The Corvette C6.R Will Always Be My Favorite American Race Car

Nothing beats the sound of this V-8. Nothing.

By: Brian Silvestro

May 11, 2024 at 9:00am ET

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I grew up in a time when the C6-generation Corvette represented road racing in America. Every time I see an American flag I think of the thunderous V-8 roar coming from under the hood of the legendary factory-built C6.R as it battled European exotics here and abroad. This video is a reminder of the greatness that comes from those exhaust pipes.

The 19Bozzy92 YouTube channel got up close and personal with this C6.R, chassis 001, during an Endurance Racing Legends Championship held recently at the Mugello Circuit in Italy. According to the channel this was the very Corvette that was driven by Jan Magnussen as it battled against Jörg Bergmeister in the Flying Lizard Porsche at Laguna Seca in 2009 for one of the most memorable finishes in racing history.

After the race chassis 001 was repaired, and went on to compete in the entire 2010 American Le Mans Series and that year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. It then was sold to a private team and taken back to Le Mans in 2011, where it won its class. Now it's being raced privately at events throughout Europe.

The 5.5-liter V-8 sounds as glorious as it did over a decade ago, trumpeting over everything else in the field. To me, this is as good as racing V-8s get. You can keep your high-revving eight-cylinder F1 engines. This is where it's at.

Thanks to the 19Bozzy92 channel, we even get some footage from inside the cockpit, giving us an idea of how the noise translates to the cabin. Big surprise, it sounds just as excellent. What I'd do for just one session behind the wheel.