It’s been a long year for everyone. For the folks at Chevrolet, 2020 was supposed to be the year remembered as the first for the mid-engined Corvette. 2020 instead will go down in history as the year of the coronavirus pandemic, but it still marks the beginning of a new Corvette era. There just aren’t as many models to show for it.
In fact, Chevy built exactly 20,368 Corvettes for 2020, which is just half the original plan of at least 40,000 units. That total is for both coupe and convertible, which breaks down as 16,787 Stingray coupes and just 3,581 Stingray convertibles. Chevrolet released a flood of production statistics to the National Corvette Museum, showing everything from packages to colors, options, and even buyers who opted for a specific VIN. It’s the kind of information car nerds love, so let’s take a few moments to discuss some of the highlights.
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For starters, Chevrolet made a big deal about the C8 being a mid-engine, 490-horsepower performance machine costing less than $60,000. That’s a neat figure to get people into showrooms, but we long speculated that few buyers would actually go for a base-model 1LT and the statistics show we were right. Only 2,663 1LT coupes were built, accounting for just 15.9 percent of total production. 2LT coupes totaled 6,685, but most buyers went for the range-topping 3LT with 7,439 units out the door.
On the convertible side, just 283 1LT drop-tops were offered, followed by 1,281 2LT models. However, with the convertible already adding $7,500 to the C8’s price tag, buyers weren’t shy about checking all the boxes because 3LT models were 56.3 percent of all convertible sales, numbering 2,017 total. With coupe and convertible sales combined, a whopping 85.5 percent of all 2020 C8 Corvettes were 2LT or 3LT models. So yeah, $60,000 looked good on paper but very few buyers were interested in such thrift.
Unfortunately, the data doesn’t tell us how many zero-option cars were actually built. Many options were available for 1LT cars, as evidenced by 89 percent of all coupes getting the performance exhaust upgrade. On the flip side, just 15 coupes and 4 convertibles were fitted with the HVT or black/gray suede interior, which accounts for just 0.1 percent of total production. Honestly, we’re not entirely sure what the HVT code means in this context, but it’s the rarest item over six pages of production stats.
Some other quick takeaways? 76 percent of C8 buyers opted for the Z51 package. Torch Red was the most popular exterior color but very few people were interested in stripes. 1,497 cars received Carbon Flash striping – the most popular choice by far – followed by 326 for Sterling Silver and 165 for Midnight Silver. In short, if you have a factory-striped 2020 ‘Vette, you could have quite a rare machine for future collectors to fuss over.
Hit the source link below to peruse the entire production breakdown. If you see anything interesting, jump into the comments and let us know.