I think removing the back black plastic "Corvette" as well as the fish is a must from a visual standpoint. The "Corvette" in chrome, to me, tones it down a lot and I think looks good and lets non-car people know that this beautiful car is a Corvette.

 

Yes we know, Rapid Blue is the 7th most popular color in 2023 and the 8th in 2024.

 

I completely disagree as I think chrome looks terrible. The 70’s is calling you and they want their emblems back! The black lettering and Stingray look great!

 

Everyone has their own tastes. I'm not a stripes guy myself. The only thing that throws it for me is that there's a gap of white paint between the headlight and the stripe. I have to wonder what it would look like with the stripe flush against the headlight.

 

Do I have to be on the city council to understand how to better plot traffic flow? Do I have to work at a theme park to understand crowd movement, ride queuing and traffic funneling? Do I have to be an aerospace engineer or own a plane to understand area rule?

 

I also don't trust all designers but the C8.R looks better than the stock Stingray. So I trust in keeping the design of the C8.R's designers as intended as far as badging (keep the crossed flags and stingray, shave the lettering). How I see their design philosophy: Keep symbolic forms that visually complement the car's striking body lines, delete text labels that don't. The Corvette lettering almost looks like generic text font in contrast to more symbolic emblems like the Z06, Supra, or Nissan's Z badge. They're not generic fonts but highly stylized with geometric forms that form a letter (Z) or graffiti or like someone's signature with irregular letter spacing. The crossed flags and stingray take that up a notch by not being text but even purer design elements which evoke the illusion of rapid forward motion. The crossed flags splay in a tighter V than ever, adjoined to a striking point forming the wings and nose of a joint strike fighter. The stingray's fins are tucked tighter than ever to its body with a stinger of exaggerated length so it looks like a raindrop cutting through wind at high speed. Whereas emotion evoked from the Corvette lettering relies on having prior knowledge of Corvette brand legacy. To the fresh eyes of a child or foreigner who never heard of Corvette, text alone won't intrinsically convey that legacy. To them it essentially reduces to being a text label with the same emotional impact as a name tag. A model name tag "walks the dog" for newbies so they can become acquainted with the brand.



Econocars like Civic, Accord, Prius, Corolla, Kia, other models in the Chevy lineup, etc. need model name tags to market themselves for bulk sales. Iconic cars like the Porsche GT editions, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, McLarens, etc. rely less on model names or have minimal stylized branding because the entire car's design acts as the identifier instead. They don't need a billboard of text emblazoned across the back to announce its model name. Corvette's wide, low, and angular body being such an obvious design outlier among the Chevy lineup doesn't warrant the need for a text label to differentiate itself. Normies who can't differentiate it from a Ferrari also can't differentiate a Ferrari from a McLaren. Don't walk the dog for them. Let them stay clueless and leave the joy of gaining the ability to discern where it matters--to people who genuinely give a damn and delight in knowing this ****. Being identifiable by its design without its model name spelled out elevates its exceptionality.

Superman wears the iconic S on his chest, Batman the bat logo, Spiderman a spider, but none wear a label with their name spelled out. The C8 stands by its own merit as the superhero car of America (a merit that ironically gets diluted by Brink of Speed's Captain America shield livery). I'll keep its crossed flag and stingray superhero icons but rip the "Hello, my name is" name tag off its rear bumper.

 

The chrome license plate frame REALLY kills it too.

 

^^^^^
Actually, stainless steel. Like the exhaust tips.

 

To each his own.

Looks like some car show judges disagree with you. I'll go them.

 

As of 2024, chrome immediately reminds me of ghetto SLABS and cars being trimmed out with it head to foot. Door edges. Door handles. Hood and trunk edges. WIndow trim. All of it. Like some kind of bastardized tron influence. I remember when you couldn't buy cars without the window trim being chrome. Some must like the retro motif. There are a litany of aftermarket solutions for hiding chrome trim (including the C7's braces)--so there must be a fair amount of consumer demand behind this....

p.s.
It's also an upcharge or model upgrade feature on many cars to have chrome trim deleted. Eg. BMW Shadowline trim...

 

How many other car forums do you regularly visit on a daily basis (average 13 posts per day here) not owning the car yet posting bold and negative opinions portraying yourself as an expert when you have no real hands-on experience with the car?

Of course anyone is welcome to participate here, however seems your only mission is to trash the C8.

 

Why is it always that I'm expected to come in here and defend myself to people who want to white-knight for everything GM is?

I joined this forum when I decided in earnest I wanted to purchase an E-Ray (the first and thus far only production AWD Corvette). And there's a difference between bashing something because "trolling"; and incredulity at seemingly inane design choices that seem to already have been taught as a pratfall decades prior.

I do take umbrage with the notion that only C8 experience is what matters in critiquing anything--and that any and all experience with other platforms, ways of designing/engineering, etc--somehow do not matter. It is this mindset that allows Tesla to continue to have quality control issues as they do. It is this mindset that allows GM to continue making poor design choices and playing catch-up--despite having top-tier powertrains.

P.S.
I have avoided many car forums since the great Auto Forums fuckery of ~2010, and I try to actively seek out forums that do not belong under that umbrella...if I join any at all. The only other one I'm on currently is for my DD, and it is all but dead; mostly thanks to social media killing off the community. Automotive knowledge and expertise should never be catalogued on a FB group.

 

Everyone can do as they please with their car, I don't care. But when I see folks writing about the "busy" look of the rear and removing the CORVETTE letters but then adding a much larger license plate surround I tend to think they aren't being true to their less is more goal... Just sayin'

 

I think it's about blocking. By using contrast appropriately, you can more effectively block the rear of the car--and give it a different look than stock.

 

definitely better without

 

My guess is that if the standard Vette came without emblems/lettering, but were instead offered as Chevy or aftermarket options, there would be just as many buyers choosing to add them.

 

I followed this thread from the beginning and the reply's are pretty much what I expected, both for and against. I purchased my '21 last year as a CPO in Cincinnati sight unseen. I flew up and picked the car up and the dealer had not informed me that car had full frontal and side PPF and tint. That was a real plus and then not wasting time to do a deep dive on the car I headed home. When it was in my garage I began to look real hard at the car and something seemed off. Then while looking at the nose I realized they did not put the emblem back on so I then proceeded to the rear and there was no CORVETTE emblem or the fish (man I really need my fish ). Being the purest that I am I immediately searched and found the best price genuine GM emblems and all is well now in my garage. Like everyone says, it's your car so make it to your taste, neither is wrong.

 

As this thread shows. TOTALLY a personal preference. I debadge all of my cars. Especially with the beautiful hood lines and shape of the rest of the car as well. Badge or no badge, we own beautiful carsI did leave the Stingray because, well, I live in Tampa Bay! Go RAY'S! 😉

 

That cheap looking black plastic fish was gone the first day I got my C8 home.

 

The clean look has a lot to be said for it. To me the bottom of the list for emblems are those made out of plastic. I think the chrome "fish" on the rear is an improvement over plastic, and similarly the stainless steel emblem for the front in lieu of plastic. These chrome/stainless emblems were a $250 RPO option. My CORVETTE letters are red to match the adrenaline red interior. Exterior is CMG.