The new Corvette is without a doubt the best bang for the buck muscle car available and currently king of the hill in terms of pure seat of the pants excitement.
One word of advise to our good friends at GM; DO NOT REST ON YOUR LAURELS. Have you seen what the Europeans are cooking up? 469 hp Mercedes AMG sleepers, 510 hp BMW street stalkers and a new Jap Z car that will blow the doors off of our beloved Vette.
Have you seen what the new generation of hot rodders are up to?

We as Vette lovers are classified as "Old School". The new kids on the block have created a whole new concept in the word horsepower. 500-600 horses from a six banger "Asian grocery getter" is no big deal to these kids.
It's a new world out there, as you may have realized if you ever seen one of these rice burners. Four stage nitrous, dual turbo's and supercharging are now commonplace in the new gen. street scene.

My friends son gave me a ride in his modified Civic recently, the acceleration on this Jap rocket sled is amazing. The new gen kids can't afford to insure Detroit based muscle. They adapted and created an entirely new world.

The new C6 is rated at 430 hp. That's a nice improvement but it is only one step in the right direction. Hey GM wake up, we now live in a 500 horsepower world.
The newly released C6 ZO6, is fitted with a big block with over 500 horses. The $75K price tag on this fire breather puts it out of the reach of most Corvette buyers.

A friend of ours (The CEO of a Fortune500 Co.)managed to get a new ZO6, he brought it over and we had a great time playing with it the other day. The car is probably the fastest Vette GM has ever produced. In reality it is a novelty item for the rich and famous, the average working guy enjoys looking at it but will never be able to afford one.

Ford has released a new version of the classic Cobra. Chrysler will be releasing a modern version of the Challenger in 08 with a beefed up Hemi engine.
Vette owners will have to contend with the smirk looks from the owners of two snakes, Viper and Cobra, reborn muscle cars and the Euro/Jap crowd.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Case in point: the new 2007 Lexus IS350.

This car is a real embarrassment to us Detroit muscle fans. A 306 horse, paddle shifting grocery getter that will do 0-60mph in 5.1 seconds and the 1/4 mile in the low 13's. It will do this without so much as creating a ripple in your coffee cup. The soon to be relaeased Lexus IS F series will have a 415 horse v8

The owners manual should read" How to intrude into Vette territory without really trying". Driving this car is a real wakeup call for an old school gear head like myself.
I took an IS 350 for a spin the other day and was pushed back into my seat by a screaming V6 that felt like a highly modified V8.

If the Japs ever decide to put a turbo on this thing it would probably blow away,heaven forbid, a ZO6 and maybe even keep up with the new ZR1. Get ready because my friends in the motor industry said that a 600 plus street terror is in the works for Toyota.
They are now trying to dominate NASCAR. Toyota will, in the nearfuture make a serious mark on the American street hot rod scene with a new line of 500 plus horsepower cars to that will increase consumer awarness.
Does that sound familliar? Its the same strategy that Mopar,Ford and Chevy used in 1969.

The GM designers say that they are not interested in horsepower wars. GM wants to concentrate on fit, finish,quality and the overall driver experience.

Dave Muscaro, chief designer of the LS-2 recently stated, "We sweated the details to ensure the engine maintains a balance between performance and efficiency,". He said the engine was designed to offer decent fuel efficiency and high power characteristics.

We have been getting a lot of feedback from the Corvette community and the bottom line is that GM has to deliver world class quality and the horses at the same time. It seems that Corvette owners are not satisfied with being number four or five in the performance arena.

Drop us an Email and let us know what your feelings on this subject are. We run into the GM design guy's from time to time and will pass your collective thoughts along.

GM Technical Downloads for the 1997 - 2006 C5 and C6

CORVETTE PERFORMANCE WORLD HOME