Now that the 2014 C7 Corvette has been officially unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show, Automobile Magazine was able to post this video from their photo shoot of the car. In addition to a good look at the new Stingray themed exterior design, we also get up close with the much improved interior. Interviews with the designers and engineers of the car reveal that GM really stepped up with a clean-sheet design for the C7. They really paid attention to the shortcomings of the C6 that everybody complained about (parts bin pieces, horrible seats and interior quality) and did their best to make the C7 what everybody expects it to be. You really get a sense that the designers took serious pride in maintaining Corvette as America’s premiere sports car.
Chevrolet provides another point to the argument that we are currently in the new golden age of the Muscle Car with the $3500 1LE package for the Camaro SS. GM basically gave their suspension guys who do track driving free reign to make the Camaro handle well. The result is “The best handling Camaro yet! *thumbs up*” according to Randy Pobst. Huge wheel and tire upgrades form the core of the 1LE upgrades. The fronts are 10 inches wide and the rears are 11 with 285/35/20 Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar tires (same as the ZL1 fronts) at all four corners. Monotube shocks with revised damping replace the stock twin tube. Larger anti-roll bars were also added, 27mm in the front and 28mm in the rear. The fact that the rear bar is larger than the front is probably where the engineers killed most of the regular SS’s horrible understeer. Power output remains the same as the SS but the final drive is upped to 3.91:1 to give a little better acceleration. Reliability modifications round out the 1LE package with various beefed up links, mounts and half shafts. The $3500 price tag for the 1LE upgrades beats what you could buy in the aftermarket and have an added bonus of coming with a factory warranty. It also seems like the engineers got the suspension tuning right on a sweet spot that turns the Camaro into a true driver’s car that gets better with the harder you push it. The base price starts at under $34,000 with the car they tested here optioned out to $46,000. That puts the 1LE in direct competition with the Ford Mustang Boss 302. Both cars focused on the chassis balance instead of huge power upgrades which is something kind of new and pretty awesome for Detroit. Lets hope Motor Trend will do a Head 2 Head episode with the Camaro 1LE and Mustang Boss 302.
Big Muscle checks out the new daily driver of Craig Morrison of Art Morrison Enterprises, a 1950 Chevrolet 3100 series pickup truck. Craig bought the truck off the side of the road because it reminded him of the 1949 GMC that his grandfather used to drive him around in on the family farm. The chassis was replaced by a new Art Morrison GT Sport series complete bolt-in unit with a GM Performance Parts 353 converted to EFI. Art Morrison makes some of the best engineered chassis available evident by the fact that this truck can now handle better than a Corvette. The coolest part about the truck is that it performs well yet it’s not so nice that it can’t be driven everyday rain or shine.
GM’s Vice-President of Design, Ed Welburn, drops by Jay Leno’s garage with four vintage Corvettes from the General Motors Heritage Center. They start with the first Corvette ever made, the 1953 with the Blue Flame inline 6. Next they move to the chairman of GM’s personal hardtop 1958 Corvette with the dual four-barrel carburetor 283 cubic inch V8. The third car they look at is the rarest Corvette in existence, the 1959 Corvette Stingray Racer. It’s a tube-frame race car that raced here in America winning some national championships. Welburn had the car restored when he became the VP of design but kept the interior original since it had a lot of history including a drive by Elvis. The last car they look at is a fully loaded split window 1963 Corvette Stingray loaded with fuel injection and knock-off wheels. The episode is a very cool look into some very special Corvettes that could only be brought to you by Jay Leno’s special relationship with GM.
GM is rumored to be debuting the all-new 2014 C7 Chevrolet Corvette at the Detroit Auto Show in January to be on sale summer or fall 2013. To celebrate the end of the C6 dynasty, Car and Driver’s Technical Editor, Michael Austin, rounds up the best of the special editions for a fond tribute. He rounds up the 505 horsepower Z06 and the 628 horsepower ZR-1 for some exercise around the track while talking about what makes each car so special.
