GM Won’t Help Tuners Crack The C8 Corvette Because It Wants To Protect You From Hackers

The Chevrolet Corvette has long been a favorite for people that want a sports car they can easily modify to extract more performance from. However, tuning and upgrading the C8 Corvette has been much more difficult than previous models and according to Corvette executive chief engineer Tadge Juechter, it’s not going to get any easier.

The key reason why the C8 Corvette has been so difficult to modify is due to the fact that it is underpinned by GM’s Global B architecture that features strict cybersecurity measures and is essentially hack-proof.

As such, the only way to reliable increase power from a C8 is to install piggyback ECUs that operate alongside the factory ECU. Ideally, tuners would want to be able to tweak the standard ECU but Juechter has revealed to Muscle Cars & Trucks that GM won’t help them do so.

Read Also: Germany’s GeigerCars Gives The Corvette C8 A Sporty Round Of Styling And Suspension Upgrades

“The aftermarket crew is very talented and resourceful,” Juechter said. “They have been for years. So our business model doesn’t really cater to the aftermarket, we have to do all the things internally between Corvette just like any other General Motors product. Our desire is to make the car as hack proof as possible to protect our customers.”

Juechter says that as cars become more advanced and reliant on computers, the possibility of hackers gaining access to them increases, hence why GM has made the ECU so tough to crack.

“You know these cars are extraordinarily capable and they are also more and more computer-driven,” he added. “If somebody can take over those computers, they can take over your car. It hasn’t really happened yet, but sometime a high profile vehicle takeover someday will probably happen and we want to make sure we’re putting enough firewalls in that we protect our customers every way we can. Unfortunately, that has the side effect of making that hurdle greater for the aftermarket.”

“We’re not going to go give everybody keys to the backdoor into our modules to do whatever they want. We think the best will figure it out,” Juechter said.

While you may have seen videos of twin-turbocharged C8 Corvettes on YouTube, these have all been custom builds and created for promotional or testing purposes. Unfortunately, it seems that off-the-shelf upgrade packages, in particular those featuring forced induction, won’t be available for the C8 anytime soon.