Lately, all of the attention has been focused intently on the C7 ZR1. After all, the car has broken records at multiple tracks all over the country and has smashed its way to low-10-second passes right off the showroom floor. In fact, it’s been so successful that if it was your older brother, he’d be introducing you to his new Australian girlfriend, that just so happened to appear in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, while explaining to you how making his first million was the hardest, right about now. But I digress.

And speaking of sibling rivalries, while the ZR1 has been lavished with praise and media attention, the Z06 has been cast into the limelight. While it is still easily one of the best bang-for-the-buck deals out there right now, the car’s propensity to overheat — albeit an issue that happened early in its production and which was allegedly remedied — has left it with a less-than-desirable stigma. A stigma that it would appear GM is resolute in resolving.

Image via Autoblog and KGP Photography.

The guys over at Autoblog recently spied a C7 Z06 dressed a lot like its younger, flagshippier brother. However, it’s missing the large shaker-style hood scoop that typically houses the LT5’s TVS2650 huffer. This would seemingly denote that the car is a Z06. Or is it? The badging on the fender, though obscured from view, is in the correct placing for a Z06. If this were a Grand Sport, the bar that bisects the vent would be in the middle and the car is obviously sporting the Z06 wheel package.

What is particularly interesting, however, is that this particular C7Z is rocking the ZR1’s now iconic high-rise spoiler out back. Otherwise, everything about the Z06 looks to be standard trim. The splitters are Z06, as are the brakes which are clearly not the carbon ceramics from the ZR1 or even Z07 package. The only other bit we get of ZR1 on this “new” Z06 is the orange accents all over the car. While this could be a car in development for SEMA, or other shows, it most likely means that the ZTK package available for the ZR1 will trickle down to other models as well.

The most interesting part of the whole deal is that this C7 is sporting an orange roll bar as well. This would imply that the car is intended to be a hard-core track variant but with the lack of carbon ceramic brakes, it’s a tough pill to swallow. Is it simply for appearances? Or is there more than meets the eye when it comes to this new Corvette?

Image via Autoblog and KGP Photography.

We’ve seen a similar take on the Corvette in the sixth-generation of Chevrolet’s flagship with the Z06X, a track-prepped showpiece that made the rounds at the height of the C6’s popularity. The additional toe hooks certainly seem to indicate something similar is intended but we’d like to denote the car has absolutely no badging on it. No Corvette crossed flags, no fender badges, nothing.

If we had to guess, it’s likely an upgunned Z06 utilizing trickle-down parts from little brother ZR1. The biggest question here is whether or not we’ll see the parts make it onto the Grand Sport or even base models. We think so as Chevrolet Performance offers many of the ZL1 1LE’s unique parts for almost any model of sixth-gen. We’re probably seeing something similar here, but we’ll have to keep our eye on this one just in case it’s something a little more menacing.

For more pictures, head over to Autoblog.com.