Holden will have a rear-wheel drive V8 on its showroom floor in the near future with confirmation that it will sell the eighth-generation C8 Corvette in Australia.

The Chevrolet Corvette Stingray will be built in right-hand drive form in the United States for markets such as Australia, unlike the Camaro, which is converted locally by Holden Special Vehicles.

Holden chairman and managing director Dave Buttner announced the news following the unveiling of the car in the USA earlier this week.

“The news that Corvette will now be built in right-hand-drive for the first time ever – and will be exported to Australia – is hugely exciting for our team at Holden and any Australian who loves high performance cars,” said Buttner.

“With our long history in motor-racing, performance vehicles are an indelible part of the Holden brand.

“Our team is totally revved up to build on Holden’s performance legacy with the most technologically advanced Corvette ever built.

“We look forward to taking on the European and Japanese performance vehicles with some highly sophisticated American muscle.”

The Corvette will be powered by a mid-mounted 6.2-litre, naturally-aspirated V8 producing 370kW of power and 640Nm of torque and features an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

Neither pricing nor a sale date for Australia have been confirmed, although the car would likely hit local showrooms in late 2020 at the earliest, with a price tag expected to exceed AUD 100,000.

Holden’s recently announced contract renewal with Triple Eight Race Engineering has seen the marque commit to racing the ZB Commodore in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship in 2020 and 2021.

The latter season is slated for the introduction of Supercars’ Next Gen rules platform.