Feast your eyes on the Holden Time Attack concept. It was designed by GM's Australian division to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a landmark chapter in Holden's racing history – namely, the first time it won the famous endurance race at Bathurst. And if things had turned out differently, it very well might have turned into the forthcoming mid-engined Corvette.

Holden, as you may be familiar, has provided GM with some of its most enticing machinery. The 2014-17 Chevy SS and 2004-06 Pontiac GTO were both based on the Holden Commodore, and the current Camaro owes much to its cousins from Down Under.

Unfortunately that all came to an end when Holden stopped developing and manufacturing its own vehicles, and the Commodore was discontinued – replaced by a rebadged version of the Opel Insignia. And with it died the Australian division's role as the supplier of muscle cars to General Motors and its brands back in America.

If it hadn't, though, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that Holden could have had a significant part to play in the development of the hotly anticipated new mid-engined Corvette. As it stands, the Time Attack concept was designed in similar style to Volkswagen's ID R racer that conquered Pikes Peak.

That is, to say, a piece of competition machinery designed to complete a single lap, flat out, as fast as possible, powered purely by electric motors. Four of them, in this case, producing a combined 1,340 horsepower.

The design brief calls for carbon-Kevlar construction with bodywork partially crafted out of graphene, helping to keep the curb weight down below 2,000 pounds – despite what would surely be a hefty battery pack, generating a full megawatt of power. Holden says it'd be able to hit 62 in just 1.25 seconds and top out at nearly 300 mph.

It could pull lateral loads of 6.5 g, says Holden, and lap the Mount Panorama circuit in 1:29.30 – more than half a minute quicker than the McLaren 650S GT3 that currently holds the lap record.

That is, in theory, at least. The concept apparently exists only in virtual form. And though a 3D printed model was made during its development, it remains to be seen if a full-scale version will ever be shown. One thing's for sure, though, and that's that the next Corvette won't look much like it. Which is a bit of a shame.