Other than hearing on the office intercom, “Roger, Michelle Pfeiffer on line 3!” you can’t get a better message than, “they parked your Corvette in visitor parking.” Of course, it’s only mine for a week, but, hey, I’ll take it.
It has been well over half a century since the first of Chevrolet’s plastic bullets rolled off the assembly line. And the first ones weren’t all that bullet-like with the Chevy “Blue-Flame” six-cylinder engine and a three-speed powerglide transmission. But there were true believers in the company who wanted the fiberglass slug to become a world-class butterfly.
This is the sixth generation ‘Vette, and the Grand Sport model bridges the gap between the base Corvette, and mind-bending ZO6, which is in turn, dwarfed by the ZR1, which is roughly equivalent to riding an M-16 bullet with air conditioning.
0-60 miles per hour comes in 4.2-seconds. Handling is over one full .g on a steady-state skidpad, and top speed is 185. That performance is thanks to the standard 6.2- liter LS3 V8 and its 436-horsepower. All this can be had for a base price of just under $59,550. I know, it’s a lot. Tell you what, check out a slower Porsche and get back to me.
And for those aficionados of European snob-mobiles who see the ‘Vette as suitable only for muscle-car fans with money and Billy Ray Cyrus haircuts, who like big, creaky, loud, crude American iron; stand by to be embarrassed. This car will run with anything in the world. In other words, the Corvette has arrived and is now as sophisticated as anything from anywhere, and for a lot less dinero. But, if you have an extra $20,000 in your wallet, you might just buy a Porsche and barely keep up. Hey, it’s your money.