For almost 70 years the Chevrolet Corvette has been the USA’s sportscar, the American dream on four wheels. Was it always a bonafide Ferrari-fighting supercar? No. It’s arguable that’s only the case now with the introduction of the new 2022 C8 Corvette Z06. Was it always a Le Mans legend? Again, no. But it has always been a style icon and Corvettes have pretty well always been very very fast. As the new Z06 with its screaming 8,600rpm V8 breaks cover, we thought we’d count down the very best of its ancestors and speculate whether it’ll get a spot among the greats.
The seven best Chevrolet Corvettes
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C1 'Fuel Injection'
The Corvette had been around for four years before it got some serious power to work with. The 1957 C1 with optional fuel injection on its V8 was arguably the first of the hot rod ‘Vettes, with Chevrolet famously boasting that it delivered a horsepower for each of its 290 cubic inches. Obviously, it wouldn’t be long before power really ballooned, even at the tail end of the C1 generation but the ‘57 gets our vote as the first of the greats.
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C2 Z06
Take an owner of any Corvette generation and they’ll argue ‘their’ car is the most iconic. The C2 Stingray however can arguably lay overall claim, with what is a timeless movie poster-worthy design. It also saw the introduction of the first Z06, which was actually a sneaky way for a race hungry Zora Arkus-Duntov, the chief engineer for the Corvette, to offer racier parts to customers even though there was a company-wide ban on racing at the time. It was also Zora’s wish to see the Corvette go mid-engined, which in spite of a number of dalliances, didn’t happen until two years ago.
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C3 ZL1
One of the best-looking Corvettes also happens to be one of the worst. The C3 Stingray’s sweeping lines and bulging muscles wrote cheques the dynamics couldn’t cash. It was in every sense an all-American cruiser. The ZL1 however, could at least lay claim to being the most powerful car on sale at the time. Though the all-alloy 7.0-litre motor was rated at around 430PS, rumours had it putting out as much as 560PS. Heady though that sounds, independent testers did verify that a still meaty 460PS figure could be expected. The fastest car Motor Trend had ever tested at the time (1968), it’s believed just three were produced.
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C4 ZR1
With a taste for power and speed, with the sleek new C4, Chevrolet had bigger goals. To develop the fastest production car on sale. Group Lotus, having been bought by GM in 1986, were tasked with developing a new high-performance engine for the upcoming ZR1. The twin overhead-cam 32-valve alloy-blocked LT5 V8 was the result. As it happens, the C4 ZR1 was – at least until the reveal of the screamer in the new 2022 Z06 – the last Corvette to use an overhead-cam engine. With over 375PS and slippery bodywork, the C4 was tested at 179mph at the top-end. Not exactly the double-tonne, like the Ferrari F40 for instance, but very quick for a supposed blue-collar production car.
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C5
See, there’s a reason a twin-overhead cam V8 hasn’t returned to a Corvette in over 25 years. They’re complicated, expensive and if not executed to perfection, unreliable, as Lotus found out to its chagrin in the Elise GT1. No, the C5 Corvette on its release in 1996 brought with it one of the most capable, widely-used and simple engine families to the market. The good old-fashioned, pushrod single-cam LS small block. Cheap, powerful and well-engineered, it was an affordable egalitarian new flavour of genuine high performance that remains a cult classic today. Why the ‘standard’ C5? Because its vastly improved and advanced chassis and design in combination with the compact LS1 small-block made for what might still be the high-performance Corvette for the masses.
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C6 Z06
It wasn’t long before GM performance started getting some wild ideas. Though still extremely good value compared to rivals, the C6 Z06 got trick, with its 7-litre LS7 motor, magnesium engine cradle and composite bodywork. Then again, given the C6R was going toe-to-toe with Prodrive-powered Aston Martins at Le Mans, it was about time the Corvette became a concern to European road cars as well. With 512PS, a significant drop in weight over its slim-bodied sibling, fixed roof and more aggressive chassis, the Z06 was even in contention for production car lap records at the Nürburgring.
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C7 Grand Sport
With the ZR1, the limit of what power the C6 could take was arguably found. So it didn’t come as a total shock that the supercharged 640PS C7 Z06 wasn’t exactly a precision tool. The chassis was good, the footprint was right but it had about 100PS more than it needed. Enter the Grand Sport, which paired the standard 460PS naturally-aspirated LT1 engine with the chassis and stance of the Z06. The last great front-engined Corvette, arguably, given the lesson clearly wasn’t learned for the 765PS ZR1 either.
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C8 Z06..?
Now, here we are at the tail end of 2021. The Corvette has been mid-engined, as Zora always intended, for two years. With the approach of the Z06 and its screaming naturally-aspirated flat-plane crank dual-overhead-cam V8, GM’s soft-focus supercar is getting serious. With the more capable mid-engined platform, power is up to around 670PS. A revvy screamer might not sound as fun to burnout-ripping highway racers and drag strip fiends in America but it's a point of curiosity for those of us who sorely miss a certain howling naturally-aspirated flavour of supercar once hailing from Maranello. There’s a strong chance it’ll get a firm place on this list of the all-time great Corvettes.
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