The Z06 GT3.R is Chevrolet's first racecar built to full FIA GT3 specifications and replaces the Corvette C8.R, which was retired when the GTE class was discontinued. Like its predecessor it is based on the C8-generation Chevrolet Corvette, using the Z06 supercar as its foundation.
The car was publicly revealed on 27 January 2023 at Daytona International Speedway, on the eve of that year's Rolex 24. The reveal followed a two-year development programme. Virtual simulation work in Chevrolet's Driver in the Loop simulator began in early 2021. The first on-track test took place in September 2022, providing a full year of real-world development before customer deliveries commenced in Q3 2023. The car was observed testing at Sebring International Raceway in March 2023.
The Z06 GT3.R starts life as an aluminium chassis frame produced at Chevrolet's Bowling Green Assembly plant in Kentucky. At Pratt Miller's facility in Michigan, a purpose-built steel roll cage is welded to a base plate secured to that frame, creating the racing structure. The suspension layout is double wishbone front and rear — the same configuration used on the road-going Z06 — with race-specific springs, dampers, rotors, calipers, and pads added. The car rides on 18-inch wheels.
The aerodynamic package was developed by GM Motorsports engineers in conjunction with the GM Design Studio. The goal was to optimise downforce, stability, drag reduction, and cooling while remaining compatible with different tyre specifications and balance-of-performance settings across various championships. The car uses a carbon fibre splitter and diffuser. Air ducts at the front cool the brakes; a large hood opening extracts radiator air; and side ducts behind the doors — drawn directly from the Z06 road car — cool the engine, transaxle, and rear brakes. The surface elements of the road car from the top of the windshield to the rear were retained, reinforcing the visual connection between production and racing cars.
The safety structure includes a side-impact crash box between the driver's door and roll cage, a design approach pioneered in the Corvette C7.R. The box has a carbon fibre and Kevlar outer casing filled with aluminium honeycomb. The integrated roll cage is slightly modified from the C8.R to ease driver ingress and egress.
The Z06 GT3.R uses the Chevrolet LT6.R, a 5.5-litre naturally aspirated 90-degree V8 with a flat-plane crankshaft and double overhead camshafts, mounted mid-engine and longitudinally. The engine originates from the same Performance Build Centre production line in Bowling Green that builds the road-going Z06 engine. More than 70 percent of parts are shared with the production engine, including the crankshaft, connecting rods, cylinder heads, fuel injectors, ignition coils, gaskets, and numerous sensors. The engine development programme began on track in 2019 during initial C8.R testing.
Output is rated at 500 hp at 7,400 rpm in WEC specification and 600 hp at 7,400 rpm in IMSA specification, with torque of 460 lb-ft (620 Nm) in both configurations. The transmission is an Xtrac P529 six-speed sequential gearbox. Total weight is 1,239.67 kg. Tyre suppliers are Michelin in IMSA and Goodyear in WEC.
The first racing programme was announced in June 2023: a two-car factory-supported effort in the IMSA GTD Pro category under the banner of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, fielding cars numbered 3 and 4 with Antonio García and Tommy Milner as lead drivers.
TF Sport confirmed five days later that it would switch from Aston Martin to field two Corvettes in the new FIA WEC LMGT3 class. Canadian outfit AWA (Andrew Wojteczko Autosport) subsequently announced a two-car IMSA GTD entry for 2024 and 2025. A programme in GT World Challenge America via DXDT Racing followed.
Customer teams have since raced the Z06 GT3.R in GT World Challenge Europe, GT World Challenge Asia, the Asian Le Mans Series, the European Le Mans Series, the Intercontinental GT Challenge, and various national series.
The car made its competitive debut at the 2024 24 Hours of Daytona, with its first win coming at the 2024 Chevrolet Grand Prix at Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park). Through the 2025 season the No. 3 Corvette Racing entry of García and Alexander Sims won the IMSA GTD Pro drivers' championship, and Corvette Racing took the manufacturers' and team titles in the same year — the car's first full season of IMSA championship wins. In WEC the TF Sport No. 82 entry won the LMGT3 class of the 2025 ELMS season. The last recorded WEC win through the available corpus was at the 2025 6 Hours of Fuji.
Through 123 documented race starts (to the date of the corpus), the Z06 GT3.R had recorded 25 wins, 55 podiums, 20 pole positions, and 11 fastest laps.
Corvette Racing had, at the time of the Z06 GT3.R's launch, accumulated 122 race victories worldwide — including 113 in IMSA competition — over 25 seasons beginning with the Corvette C5-R in the late 1990s. Those results produced 14 Manufacturers' and Drivers' championships and 15 Team titles. The Z06 GT3.R carries that lineage into the global GT3 era.
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