We have reason to believe these photos are legitimate and show the mid-engine C8 Corvette’s front and rear body panels at the Bowling Green assembly plant’s new paint shop. If General Motors is testing paint quality for the C8 Corvette at this point in time, it might mean the next-generation Corvette is closer than anticipated.

A Corvette Forum user posted the photos to a thread and the consensus is these parts reside in the newly constructed paint shop. In fact, with a little imagination, they seem to match up quite well with the latest C8 Corvette spy shots. The front bumper looks wide and gaping, and it’s absolutely not for the 2019 C7 Corvette ZR1. The air inlets point in opposite directions.

The rear bumper panel tells more. It’s just as wide and we can almost imagine where massive tires will hug the panel. It depicts angular rear taillight shapes that will likely emerge as an evolution from the C7 Corvette’s design. We also see inlets below the taillights, too.

It’s the latest high-profile leak surrounding the mid-engine Corvette after the car itself was spied out to lunch at a McDonald’s in Michigan. We also learned GM will build the 2018 model year Corvette for just a few more months when the plant goes back online after retooling. Come the end of January, Bowling Green will churn out 2019 model year Corvettes.

It’s plausible we may see the mid-engine Corvette surface sometime next year. Numerous reports peg early 2019 as an on-sale date for the car. Nothing is certain, but we know one thing: the mid-engine Corvette cometh.

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