A C2 or C3 Corvette doesn’t need much help looking good. Getting one to steer, stop, and handle the way you want? That’s where the project can start eating up garage time.

Chip Foose has been thinking about that, too. Unveiled at the 2026 SEMA Show, the new Foose Performance C2/C3 Corvette chassis brings his eye for design to the business underneath the body. Developed through his partnership with MagnaFlow Group, it gives builders a complete foundation for taking an early Corvette well beyond its original equipment.

And yes, Foose made the parts underneath look good enough to make you consider putting a mirror under the car.

Keep the Curves, Rethink the Hardware

The chassis fits 1963–1982 Corvette coupes and convertibles, bolts to the original body mounting locations, and retains the factory mounting points for the bumpers, radiator core support, and fuel tank. That’s welcome news when you already have an entire car’s worth of decisions ahead of you.

Engine choices leave plenty of room for personality. The specifications include small-block and big-block configurations, manual and automatic transmissions, and compatibility with most BluePrint Engines powertrain combinations. Build it around a rumbling big-block and a stick, or put together something you’d happily drive across three states. The foundation accommodates either direction.

Even the Control Arms Got the Foose Treatment

You’d expect Foose to care about how the components look, and he clearly does. The shapes carry through the assembly with the same consideration he’d give a body line or a wheel design.

“My goal was to create a chassis that performs as beautifully as it looks,” Foose said in the company’s announcement.

Backing up that idea are 7075 billet-aluminum upper and lower control arms, custom front spindles, splined sway bars, and C7-inspired suspension geometry developed to improve handling, steering response, and ride quality. The point is to give that classic body a foundation engineered around modern driving expectations.

Adjustable coilovers with progressive-rate springs provide room to dial in the finished car. Rebound adjustment comes courtesy of an accessible knob, so making a change doesn’t require turning the whole job into another weekend project.

Good Names in the Right Places

Flaming River quick-ratio power rack-and-pinion steering handles the directional duties, while a Detroit Speed Engineering rear differential assembly gets its own Foose-designed cover. Apparently, even the differential wasn’t getting out of this without a little styling attention.

Braking comes from Wilwood 13-inch drilled-and-slotted rotors, paired with six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers. A 3-inch MagnaFlow exhaust system is designed to fit the chassis, bringing another major piece of the build into the plan.

That matters. Anyone who has spent an evening discovering that two perfectly good parts want to occupy the same space can appreciate a package designed to work together.

Give It a Reason to Leave the Garage

The announced availability target is the first quarter of 2027, putting the Foose chassis on the consideration list for builders planning a serious Corvette restomod.

The appeal goes beyond having something impressive to photograph before the body goes on. It’s the possibility of building an early Corvette that feels as sorted behind the wheel as it looks sitting in the driveway.