With latest Corvette, GM resurrects the Stingray name
Almost a decade after the launch of the sixth-generation Chevrolet Corvette, GM has finally taken the wraps off its official successor 鈥� a muscular, carbon fiber-enhanced juggernaut dubbed the Stingray. At a press event at the聽North American International Auto Show in Detroit, GM exec Mark Reuss said the Stingray apellation, on a 1950s Corvette racer, was a good fit for the seventh-generation Corvette.聽
"It is absolutely the best performance car that we know how to engineer and build," Reuss . "I will eagerly put this car up against any of the top performance cars in the world.聽In terms of design, technology and performance, this car is second to none.聽And it is obtainable.聽It is so dramatic and special, that we thought it deserved some extra recognition.聽That's why we're calling it, once again, the Corvette Stingray."听
The Stingray will be available with either a seven-speed automatic or a six-speed paddle shift automatic. GM the 6.2-liter V8 can rocket the car from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in under 4 seconds 鈥� expect also聽450 horsepower and 450 lbs. per foot of torque, Consumer Reports . Of course for many potential Corvette owners, the big selling point isn't just the engine. It's also the looks.聽
So how does the latest Corvette stack up? Well, GM has retained the basic lines of the C6 Corvette, but updated the details of the fascia and the familiar up-turned tail. Meanwhile, carbon-fiber roof panels and an aluminum frame helps the Stingray lighter and stiffer than the C6.聽
"The Corvette has never been a refined machine," Damon Lavrinc of Wired. "But that鈥檚 part of its blue-collar charm. It鈥檚 the working man鈥檚 supercar.... This latest version doesn鈥檛 stray too far from that path. But like聽the Viper we drove last year, the all-new Corvette is finally something you don鈥檛 need a hair shirt, some gold chains and a Tommy Bahama polo to drive."听
And over at Fortune,聽Doron Levin if the C7 Corvette could have the effect of buoying GM's prospects across the board.聽
"Chevrolet dealers expect that many people drawn to their showrooms to see the seventh generation of the car will ultimately buy a sedan or a pickup," Levin writes. "Carmakers have long believed in the 'halo' effect聽of such high-performance vehicles, though the practice of building and selling them has waned somewhat in an age of cost cuts."听
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