Leave It To A Mercedes Designer To Create An Incredible Corvette

A new retro-styled Corvette rendering has just given us the best reason yet to move back to a front-engine layout with the next generation of America’s sports car. The real shocker is that the best-looking Corvette concept we’ve seen possibly ever comes not from one of the General’s own design team but as a side project from a designer who works for Mercedes-Benz.

Corvette design has changed significantly over the years, somehow always managing to perfectly represent the time period in which the generation was built. Instead of predicting the future, this rendering instead combines two of the best from the past into something better than either.

Design Mixes Best Of C2 And C3 Corvettes

The designer is Maitreya Dhanak, a visualization designer for Mercedes-Benz in India. He’s also clearly a very big fan of Corvettes with an engine mounted in front of the driver.

His Stingray homage combines the sleek split-window design of the 1963 C2 Corvette with the brash excess of the C3, turning the C3’s beefy fenders and tiny cockpit into something more restrained and, crucially, far more elegant.

It has the signature Corvette quad headlights up front. Instead of living in a pop-up bezel, though, like they would have in-period, these are under the line of the front bumper and permanently displayed. To take some focus away from the exposed lights, the running light design is a simple slot like an army truck with its night kit on.

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The fender vents of the C2 and C3 are present. They’re actually larger than on either of those cars, and extend further back, all the way into the doors. A line running fender to fender brings some C2 style into the C3 Coke bottle shape and bulging rear fenders.

Other fun details include a split window that is repeated on the roof of the car. Knockoff wire wheels give the car even more vintage style.

Bugatti-Like Appearance At The Rear

From the rear, the quad-lamp tail and split window look almost more Bugatti than Corvette. But it’s actually giving a Mandela-effect result, as the Veyron was the Bug with the quad rear lamps while the others have the split window. That makes this decidedly Corvette, though the original C2 split window design was inspired by a pre-war Bugatti, so there is bound to be some stylistic overlap.

Of course, there are some strange angles. Looking at it dead-on from the side and the roof has serious Hot Wheels Darth Vader car vibes. On the other hand, that could be a feature, not a bug.

This is Dhanak’s second try at the Stingray Homage. His first, also posted to his Instagram account, might be even better. It has side pipes bulging from the fenders and a sleeker, more rounded tail.

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Earlier this month, GM showed a vision of what the C9 Corvette might look like. While its futuristic design is probably more like what we’ll see in production, this classic-looking car is one we’d rather look at. Perhaps a coachbuilder might want to approach Dhanak and see about making it a go?