After six long and beautiful generations, the Chevrolet Corvette is just as much a hot commodity as it was in 1953 when the first concept was rolled out for all to see. This American-made sports car comes in four different trims: Standard, Grand Sport, Z06, and ZR1.
The standard Corvette and the Grand Sport are both powered by a 6.2L V8 engine that pumps out 430hp and 424 lb-ft of torque. Add the upgraded exhaust system and the models get 436hp and 425 lb-ft of torque. The Grand Sport differentiates itself from the standard model with a few upgrades, Z06 styling cues, and its won gear and rear-axle ratios. The Corvette Z06 is powered by a 7.0L V8 engine producing 505hp and 470 lb-ft of torque and the newer ZR1 boasts a 6.2L supercharged V8 delivering 638hp and 604 lb-ft of torque to the table.
All engines are mated to either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission.
The sixth-generation Corvette went into production in 2005 and since then a total of 215,100 units have been produced. Yesterday, February 28, 2013 at 8:04 a.m., the last 2013 Corvette came off the line at the Bowling Green Assembly Plant. The last unit produced was an exclusive Corvette 427 Convertible Collector Edition outfitted with the 60th Anniversary design package that adds an Arctic White exterior combined with a Blue Diamond leather-wrapped interior.
This special edition is powered by a 7.0-liter LS7 aluminum-block V-8 engine that delivers a total of 505 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque. It sprints from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.8 seconds and can hit a top speed of 190 mph.
This last unit will be displayed alongside other historic General Motors vehicles at the GM Heritage Center in Warren, Michigan.
Now that the sixth-generation Corvette is out of production, GM workers have begun remodeling the plant for the production of the all-new 2014 Stingray.
When a car goes from 0 to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds, being able to stop it in the right time is crucial. So it’s no wonder why high-performance sports cars like the new-generation Corvette come with braking systems specially designed to fit their needs.
The new Stingray will come with a set of high-performance brakes developed by Sanluis Rassini. This new system uses the industry’s first rotor with a ductile iron hat and gray iron brake plates. This combination allows for a weight saving of about 18 percent and it improves the braking system’s heat-management capabilities.
This special rotor uses an I-Beam extension design, and not a solid one like the majority of the brake systems. It is also the only composite rotor on the market that can accommodate a drum in hat, a rotor design in which the internal surface of the hat serves as a brake drum.
This new brake system will be part of the new Z51 Performance Package set to be put on sale this summer.
Click past the Jump to read SANLUIS Rassini’s Press Release
Shortly after its official unveiling, the seventh-generation Corvette has already received its first upgrade package. To no one’s surprise the announcement was made by the American tuner, Hennessey, who reported that the upcoming kit can be applied for both coupe and convertible version.
The standard Stingray delivers a total of 450 horsepower, but that’s not enough for Hennessey, as its engineers have developed two kits for the soon-to-hit-the-market `Vette. In the first kit, the tuner will install a supercharger system that will increase the Stingray’s output to an impressive 700 horsepower. A second kit includes a twin-turbo system that will increase the Stingray’s power to somewhere between 800 and 1000 horsepower.
We’re not too sure how Hennessey managed to get a hold of a Stingray to install these parts and test it. We think it’s safe to say that these are just estimates that will be tweaked in the future.
Along with the engine upgrades, each package will also include: cold air induction systems, a new cat-back exhaust system and stainless steel long-tube headers. In order to handle the extra power, Hennessey will also add a new set of wheels, a Brembo brake system and an upgraded suspension system.
Aftermarket companies usually carry an ego about themselves that they can build the best program for certain vehicles. If you don’t have an ego in that business, you might as well just file your walking papers.
That’s why it was surprising to see Ken Lingenfelter, one of the foremost minds in the Corvette tuning scene, admit that the performing engine mods on the 2014 Corvette Stingray will be a challenge for them.
Speaking to “The Truth About Cars,” Lingenfelter admitted that the 6.2-liter V-8 LT1 engine that the Corvette Stingray carries is the first direct injected V-8 engine from GM and as such, will take considerable studying to get it up to tuning speeds. Lingenfelter also said that the engine is designed with performance limits and that tuners may struggle giving the car anything north of 700 horsepower with 1,000 horsepower, as Lingenfelter has been famous of, considered as "impossible".
He further explains this by saying that cars with direct injection proves a challenge when tuners want to swap heads and cams and makes significant modifications outside of the car’s factory fuel parameters.
The thing that makes it tough, though, is that the LT1 engine already boasts of the highest specific output of any GM engine ever with 450 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque. That’s not going to be a problem with the LS engine that the Corvette Stingray ZR1 is expected to come with, but with 700 horsepower on tap for that particular powertrain, that leaves little room for the Corvette Stingray’s LT1 powerplant for tuners to work it.
At the end of the day, the Corvette Stingray’s engine will still have room for performance improvement, but not to the level that Lingenfelter has come to be known for.
You may have seen an amateur video of this helicopter crash back in May of last year, but what we saw before pales in comparison to the ones that were captured by the actual cameras filming the first episode of Top Gear Korea.
During the filming of a segment involving a race between a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and an AH1 Helicopter, the pilot manning the controls of the latter somehow loses control of his ride. It ends up careening straight into the ground in a spectacular crash that was caught live on camera by the Top Gear crew.
While we’re thankful that the pilot escaped the nightmarish experience without any injuries, we’re wondering why the scene looks to have made it to the first episode of the show.
We’re all for hyping up a show the best way you can, but not at the expense of someone losing his life.
The 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray has become a fixture in our fantasies in the short time that it’s been alive. As it turns out, we might need to reserve a little bit of space for the convertible version of the Corvette Stingray because it’s debut is going to take place sooner than later.
Autoweek is reporting that the 2014 Corvette Stingray Convertible will make its world debut at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. In case you didn’t know, the Geneva Motor Show opens to the press on March 5th and 6th, then to the general public from the 7th to the 17th. That puts us less than two months from the debut of the new drop-top Stingray.
In addition to news about its expected debut, sources also told Autoweek that the Corvette Stingray will be badged as a 2014 model and will find its way into dealerships near the end of the year.
The next-generation Corvette Stingray created quite the buzz in the past week, so it’s no surprise that it remains on the front page of all magazines. For those of you who are eager to buy the new sports car, we have two pieces of news: one good and one bad. Let’s start with the good one… The new Stingray will be in showrooms by late summer, rejoice! Now the bad news; it will only be available through top Chevrolet dealers.
Translated, this means that if your local dealer failed to sell at least four Corvette last year, it won’t get the 2014 Corvette. The requirements might look quite minimal, but there are lots of dealers that failed to sell the required four required units.
One of these dealers is a small Chevrolet dealer in Brigham City, Utah which made the announcement: "I don’t anticipate getting the new Corvette this year, and many smaller dealers like me won’t get it either."
Of course, being a Chevrolet dealer and not being able to sell the new Corvette can be quite a bummer, but on the other hand, we understand that this is a measure Chevrolet took to protect its interest.
It’s safe to say that major auto auctions like the recent one held by Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale, Arizona are always a spectacle. It’s a playground for the rich auto enthusiasts to flex their financial muscles in an active bidding competition among their brethren to see who among them can scoop up their desired models.
Last weekend’s auction saw some pretty interesting models crossing the block and, while we’ve written about the final selling price generated by a number of the models being auctioned, we haven’t gone into detail on some of the more interesting vehicles auctioned off during the weekend-long event.
So we’re going to do this through a list because that’s generally how you can enumerate the models and have a rank for them based on what vehicle they are and how much interest they generated in the form of frenzied bids.
Check out our list of interesting auctioned cars at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale after the jump.
With our sincerest apologies to the SRT Viper, you sir, have just been trumped big time. When the first production Viper sold for $300,000 at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Orange Country last June, we thought that the figure was pretty impressive.
Turns out, it didn’t even get to sniff a third of the winning bid price the first production Chevrolet Corvette C7 Stingray received over the weekend at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale.
$1.1 million was the winning bid for the Corvette C7 Stingray, proving without any hint of a doubt just how popular this American supercar has become since it made its debut a week ago at the Detroit Auto Show.
Not surprisingly, the winning bidder came from someone who knows a thing or two about Corvettes: NASCAR team owner and Corvette collector Richard Hendrick.
Proceeds from Hendrick’s...uhmm...generosity will go to a worthy cause, as the money will benefit the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, which is acclaimed in the U.S. for its outstanding automotive design program.
Big congratulations to Richard Hendrick for scooping up the first production Corvette C7 Stingray. Not only did he prove his worth as a serious Corvette collector, but more importantly, he’s sending his money to a school that will need the funds to develop the future of this industry.
So we’ve already seen the new Corvette Stingray and we have already given you our take on what we think the Corvette Stingray Convertible will offer, so what’s left? Well, we still have yet to see or hear anything about the Corvette Stingray Z06. As we told you before, we highly doubt that GM would simply skip the Z06 this year. Rather, it is holding this release as its “Ace in the hole.”
We honestly think we’re in for something big and we’ve released a rendering of what we think it’ll look like. As for styling, we’ll see the usual additions, including staggered wheels to allow for more meat on the back end, front lower-lip spoiler, a set of ground effects down the side and brake-cooling ducts just aft of the rear wheels. On top of that, we’re willing to bet that GM chooses to black out the silver strikethrough in front grille, giving the front end a sportier look and less of a Jan-Brady-headgear look.
All of the aesthetics are well and good, but what’s under that hood? To be perfectly honest, we really have no idea. GM could totally ruin our Corvette high by dropping the same old 7.0-liter V-8 with 505 horsepower on tap. Sure, that is still a stout engine, but the C7 generation is all about change, right?
We’re leaning toward seeing the long-rumored 5.5-liter V-8 engine with a touch of boost via a supercharger or a pair of turbochargers. We would expect to see somewhere in the neighborhood of 525 to 550 horsepower from this type of engine.
Delivering the power to the rear wheel – car gods forbid Chevy from slapping AWD on a `Vette – will likely be a retuned version of the six-speed automated manual transmission found in the base model. Given the 2012 Z06 hits 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, GM is likely shooting for the 3.5-second mark with the Z06.
For now, however, this is all speculation, and we’ll bring you more official info as it is released. Stay tuned!
Image Note: The above image is a TopSpeed rendering of the Corvette Stingray Z06, not an official image
