If you were a car-crazed kid in America any time between Eisenhower and LBJ, chances are you learned about one sports car before any other: Corvette. It might’ve been a two-tone C1 roadster, a split-window coupe parked among svelte Corvairs and boxy Impalas on your neighborhood dealership’s showroom floor, or Tod and Buzz’s dull gray convertible on television; but the long hood, the short deck, the two buckets, and the brawny, yet sophisticated American swagger caught your eye. It was the stuff dreams were made of.
Now one of America’s longest-lasting nameplates, the Corvette has had its toe-curling Elvis-in-Vegas years (the awful, asthmatic C3s of 1975-1977 were the absolute nadir). But the opening decade of the 21st century finds America’s own sports car in the best shape it’s ever been. The 2008 C6 is the sharpest, fastest, and best-finished Corvette yet, while the 197-mph Z06 is, quite simply, the best-value supercar you can buy anywhere in the world.
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Here’s what we know: GM is considering at least three scenarios for the C7, and GM Design is still some time away from boiling down competing proposals (at least five were in the mix at one point) for the car. That means the car, originally planned for the 2011 model year (to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Chevrolet), will likely launch as a 2012 model and may even slip further, depending on how the new CAFE regulations pan out.
An evolutionary car would continue improvements made by the C6 over the C5 and take advantage of emerging technologies for more gains in performance, handling, ride, cost, and, of course, fuel economy.
The 2008 C6’s aluminum pushrod 6.2-liter LS3 has been updated and upgraded and makes an easy 436 horses with a performance exhaust. But what about gas mileage? Using the stricter, lower 2008 EPA numbers, the LS3 manual gets 19.3 mpg combined, the automatic achieves 18.3 mpg. Technologies such as cylinder deactivation (now called active fuel management) and variable valve timing could bump the efficiency of the LS3 into the low- to mid-20s.
Weight also affects gas mileage, even for a car as slimmed down as the Corvette. The Z06 has carbon-fiber front fenders that save 2.2 pounds, and a hydroformed aluminum frame that saves 136.7 pounds over the base steel frame of a regular C6. But the cost of switching the frame from steel to aluminum for all Corvettes would be prohibitive, as the tooling and manufacturing process is currently set up only for low-volume production.
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