The infamous “Blue Devil” Corvette, the one that is supposed to pack 650 hp, will be on the market as a 2009 model.  It will have styling differentiation from other Corvettes and will sell for $100,000.
   
In other words, GM is doing the ZR-1 over again.
   
For those smart enough to give the C6 on steroids a pass, there remains hope.
   
The next real Corvette, the C7, is supposed to debut in 2012, as a 2013 model.  According to Automotive News, as related from Rick Conti Corvette, there are currently three designs in the running for the next generation Vette, but the final product will retain the front-engine layout.
   
Independently of this source, it has been learned that the Cadillac XLR will be phased out at about the same time. 
   
So, the time table appears accurate.
   
The C5 Corvette was introduced in 1997.  The C6 barely counts as a new Corvette, being little more than a facelift that would never have existed, had GM not needed to amortize the XLR Cadillac over the Corvette’s annual production numbers.
   
But the XLR has been a dog, and the Corvette will apparently be freed of the albatross for it’s next iteration. In another half decade, as a 2013. Right here, in this very spot, one has the microcosm that explains why General Motors has its head where the sun is lacking. Porsche just, in essence, took over Volkswagen.  BMW is the largest selling luxury brand in the United States and in the world.

And the C5 will have lasted, in one form or another, for 26 years before GM creates a new one.
The tradition is long, though lame.
   
The shark lasted from 1968 through 1982 – 14 years.  If you acknowledge that its platform was that of the C3 from 1963, then it lasted 19 years. But, if there’s not a new one before 2013, then the C5 will be the champion. Too bad that GM didn’t put the money into building it now, rather than wasting them money on a vanity exercise for Cadillac.
   
By 2013, the Chinese will probably have a Buick Rivera that’s faster.