2022 Chevy Corvette C8 Z06 Spied Testing—Is That a Flat-Plane V-8 We Hear?

 New, exclusive video of a Z06 mule reveals how this beast will sound. Which is wild.

Death, taxes, and high-performance versions of the Chevrolet Corvette C8: what do these things have in common? They are inevitable, and while the 'Vette might be most desirable of the three, it's not quite here yet. However, thanks to some spy shots (and video seen below—turn it up, the audio's quiet) taken by MotorTrend's very own photographers, we can now say for sure that Chevy is hard at work testing development mules of the C8 Z06.

We've already speculated as to what engine might rest behind the driver (along with other juicy details) here. A source from inside Chevrolet told us the Z06 will abandon the pushrod V-8 in the standard 'Vette and use a naturally aspirated twin-cam 5.5-liter V-8 rocking a flat-plane crank. Even though Chevy is being very tight-lipped about final powertrain details, the video does plenty of talking.

Listen closely and you can hear a high-pitched wail similar to that of the Ferrari F430 or 458 Italia. This clearly isn't the deep grumble of a typical cross-plane crank V-8. As for the way it looks, well, see for yourself. The mule we stumbled across was covered in extremely heavy camouflage, but from what we can tell, very little about the bodywork on this particular mule has changed. The only physical difference we could spot was the width of the rear tires, which look significantly chunkier than the rubber found on the standard C8.

The wheels themselves are covered, but will likely be bigger than the standard Corvette's 19-inch fronts and 20-inch rears. They'll no doubt cover a much beefier brake package, in combination with more hardcore aero, a more aggressive suspension setup, and the dozens of other tweaks Chevy makes to the Corvette in the transition from base car to Z06. The new king of the Corvettes will likely be one very spicy machine, at least until the rumored "Zora" arrives. We can't wait to see more.