Popular Mechanics has published an article by Jim Dunne, well known as one of the premier automotive spy photographers, purporting to provide the real scoop on the infamous Corvette “Blue Devil,” also sometimes referred to as the “SS.”  It’s expected as a 2008 model.
   
Most of the article is a rehash of information that’s been written, posted, and published elsewhere.

There is one interesting piece of actual news, however.
   
According to the article, consistently with every other story about this car that has appeared, PM says the car will be  supercharged, not equipped with twin turbos.  PM does not explain where they got the idea that the car would be turbocharged.
   
The car will have a 6 speed, according to PM, not an automatic.  As no report has every suggested that it would have an auto, this too doesn’t seem like news.  PM says that there were rumors that the torque produced by the car’s engine, reported as 650 hp, would be too great for the manual.  But that’s obvious nonsense: the six speed used in every manual Corvette built since the introduction of the C5 in 1997 (and also used on the Viper) has long been regarded as good for 800 to 1000 hp.  Nitrous equipped Corvettes don’t need it to be modified, which says something.
   
There will be 1500 of the SS produced over two years and they’ll cost over $100,000. 
   
If true, THAT one is newsworthy.
   
Not the price.  The timetable.
   
That would mean that the C7 really is, as some rumors have suggested, a go for 2010. C7 rumors have suggested that the current Z06 drivetrain will be the base C7 drivetrain.  Moreover, recent reports that the Cadillac CTS-v would be getting an LS series engine which is supercharged, but built in the regular GM engine production facilities rather than the specialized plant currently producing Z06 engines and expected to produce the “Blue Dog” SS engine, suggest that GM may be expecting to use regular facilities to manufacture production engines of far higher output and requiring much closer tolerances than those which have been mass produced in the past.
   
Reading between the Popular Mechanics lines, there may be real news for Corvette fans in the next year or two.