Can Chevy's Superstar Go Solo?

If this is what a four-door Corvette would look like, we’re all for it. Photo courtesy Casey Shain.

Look again, it really is a four-door C7. Rarely have traditional sports cars morphed successfully to multiple door versions of themselves and most never garnered approval from management over the years. Corvette fans have seen four-door C3s and station wagons over the years and GM itself even tinkered with a four-seater Corvette in the early ‘60s, but ultimately passed.

That’s all changed now. With the introduction of the Porsche Panamera and Aston Martin Rapid, we’ve seen that with a stylist’s gentle stroke, the modern sports cars can transition into a sedan with grace.

Artist Casey Shain, the mastermind behind Art and Colour, recently produced an idea of what a four-door C7 might look like. It’s a good looking rendering and shows the viability of an extended Corvette range but ultimately resuscitates a question that has been floating around for years.

A four-seat Corvette is nothing new to Chevrolet. This 1963 concept split-window was nicely rendered. Note the rear seats.

Should Corvette become a brand all by itself, divorced from Chevrolet? Porsche proved the viability of such an idea by introducing the Cayenne in 2002 and followed with the awkwardly styled four-door Panamera. These cars were the antithesis of the 911 and yet sales skyrocketed.

Fast forward to today and Porsche has sold 47,000 vehicles in the US market, with seven different models. Corvette sold 35,000 cars with one. Certainly this has been noticed by GM and you can bet they are looking at options.

The long rumored mid-engine Zora/C8 variant has yet to materialize but might well be the first salvo in the notion of Corvette as a unique brand. Chevrolet recently trademarked the name “Manta Ray” as well.

That’s all well and good, but the biggest deterrent to the Corvette as a sub-brand idea might be Cadillac. With its recent move to New York and it’s executive ranks filled by former German auto industry titans, a mid-engine super car may bypass Corvette all together and land on top of Cadillac’s range. Remember, the euthanized Cadillac XLR has been the only production Corvette variant to date.

Finally, we’re sure a lot of marketing “gurus” think the Chevrolet brand is too “blue collar” to tag along with Corvettes upward trajectory. We say hogwash. Chevrolet without Corvette is like a day without sunshine, an ice cream sunday without a cherry, or Zeppelin without John Bonham.

UPDATE – Over in Australia, Chevy is having a tough time with trademark infringement issues and right hand drive teething pains of an export Corvette model. With the Holden factory closing and the models it produced discontinued, the Vette is seen as taking over the mantle for a “King of the Hill” performance machine down under. While seemingly unrelated to this story, upon further inspection, there is a connection to the long rumored mid-engine C8 model.

It has been revealed the “Zora” name has been trademarked in Australia coinciding with some big buck investment in Bowling Green. GM just spent $400+ million in upgrades to the Corvette’s paint shop (the entire C7 build-out cost only $134 million,) and has been construed by some as covering tooling for a right hand drive export model and an additional mode as well. The question is, will it be a Cadillac or a Corvette?