 |
The
Chevy Super Car Concept
by Tony Costa
The new Corvette is without a doubt one of
the best bangs for the buck muscle car available.
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? 500+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 base 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.)let us play with his new ZO6
the other day. It really is a very nice machine.
The car next to the new ZR1 is the fastest Vette GM has ever produced.
In reality it is a novelty item,
the average working guy enjoys looking at it and talking about 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 and a retro Cuda in 2010 both 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 2008 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 new Lexus
IS F series has a 415 horse v8 that will have no trouble keeping up
with a base model Corvette
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.
At this point GM has to make a decision on their future direction.
They either have to give up the number one performance spot
or pull out some of the stops and give us a base model 550 horsepower
Vette, that will out handle a Porsche, has the fit and
finish of a BMW, the reliability of a Lexus, and still sticker for under
$50K.
This may sound like a tall order but there is no reason that
the makers of the only true American sports car can't meet the challenge.
At 436 hp the 08 base model is almost there but no cigar. What's the problem
GM? Mercedes has a supercar with over 500hp, the AMG C3.
Nissan just released it's GTR that boasts over 500 horses.
If the GM bean counters prevail, the pride of America, our beloved Corvette,
will continue to be overpowered by the new invasion of Euro-Jap street killers.
Knowing how slow change comes to corporate America, we all better
hunker down and do what we do best; add the extra horses ourselves.
I think that the American
hot rodder will be alive and well for the foreseeable future.
GM Technical Downloads for the 1997 - 2006 C5 and C6
CORVETTE PERFORMANCE WORLD HOME
|
Project C5
Neat Vette Stuff
