The Chevrolet brand in Malaysia is dead and has been dead for almost 2 years now. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still some interest in the brand here. There are still a small number of Malaysian Chevy fans out there, and now they may just have a reason to be excited again.
That’s because Chevrolet are working on a right-hand drive variant of their impressive Corvette C8. This has been confirmed by Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter through corvetteblogger.com. During a Q&A session at a Virtual Corvette Presentation, the team was asked if right-hand drive Corvettes had been made. The response from Juechter:
“Yes, some of us are actually driving them around… We’ve built some and we’ll be doing some of our preproduction testing now in the US.”
With a right-hand drive Corvette C8 ready, Chevrolet will be able to export these cars to the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. While it’s unlikely Malaysia will be on that list, we have little doubt that at least a few grey market dealers will have these imported from the UK or Japan, the same way many Teslas and Ford Mustangs find their way on our soil.
In fact, it seems more likely Japan will be source of at least one or two ‘Vettes, as the country has recorded over 300 right-hand drive Corvetter bookings within 60 hours of the pre-sale announcement.
The C8 Corvette is particularly exciting for a number of reasons. First of all, it’s the FIRST Chevrolet Corvette with a mid-mounted engine. Meaning, for the first time ever, the Corvette has the right layout to be compared to European supercars. That LT2 engine is pretty advanced too, with cylinder deactivation and active fuel management systems. It’s capable of 490hp and 630Nm of torque as standard, but the optional sport exhaust system brings that figure up to 495hp and 637Nm.
The C8 Corvette is priced between US$60,000-US$112,000 depending on how many options are ticked. It comes with a naturally-aspirated 6.2L V8 engine, which might raise concerns about road tax. This will end up costing you around RM16,500 a year or RM49,210 a year if registered under a company. Yikes.
But hey, we’re sure to the many Malaysian multi-millionaires out there, this is but a drop in the ocean for them, especially for a chance to own something no one else will have.
