriving as new energy pickups become one of the fastest-growing niches in China. A

Cheaper LiDAR Makes Mass Adoption Possible A decade ago, LiDAR was mostly limited to experimental autonomous vehicles. Early systems, such as those mounted on Waymo robotaxis, could cost as much as $50,000 per unit. These sensors were large and were often installed on the vehicle's roof. They also required significant computing power to process the detailed data they produced. At the time, lidar was considered essential for autonomy research but far too expensive for production vehicles. China c

Back to Basics Previously, China announced a ban on flush-style door handles popularized by Tesla electric vehicles. Now, a report from Autohome says regulators are essentially telling automakers, “Don’t reinvent the wheel,” as the country also moves to ban yoke-style steering wheels – another design feature made famous by Tesla. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has published a draft outlining a new standard aimed at preventing injuries caused by steering mechanisms