Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport

The story

Behind the seats of this thoroughly modern car sits a deliberately old-school heart: a 6.7-liter V8 with no turbochargers and no hybrid help, making 535 hp and 520 lb-ft and sending it all to the rear wheels through an 8-speed dual-clutch gearbox. This is the rear-drive Grand Sport, without the electric front axle of the Grand Sport X, and wearing Z52 track hardware and semi-slick tires it has reached 60 mph in 2.7 seconds in Car and Driver's hands. On ordinary road rubber it is still savagely quick.

The early reviews split in a revealing way. Some testers praised how completely it involves the driver and how calmly its adaptive dampers deal with bumps, while Edmunds found it barely quicker than the cheaper Stingray and wished the steering said more. That tension is the whole debate. What the Grand Sport really sells is the wider body, the bigger tires and a sense of occasion every time the V8 fires, all in a car that tipped Edmunds' scales at 1,714 kg (3,778 lb). For most drivers, most of the time, it leaves very little to wish for.