The Chevy Corvette is powered by a small-block V8 engine. You can find several Chevy pickup trucks also powered by a small-block V8 engine. If a pickup truck is rated to tow, then certainly a Corvette would also be rated to tow, right?
No. The eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette is not rated to tow, according to General Motors. GM even spells this out clearly in the Corvette owner’s manual: “This vehicle is neither designed nor intended to tow a trailer.”
That doesn’t mean you might not see a Corvette towing on the internet, but it’s always a good idea to remember that while it might be physically possible to do a thing, it might not be smart to actually do that thing.
Chevrolet, like some other automakers, issues a yearly Trailering Guide that covers everything you might need to know about towing with one of its products. It includes each vehicle Chevy sells that’s factory-rated to tow, and how much towing capacity that vehicle has. You might expect that a giant Silverado 3500 HD is the biggest tower of the group, and you’d be right. But you can also tow with vehicles as small as the Trailblazer or Equinox EV.
One thing it does not list, though, is the Corvette. Was there ever a generation of Corvette that was rated by General Motors to tow?
Were any Corvettes rated to tow?
Looking back, the 2019 guide also doesn’t list the Corvette, which would’ve been in its seventh generation at the time. The 2013 guide, which was the last year for the sixth-generation, doesn’t list the Corvette as being towing-capable either. The same applies to the fifth-generation in 2004. You can see the trend here.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. There have been stunts. For example, someone who owned a C6 Corvette Z06 was filmed towing a small airplane. You’ll also find people online who have attached the appropriate towing hardware to their Corvette to tow a boat, or even a small camper. You might even find people saying that it’s fine to do that.
Don’t. If you have something you need to tow, you might want to consider picking up a pickup. Trucks are engineered with higher Gross Vehicle Weight Ratings, one of the key metrics in understanding how much your vehicle can carry in total weight. Some trucks also include trailer sway control or an electronic brake controller to improve towing safety. Depending on your towing needs, you might even require fifth-wheel or gooseneck support. That’s not something you’re going to find on a car.
At the end of the day, the Corvette was designed to be a sports car, setting lap records, rather than a tow rig. Let it do what it does best, and leave the towing to something else.
