2026 Corvette clash: Corvette E-Ray vs Corvette Z06

There they sit as the sun descends… not one, but two mid-engined C8 Chevrolet Corvettes – the quintessential V8-powered American sports car.

The one in Arctic White is the E-Ray, the first ever electrified all-wheel drive Corvette in the 72-year history of America’s iconic sports car brand.

The one in Silver Flare is the Z06, the most powerful naturally-aspirated Corvette ever made.

Simply put, the Chevy Corvette Z06 is basically a road-legal GT3 race car.

The day has been spent meandering some wonderful back roads with a simple task: which of these two is the better Corvette?

The eighth generation – hence C8 – Corvette is the biggest change in the history of the all-American V8 sports car because it is mid-engined rather than front-engined.

Until now, all Corvettes over the last seven decades have seen the engine mounted in front of the driver – not behind.

This makes the new models more exotic (yes, the Italians are now paying attention) but the primary reasoning was to liberate more traction and speed compared to the front-engine rear-wheel drive layout.

The change also allowed the Corvette to be built in right-hand drive at the famed Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green Kentucky. It’s a lot easier to shift the steering rack from left to right when you don’t have a hairy-chested V8 engine in the way.

The 2026 C8 Corvette is built around an aluminium (aluminum for our North American readers) spaceframe with a substantial box section backbone to ensure stiffness. It splits the cockpit in two lengthways.

Even the coupe has a removable roof so it’s not a stressed member.

Compared to the Stingray, which was the first C8 off the production line, both the Corvette E-Ray and the Corvette Z06 share a wider body and wheel tracks, bigger 20- and 21-inch wheels and tyres and more powerful brakes.

The Corvette engineers proudly boast how each has a tyre contact patch of more than 1.2 metres (they say four feet, being Americans) sitting on the road.

They also share Magnetic Ride Control (MRC) adaptive dampers as part of the double wishbone suspension and an eight-speed dual clutch transaxle.

But from there they drive in very different directions.

The E-Ray adds a small e-motor (119kW/170Nm) onto the front axle, and the tiny 1.9kWh battery that powers it, into the C8’s huge central tunnel. It’s another reason that tunnel exists. Yep, the E-Ray was always part of the C8 plan from the very beginning.

Add in the same 6.2-litre (376ci) pushrod overhead valve LT2 V8 as the Stingray sitting behind the cockpit and driving the rear wheels and outputs climb from 369kW and 637Nm to 488kW and 806Nm.

The claimed 0-100km/h time drops from the Stingray’s 3.1 seconds to a spleen-popping 2.5 secs despite an additional 127kg of mass. All-paw traction and extra grunt helps out big time here.

While the E-Ray’s hybrid powertrain will appeal to tech heads, the centrepiece of the Corvette Z06 is a hand built 5.5-litre double overhead camshaft 32-valve V8 dubbed the LT6 that will have traditionalists frothing.

Displacing 333 cubic inches in the old money, it’s a close relation to the LT6.R engine, which powers the Z06 GT3.R racing version of the Corvette, a vehicle that contests legendary endurance events such as the Le Mans 24 Hour.

Among many technical highlights the 5.5-litre V8’s headlining feature is the use of a lighter flat-plane (rather than cross-plane) crankshaft to better tune the intake and fill the cylinders at high rpm to make more power.

That’s important considering how highly stressed this engine is.

In US spec with 500kW, it’s the highest powered naturally-aspirated V8 in a production car. Period.

In Aussie spec the high-revving 8600rpm donk produces a slightly reduced 475kW and 595Nm because we don’t get the most free flowing exhaust. Thanks to Australian Design Rules for that.

That means the rear-wheel drive Z06 accelerates from 0-100km/h in 2.6 seconds. Yep, the E-Ray is faster. It’s also $60,000 cheaper in Australia – $292,990 to $336,000.

Before we get rolling there are beautiful details to be appreciated here.

From the Z06's Carbon Revolution wheels (made locally in Geelong), to the Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes gracing both Corvettes, and the additional radiators tucked into the E-Ray's nose to cool its drive unit and power electronics, the engineering details tell their own story.

First up – the 2026 Chevy Corvette E-Ray. Your correspondent hasn’t driven a C8 ‘Vette since 2022 when the Stingray first arrived in Australia. And the E-Ray is bringing a lot of fond memories back.

Sure, the cockpit with its low and forward seating position, tight sports seats, squircle steering wheel, multiple digital screens and cascading line of climate control buttons down the centre of the car are instantly familiar.

But it just does not drive in the way that this low-flying exotic shape suggests.

What looks like an Italian supercar has a diesel-like progressive torque curve. There’s no manic manipulation of the gearbox to locate a miniscule sweet-spot at stratospheric revs. It has huge slabs of low-end torque that give it effortless thrust at any speed.

These Chevy small blocks are just so easy to drive. Because they’re so small and light the overall package is more compact and efficient too.

The e-motor drives only the front wheels and runs just about all the time up to 240km/h. There’s even a stealth mode that means you can cruise away from home early in the day or late at night on electricity alone without waking neighbours up.

Yep, a front-wheel drive Corvette. Harley Earl, the legendary GM car designer who dreamt up the first Corvette post WWII (after seeing countless Euro sporties) would be shocked.

Anyway, the E-Ray can also regenerate power to recharge the battery when coasting and braking.

All this stuff feels quite transparent because the V8 dominates the powertrain experience 98 per cent of the drive time.

But the ride and handling balance also shine. These MRC dampers are just plain brilliant. Every bump should be a painful experience, but in most relaxing Tour mode the E-Ray just flows down the road. And it’s doing it in a tremendously fast yet deceptively calm way.

Time to change rides and, at a glance, the 2026 Z06 looks much the same, apart from some obvious aero adornments. The rear wings makes a statement but it’s the MotoGP dive planes that are super-cool.

While the E-Ray rides the bumps, isolates the cabin to a certain extent and is almost quiet, the Z06 bangs and crashes its way along, granulating the bitumen and extracting gasps and winces over even minor road corruptions. It’s a very different drive experience.

But that engine – now this is what a Corvette should sound like!

It’s subdued at low revs, howls in the mid-range and positively screams as the exhaust lets rip at the top-end. How an engine larger than 2.0-litres can rev to 8600rpm just boggles the mind.

And sure, it feels a bit a bit sulky if you’re not revving it. The 5.5-litre powerplant is not recalcitrant, it just wants to be driven hard. Real hard.

While the LT2 has its peak engine torque at 5150rpm and peak power at 6450rpm, this thing has peak torque at 6300rpm and peak power at 8550rpm! Now those manual gearchange paddles are getting a workout. Bang, bang, bang!

Visceral, stunning, utterly fierce. You can gradually wind up in the E-Ray, but the Z06 goes straight to manic.

Wind through the drive modes and it’s clear everything is set up to be that much more intense in the Z06. It just hunts corner apexes so much harder.

Free of any drive inputs to the front wheels, it steers even more directly and immediately than the E-Ray as well.

The brake response is simply sensational in both.

But really, on the open road, only the fringes of the Z06’s performance are being tapped.

Where’s the nearest race track?

A day spent driving these cars is to be reminded there is still more to our modern automotive world than just SUVs, utes, emissions and functionality.

Sure, sports cars are becoming harder to justify all the time, especially to people who have never experienced such vehicles and the glorious personal connection the great ones deliver.

The E-Ray nods slightly in the direction of those modern day pressures with it e-motor and battery and for that it’s to be admired.

If you truly want to drive a Corvette everyday (here’s our tip, don’t do it, they’re just too hard to manouevre in town) then the E-Ray is the one to choose.

The Z06? It's wild and crazy, harsh and exhausting to drive, and demands to be utilised properly. Ultimately, it is truly a great piece of automotive design and engineering.

So, the winner… you’re kidding right?!

Let’s just say there are no losers here.

Chevrolet C8 Corvette E-Ray
Price: From $275,000 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 6.2-litre pushrod V8, mid-mounted rear-wheel drive
Motor: Permanent magnetic front-wheel drive
Battery: 1.9kWh lithium-ion
Combined Power: 488kW
Combined Torque: 806Nm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto, all-wheel drive
0-100km/h: 2.5 sec
Suspension: Double wishbone, coil spring, adaptive dampers
Steering: Electric-assist variable-ratio rack and pinion 
Brakes: Brembo carbon-ceramic
Dry weight: 1712kg

Chevrolet C8 Corvette Z06
Price: From $336,000 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 5.5-litre DOHC V8, mid-mounted rear-wheel drive
Power: 475kW @8550rpm
Combined Torque: 595Nm@6300rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto, rear-wheel drive
0-100km/h: 2.6 sec
Suspension: Double wishbone, coil spring, adaptive dampers
Steering: Electric-assist variable-ratio rack and pinion 
Brakes: Brembo carbon-ceramic
Kerb weight: 1661kg

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