Introduction

The Chevrolet Corvette is the great American sports car. It's thrilling to drive, with breathtaking acceleration performance and exceptionally tenacious grip for hard braking and high-speed cornering. Value isn't the first thing that comes to mind when talk turns to the Corvette but, when it comes to high performance, it might be the best bang-for-the-buck deal on the planet. For the price of a midsize luxury sedan, the Corvette delivers supercar performance. It's easy to drive on a daily basis and maintenance costs are not exotic. We love the standard Coupe, with either the manual or Paddle Shift automatic. It quickly infuses a driver with confidence. Its brakes are fantastic. And, it's blazingly fast. The six-speed automatic transmission works great and lives up to the advanced technology in the rest of the car; it can be shifted manually with levers on the steering column. The Convertible on the other hand is plain wonderful. Drop the top on a nice day, pop in your favorite CD, and you might have what psychologists call a peak experience, a moment where you revel in being alive. It's a fantastic feeling, and at those moments the Corvette more than justifies its price. The aural sounds of the burbling V8, the body-colored trim that surrounds the cabin, the feel of power beneath, it is automotive heaven. The Corvette can be a reasonably comfortable daily driver in most locales, for at least three of the four seasons. The latest-generation Corvette is a sophisticated car, and its performance does not exact a painful toll on driver or passenger. And, with all that performance, it still gets an EPA-rated 26 mpg on the Highway, better than most SUVs. The Z06 is a true supercar for a price that's merely expensive, as opposed to insanely expensive. The Z06 is powered by the 7.0-liter 505-horsepower LS7 V8, has a lightweight chassis and is fitted with upgraded brakes. If any $70,000 car can be called a bargain, this is the one, at least in terms of raw performance. The Corvette Z06 accelerates faster, grips better and stops shorter than European sports cars that cost twice as much. And we find it easier to drive than a Viper. Indeed, it takes an expensive machine, well driven, to compete with a Z06. Moving even further upward is the ZR1, a limited-production extremely high performance iteration that boasts a 6.2-liter V8 that's supercharged and cranks out 638 horsepower and 604 pound-feet of torque. It is the most powerful, quickest, fastest, most capable and highest-performing production car ever built by General Motors, which also makes it the highest-performing Corvette ever built, and carries a hefty price tag of $103,970. According to Chevrolet, it has a top speed of 205 mph. For 2009, changes to the Corvette line are minimal. There is a lower-priced Convertible, the 1LT, which makes it possible to have a Corvette Convertible for less money. The power convertible top is standard on the 2LT trim level and all versions above that. The Coupes have a standard power hatch pull-down. And there are some new colors inside and out and minor enhancements to trim and features. The Z06 has new 10-spoke alloy wheels and its engine has a bigger dry-sump lubrication system, with 10.5 quarts capacity instead of the former 8.0 quarts.

Walkaround

The sixth-generation Corvette, called C6, is now in its fourth year of production. The Corvette is low and sleek. From some angles it's almost pretty, and it shows a bit of Italian flair. Throughout the car, functional elements dictate design and the result is a forward motion that implies performance. The lines of the bulging hood, the shape of the fenders, and the cat's-eye headlights all point forward to a subtle beaklike shape. A pair of fog lights flanks a wide air intake below. Vents behind the front tires let hot air out of the engine compartment. The sculpted fenders, with sharp creases that sweep dramatically up to the planed rear deck, call to mind race cars as well as jet fighters. At the back, four round taillights recall Corvette's past and make the car look like an F-18 taking off in full afterburner mode. On the functional side, the optics of the reverse lights magnify the light they throw out to help when backing up in this beast. To move weight from the front of the Corvette, the transmission is mounted behind the seats and connected to the differential, rather than being attached directly behind the engine. In the Z06, this quest for front-rear balance extends to the weight of the battery, which is relocated in the rear cargo area. The Z06 is distinguished from other Corvettes by lots of subtle appearance tweaks, starting with the roof. It's fixed rather than removable, adding an extra element of structural stiffness for track driving. You'll never see a transparent roof panel on a Z06: it would add weight and increase the height of the center of gravity. In front, the Z06 has a wider, lower grille and a separate, unique air scoop above the bumper to shove more intake air under the hood. Its fenders are wider front and rear to cover massively wide tires and rims (the front wheels are 9.5 inches wide and the rears are fully 12 inches wide, or two inches wider than those on the standard Vette). In back, brake scoops are located in front of the rear wheels, the Z06 spoiler is slightly more prominent, and its exhaust outlets are wider, too (four inches in diameter at the tips). Several Z06 body and chassis changes are not visible. The frame is made entirely of hydro-formed aluminum (the standard Vettes have steel rails), with a magnesium engine cradle, and its fenders are formed from ultra-light carbon fiber. As a result, and despite a much heavier engine and drivetrain, the Z06 weighs 50 pounds less than a standard Corvette Coupe. Take the Z06 and move the theme further along and you arrive at, generally, the ZR1, which has some of its own distinctive features. Chief among them is probably the transparent section in the hood, which allows the proud owner to show off the engine without having to actually do anything except point, as if even that will be required, once one of these things gets parked in a crowd of Corvette enthusiasts.

Interior Features

The Corvette cabin features premium soft surfaces, nice grain in the materials and elegant tailoring. The dashboard is finished in a soft material that feels rich to the touch. Real metal accents are used, but they don't generate glare. The electronics displays serve the driver without getting in the way. The steering wheel is relatively small. It feels good in the hands and affords a good view of the instruments. The seats are comfortable and fairly easy to adjust, though moving the manually operated backrest forward is a problem because your weight is invariably resting on it when you want to adjust it. Sitting in the Corvette evokes that feeling of sitting deep down in a massive machine. There's plenty of headroom and the windshield doesn't seem too close to the driver's face. Hefty side bolstering on the optional sport seats, even more so with those in the Z06, makes it more difficult to slide in, but the bolsters squeeze around the thighs and torso and hold the driver like Velcro. The Corvette is available with a special two-tone leather package that adds leather upholstery to the top of the instrument panel, upper door panels, and console cover. The effect is a more elegant, higher end look than the Corvette has had in the past. The instruments are big analog gauges, easy to read at a glance. The Z06 gets a unique cluster with more gauges, and the ZR1 has a supercharger boost gauge. The Corvette is, thankfully, devoid of a lot of digital readouts. One exception is the head-up display, which projects speed, rpm and even g-forces onto the windshield, a handy and entertaining feature. The upgrade Bose stereo system includes redundant controls on the steering wheel hub for most functions. Cubby storage is decent. The glovebox is roomy and, in the Coupe, there is 22.0 cubic feet of storage space under the glass behind the rear seats. That's more than the trunk space in a sedan, with plenty of room for golf bags. You need to be careful when loading to avoid scratching the bodywork, however, and the liftover height is high; this is not a sedan or everyday hatchback. There's no need to take the key out of your pocket to unlock the Corvette or start its engine. Simply walk up and pull the door handle. With the keyless start feature, sensors detect your key and unlock the door. Climb in, buckle up, and press the starter button. We're not sold on the benefits of keyless starting, however. The Convertible's five-layer fabric top is available in four colors, and it offers power operation. The power top operates with a single-button control and completes its cycle in 18 seconds. An easy-to-operate manual top is standard. The Convertible looks good with the top up, and it looks terrific with the top down, with body-color trim that gives it a racy appearance. The Convertible gives up some cargo capacity. It offers 11 cubic feet of storage with the top up, which isn't bad for a roadster, and 7.5 cubic feet with the top down.