Someone Stole the Wheels From a 2020 C8 Corvette
Photo: Chevrolet
As we’ve talked about on The News Wheel — multiple times — the new mid-engine Corvette is kind of a big deal. It would seem that law-abiding car enthusiasts aren’t the only people jazzed about the street-ready supercar, as somebody/somebodies in Detroit proved in a somewhat baffling way: taking the wheels off of a 2020 C8 Corvette.
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The vehicle in question was parked on a street in Detroit’s West Village. According to a report by Motor Trend, there are more than a few odd components to what could have appeared to be a by-the-numbers burglary.
To begin with, the as-yet anonymous burglars stole the wheels and propped the Corvette up on cinderblocks. They placed the blocks in the middle of the vehicle, right on its bare rocker panels. Next, the wheel thief/thieves left the lug nuts on the ground rather than collecting them.
Adding to the mystery, nobody is quite sure yet who owns the vehicle. There’s a sticker in the window that reads “1,” leading Motor Trend Writer Alexander Stoklosa to speculate that the 2020 C8 Corvette is part of the captured test fleet. A captured test fleet is composed of a limited number of pre-production vehicles driven by GM employees for testing purposes before consumer vehicles hit dealerships. The plot thickens when you consider the fact that the license plate on the vandalized Corvette doesn’t seem to be from the manufacturer, though.
Outside of the wildly ill-considered idea of street-parking one of the hottest cars in recent memory, the decision to nab the wheels is strange. To begin with, there isn’t exactly a high demand for illegally-obtained wheels for a vehicle that isn’t yet commercially available outside of pre-orders. Second—unless films have dramatically overstated the ease of hotwiring a car — the choice to steal the wheels, and not the whole package, doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Can’t wait for the 2020 model?: Give the 2019 Corvette a spin
Regardless of intention, poor decision-making, and bizarre circumstances, I’m sure the driver — whoever they are — is thankful that they didn’t lose the whole car. Compared to accidentally donating the most advanced Corvette of all time to the streets, and potentially losing their job, a few replacement wheels and a little bit of bodywork to take the dents out of the rocker panels probably feels like winning the lottery.
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