One of the more intriguing cars to be displayed and
driven at the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the weekend was the Prato Orage. Built by a French company, very
few details about the car were known in the lead-up to its dynamic debut at
Goodwood. Even now, mystery surrounds the eye-catching French supercar but
according to British journalist, Lewis Kingston, the Orage is actually based
around a C6-generation Chevrolet Corvette.
Images of the supercar’s interior provide a number
of hints about its true identity. For starters, it is clear that the steering
column is identical to the one you’ll find on the C6, including the same
adjustment lever and headlight and wiper stalks. Additionally, the gear lever
is in the same location as the C6 Corvette. A look at the door panels also
reveals that it has identical wing mirror adjustment switches to the C6 and
features the same window toggles.
The journalist also says that the positioning of the
brake calipers is a dead giveaway about the car’s underpinnings. Prato claims that the 8.1-liter
V8 engine powering the Orage is the most powerful naturally-aspirated V8 used
by any production car. While running up the Goodwood hillclimb, the car
certainly sounded like a Corvette, even if it does displace a little more and
pump out more horsepower, a claimed 888 hp to be precise.
It’s not unusual for small companies to base their
supercars around existing models but usually, they’re quite open about it.
Nowhere in any press material release by Prato does it say that the Orage is
either based around a C6 Corvette or at the very least, shares a number of
parts with it.
