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.
In the latest episode of Head 2 Head, MotorTrend has put face to face two of the greatest sports car: the 2013 SRT Viper GTS against its domestic rival, the 2012 Corvette ZR1. The test drive was held at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and behind the wheel was pro race driver Randy Pobst.
If you remember, at the end of 2012 there was a real fuss with the two models when MotorTrend announced that ZR1 managed to set a new Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca lap record with a time of 1:33.70, while the SRT Viper achieved a time of only 1:35.77.
This result was impressive, considering that both deliver pretty much the same output: 640 horsepower for the Viper and 638 horsepower for the ZR1. But we guess it was aerodynamics that made the difference, right?
Watch the video to find out which of the two cars has the bigger "bollocks."
Imagine the confusion when we discovered that a Fisker Karma was making its way to the Detroit Auto Show. Mind all of you, that’s not what really confused us; what did the trick was that this car isn’t actually a Karma, but it surelooked like one.
On top of that, it isn’t an electric car like the mustachioed Fisker; it’s a gasoline-powered sports car that comes with a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 powertrain. This, dear friends, is the Destino four-door performance sedan that’s being built as a collaboration between industrialist Gilbert Villereal and former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. Yep, that Bob Lutz.
Not a whole lot is being made out of the Destino, presumably because it’s still in its relative infancy, although it is based on the electric Karma and will be built in Detroit under the auspices of VL Automotive with a retail date scheduled for the latter part of the year.
Find out more about the VL Automotive Destino after the jump
So, we have seen the 2014 Corvette Stingray in all of its glory and learned all about how freaking awesome it’s going to be. One thing that Chevy is still keeping under wraps is a higher-performance variant of the `Vette Stingray, sans the Z51 Performance Package. What we’re talking about is the Z06 variant.
We all know that GM isn’t going to roll out the most powerful standard Corvette ever without rolling out a Z06 model. The silence, however, is rather eerie. GM made not even a mention of this model in any of its press releases or at the official debut. We are optimistic that this silence means that big things are in store for the Z06 package.
There is still one previously rumored engine that was that was originally pegged as the new Corvette engine, and that is the 5.5-liter V-8 engine. Chances are that this, plus a supercharger, could be the eventual engine to grace the engine compartment of the Corvette Stingray Z06. This is, of course, just us thinking and hoping out loud.
We’ll keep a close eye on everything Corvette related to see if any new leaks come out regarding a potential Z06 model. For now we can only speculate…
We all know that GM has a long-running issue with creativity in its lineups. Through the 1980s we saw some of the most uncreative vehicles and that continued through the 1990s and into the early-2000s. We also saw other issues that really showed the GM was running out of creative steam, like the use of the “Lumina” moniker simultaneously on two vehicles that were vastly different – sedan and minivan – and the changing of the Sunbird to the Sunfire.
Now we have the resurrection of a famous word in Corvette history, the “Stingray” moniker. The Original Sting Ray and Stingray monikers were and still are some of the most sought after models and to bring it to the modern era seems a bit of a disservice. Sure, this is the most modern and advanced Corvette ever, but it should be, given it is the newest model. That is not a good enough reason to exhume the Stingray name and slap in on the C7 generation.
Don’t get us wrong, the new Corvette has renewed our fading love affair with the Corvette model, but to slap an iconic name on it just seems a bit of a slight to the Corvette’s history. That would be like Chevy making a higher-output Caprice and slapping an “Impala SS” badge on it. We all know they would never… oh wait… never mind.
There’s no doubt that the most awaited car of the moment is the seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette. Earlier today, Chevrolet unveiled the last teaser video for the upcoming sports car, now they announced that those of you interested can watch the unveiling of the new Corvette via live stream on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013 from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. EST.
What’s more, we have the link to said stream and you can see the unveiling on the above video feed, so you can watch the C7 `Vette unveiling without buying a ticket to Detroit.
The 2014 Corvette C7 has been teased for what seems like forever and Chevrolet has promised to offer us the best car ever. Teaser images and videos have offered us a first glimpse at the car’s new design language, and “unofficial” leaked images have given us some ideas on what to expect.
The only thing that we know for certain is that the new Corvette will be offered with an all-new LT1 6.2-liter small block V-8 engine that deliver at least 450 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 450 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm.
The seventh generation Chevrolet Corvette will be making its world debut this evening at 7 PM, but we decided we can not wait that long and we’ve started to look online for the first images and, of course, we’ve found them. Apparently, the first images of the seventh generation Corvette have been unveiled thanks to the Road & Track magazine, whom accidentally leaked them online and the vigilant guys over Jalopnik found them.
As you can see from the first image of the front, the C7 Corvette will be featuring a new front grille, new headlamps with LED lights, a new hood of course the latest crossed-flag logo.
Everything else remains a secret until this evening, but you do know already the seventh generation Corvette will be offered with an all-new LT1 6.2-liter small block V-8 engine that deliver at least 450 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 450 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm.
All Right, here we are just two days before the much-anticipated unveiling of the 2014 Corvette! We are about as excited as a 6-year-old kid on Christmas Eve, even though we are nearly certain that the leaked images we have seen are what the car looks like. Even if that’s the case, getting to learn all of the ins and outs of the car is enough to excite us.
So, as you know, we are checking out the top-25 Corvettes of all time and we already let you in on the bottom fifth of the list. Now we are set to let you in on numbers 19 through 15. Just like the bottom-fifth of the list, this one includes a few pace cars and we also get to see an extremely desirable model that also had a major design flaw that likely resulted in it being discontinued after only one year.
To find out which models landed on our list, click past the jump.
For those of you who do not remember, back in 2004 Michael Schumacher scored an amazing result behind the wheels of his Ferrari Formula One car, as he scored a record time of 1 minute and 18.739 seconds around the famous tarmac of Silverstone.
While this video is not as impressive as the previous record, it is still a great watch. The guys over the British magazine Telegraph took a 500-horsepower Corvette at a vast frozen lake located about 50 miles from the Arctic Circle. The guys over Telegraph have been tutored by Mattieu Perot — an instructor at the Laponie Ice Driving in Arjeplog, Sweden — how to handle a high performance car on ice.
The car managed to obtain a time of 4 minutes and 15 seconds, which is not the same as the time obtained by Schumacher, it’s true, but still the show was pretty sweet.
Enjoy the video and remember not to try this at home!
With the C7 Corvette release coming in just five days, we are going to take a look at the history of the Corvette and outline the top-25 of the six previous generations.
A little history on the Corvette… It debuted in 1953 with quite a whimper, as it came with an underpowered 235-cubic-inch six-cylinder engine that pumped out just 150 horsepower. It wasn’t just the lack of power that the original `Vette took lumps for, as it was dinged for its sloth-like 11.5-second 0-to-60 crawl, two-speed automatic transmission and astronomical-at-the-time $3,498 price tag.
It did, however, get high marks for its ability to handle the twist and its overall design.
Fortunately, the Corvette quickly gained momentum and turned into a model that every American sports car strived to be. The Ford Thunderbird is one model that was a direct result of the Corvette’s success, though Ford will never admit it. Another thing Ford will never admit is that its inability to adequately compete with the Corvette was the reasoning for the T-Bird slowly expanding into a massive coupe as it aged.
So, without further delay, click past the jump have a look at numbers 25 through 20 on our list.
