Many owners have wondered why GM hasn’t offered a solution themselves to close up the grilles a little better. None of the posts seen by The Drive from owners who added their own grille guards have indicated any issues.
However, it is unlikely that GM will offer its own more protective grille option anytime soon. A GM spokesperson told The Drive that the grille was intentionally very open for performance reasons, and that the company currently doesn’t recommend changing that.
“What owners are seeing does not impact the performance of their vehicles,” a GM representative told us via email. “The design of the grille was done to provide maximum airflow. We do not currently recommend owners use any protective mesh which could impact cooling performance.”
In other words, as with many other vehicular modifications since the dawn of time, change the grille at your own risk.
This isn’t a brand-new issue with only the C8—watercooled Porsche owners have been adding grille inserts for years, for one—but it’s definitely a frustrating one considering just how visible the condensers are on the C8 and how protective owners are of their brand-new, much-hyped, hard-to-get sports cars. Numerous
aftermarket
companies have already stepped in to fill owners’ wishes with pre-cut protectors.
Others have made their own guards, as owner WillRockwell on MidEngineCorvetteForum.com reposted a photo of custom grille guards made out of mesh from Home Depot. Douglas Hines also posted a link to cut-to-fit grille mesh from Wish on Harris’ Facebook thread that costs less than $20 per sheet. Hey, if it works, it works.
[H/T Motor1!]
Update: Sunday, January 31, 2021, 8:50 p.m.: Added comment from GM above.
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