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The Chevrolet Corvette
The Legendary Corvette is a Great American Super Car and the first production sports car built in the USA.
Since the creation of Corvette in 1953, nearly 1.4 million Corvettes have been manufactured and Six Generations of Corvettes produced with the most innovative and ingenious automotive technologies being designed and developed for the evolution of Corvette.
The enormous success of the Corvette can be measured by 57 years of existence and a glorious heritage as a legendary sports car.
Corvette continues a great history of being a uniquely styled car and a leader in performance and technology.
Read For Corvette Speed
The Read For Corvette Speed was created by Ned Erkman to chronicle the history of Corvette High Performance with detailed performance data for the fastest and most powerful Corvettes ever developed.
The Read For Corvette Speed is intended to provide comprehensive information about Corvette engine power output, 0-60 mph acceleration, quarter mile drag strip performance data and top speed performance figures for all 57 years of Corvette evolution starting in 1953 to the latest and greatest 2009 model “the supercharged ZR1 Corvette”.
Corvette is the first production sports car made in the USA
The Chevrolet Corvette was created in 1953 as the first production sports car
built in America and the first production car to be manufactured with a fiberglass body.
First Corvette at Car Show and Assembly Line Production
The Corvette debuted on January 17, 1953 at the GM Motorama auto show in New York City, as a convertible
two-seat sports car with Polo White paint and red interior. After receiving a favorable
response from the public the Corvette was launched into assembly line production with the
first Corvette being manufactured on June 30, 1953.
The Legendary Corvette Engineer
The now famous and legendary Corvette engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov first inspected the new Corvette in January 1953 at the GM Motorama auto show in New York City.
Duntov proceeded to join GM on May 1, 1953, as an engineer and helped to change the Corvette from a mild roadster to a great high performance
sports car. Duntov also helped to develop
new technologies for the Corvette that made it a legendary sports car that was victorious on race
tracks and a winner on the streets and highways.
The “RPO Z06” special performance equipment package was developed for 1963, which included better suspension components and brakes along with a 36 gallon gas tank for more fuel capacity.
The Z06 performance package also included the most powerful engine available for the Corvette, the 327 cid L84 engine equipped with Rochester fuel injection and 360 horsepower.
The 1963 Z06 Corvette “split window coupe” produced 0 to 60 mph performance in 5.4 seconds and a top speed of 148 mph.
The 1967 L88 Corvette Sting Ray represents the ultimate in performance and styling for that era, making it one of the most powerful and classic Corvettes ever produced.
Chevrolet offered this radical L88 engine option with 12.5:1 compression ratio and rated the power at a very conservative 425 horsepower; whereas the L88 reportedly produced approximately 560 horsepower.
The 1967 L88 Corvette is one of the most powerful and rarest Corvettes ever built with a limited production of only 20 cars.
The most exclusive and expensive production Corvette is the 1969 ZL-1 which is named after the 427 cid ZL-1 engine that is equipped with an aluminum block and aluminum cylinder heads; with power output reported to be dyno tested at 585 horsepower with exhaust headers installed.
The all aluminum ZL-1 engine is one of most exotic and powerful Corvette engines ever built, which is what makes the ZL-1 Corvette one of the fastest factory production Corvettes ever created with a top speed of 180 M.P.H.
Race prepared ZL-1 Corvettes have also been documented to deliver drag strip quarter mile performances of 10.60 second elapsed times at 132 M.P.H.
Only two ZL-1 Corvettes are recorded to have been sold to the public, which makes the ZL-1 Corvette extremely rare and very valuable.
The 1971 Corvette was available with a factory racing option called the ZR2 “Special Purpose Package”, which included the powerful 454 LS6 engine option, heavy-duty four-speed manual transmission, heavy-duty power brakes and high performance race suspension system.
The 1971 Corvette was the only model year available with the
legendary 454 LS6 big block Chevy engine option, rated at 425 horsepower. The 454 cubic inch displacement (7.4 Liter) “Big Block Chevrolet” is the largest production engine ever equipped in the Corvette and the LS6 engine is the most powerful 454 cid production engine installed in the Corvette.
A limited production of 188 Corvettes were ordered with the LS6 engine option and only 12 of these 454 LS6 Corvettes have the ZR2 “Special Purpose Package” which consists of only 2 convertible ZR2 Corvettes.
LS6 Corvettes equipped with exhaust headers were reported to produce drag strip quarter mile performances of 12.6 seconds at 114 mph.
The ZR-1 Corvette was produced from 1990 to 1995 with the goal of being the world’s fastest production sports car. The high tech LT5 engine with aluminum block and dual over head cams originally produced 375 hp, which assisted the ZR-1 to deliver a top speed of 180 plus M.P.H. establishing it as the fastest factory-built production sports car in the world in 1990.
A total production volume of 6,939 ZR-1 Corvettes were produced during a six year manufacturing period and throughout this time the ZR-1 Corvette was referred to as the “King of the Hill” for being on top of the sports car world with superior performance capabilities.
The ZR-1 continued to develop throughout this six year life span with power increasing to 405 horsepower for 1993 to 1995 LT5 engines from improved cylinder head and intake manifold airflow.
ZR-1 Corvettes can deliver 0-60 mph performance in 4.2 seconds with a quarter mile elapsed time of 12.8 seconds at 114 mph.
Top Speed 181 MPH.
The 1996 Grand Sport Corvette was created as a tribute to the legendary 1963 Corvette Grand Sport race cars, with a limited production of 1000 Grand Sport Corvettes being manufactured in 1996.
The Grand Sport has a new LT4 engine that GM introduces as the most powerful production small block Chevy V8 in the history of Corvette, with power conservatively rated at 330 horsepower and reality being closer to 350 net horsepower. The LT4 engine makes the 1996 Corvette the fastest “Small Block Chevrolet” V8 engine equipped Corvette ever created with a top speed of 170 MPH.
The Grand Sport Corvette can deliver 0-60 mph performance in 4.9 seconds with a drag strip quarter mile elapsed time of 13.3 seconds at 109 MPH.
The Z06 Corvette was re-introduced in 2001 with a new 5.7- liter LS6 engine rated at 385 horsepower. The LS6 was upgraded for improved performance in 2002 and the power rating increased to 405 hp and 400 ft-lb torque.
The Z06 Corvette is only offered as a hardtop model for better structural integrity and equipped with light weight window glass and titanium exhaust to help reduce 38 lbs of weight. The special tires equipped on the Z06 are also 23 lbs lighter than the tires on the base model Corvettes which improves the total weight reduction for the Z06 Corvette to 61 lbs.
The special edition 2004 Commemorative Edition Z06 Corvette is also equipped with a light weight carbon fiber hood which reduces weigh by over 10 lbs and makes this Z06 the lightest generation 5 Corvette at 3107 lbs.
The 2004 Z06 Commemorative Edition Corvette is capable of 0-60 MPH in 4.0 seconds with quarter mile performance at 12.4 seconds at 117 MPH.
The 50th anniversary of the Corvette was celebrated in 2003 with more than one million three hundred thousand (1,300,000) Corvettes being manufactured since production began in 1953.
The Chevrolet Corvette is now approaching a total production volume of 1.5 million cars which could be realized by 2010.
Corvette has a fascinating history and an exciting future with the arrival of the highest performance Corvette of all time, the 2006 Z06 Corvette equipped with the 427 cid LS7 engine rated at 505 horsepower.
The 2006 Z06 Corvette was designed and engineered from the C6-R race Corvette, to make it one of the quickest and fastest super cars of all time.
The 6th Generation Z06 Corvette produces the highest performance ever achieved for the Chevrolet Corvette, delivering 0-60 MPH performances in 3.5 seconds and running down the quarter mile drag strip in 11.5 seconds at 127 MPH with a top speed of 198 MPH.
The 2009 ZR1 Corvette will be the first production Corvette equipped with a supercharged engine and the most powerful production Corvette ever created with 620 plus horsepower.
This new supercharged Corvette LS9 engine uses a modified version of the 6.2-liter V8 equipped in the Cadillac Escalade which is capable of producing over 400 horsepower naturally aspirated.
The supercharged 2009 ZR1 Corvette is an exceptionally powerful and technologically advanced super car with unparalleled performance capabilities that are extraordinarily extreme. The Extreme performance consists of a top speed of over 200 mph and 0-60 mph acceleration in the low 3 second range.
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The Corvette has now been in existence for Six Generations.
To learn more about the performance history of each
Corvette generation, please select a generation below and enjoy
“The Read For Corvette Speed”.
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Ned Erkman
Author of The Read for Corvette Speed
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Intro |
1953-1962 |
1963-1967 |
1968-1982 |
1984-1996 |
1997-2004 |
2005-09
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