One C8 Corvette owner should feel pretty safe right about now, as a bizarre crash in Thornton, Colorado proved just how strong the sports car really is. According to the Thornton Fire Department, no one in this orange Corvette was hurt, despite the entire cab of a Chevy Silverado sitting on top of it.
It’s unclear how exactly this accident occurred, but it seems to have been a head-on collision in which the Silverado drove up onto the Corvette. You’d imagine that being sat on by a full-size pickup would absolutely squash any car, especially one with a roof structure that manually comes apart. However, the C8’s targa-style roof may have actually been what saved it.
Since the Corvette’s roof panel can be removed and stored neatly in the trunk, its A-pillars need to be stronger than usual, so that passengers’ heads don’t turn to post-Gallagher watermelons in the event of a rollover. While there’s no official data from Chevrolet to say how much weight the C8’s pillars can hold, apparently they’re strong enough to handle one of the brand’s pickups.
It isn’t just the pillars, either. The cross bar that connects the pillars, at the top of the windshield, seems to be what’s doing the literal heavy lifting here, holding up the weight of the truck. Looking at the entire front end of the Silverado resting on the windshield like that, it doesn’t seem possible. Even the glass, while broken, seems to be in decent shape, all things considered.
Making the Corvette’s resilience even more impressive is that it seems the driver had the roof panel off during this crash. So even with the top “down,” the Silverado’s weight still couldn’t crush the pillars enough to hurt anyone. As remarkable as that is, it must have been initially horrifying for the front passenger to see the Silverado’s front wheels almost directly above their face.
I’ve heard of carbon-tubbed supercars, like McLarens, being able to handle this sort of weight. It seems the Corvette’s aluminum structure may be up to the task, too. I guess you could say it’s built … like a rock.
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