C7: The Future of the Corvette

The Corvette has been an icon of American muscle since the early 1960’s, and still continues to “wow” the automotive world with each new generation. Last year, however, Corvette’s sales slumped rather dramatically. Considering the car’s main target market is over the age of 50, Chevrolet is looking at aiming the car at a younger market. It’s time for a redesign – but how?

Sideswipe, is that you?

GM is remaining quite secretive about the next redesign, the C7, but there are a few things that we can treat as ‘likely changes’. For starters, the overall size of the Corvette is expected to shrink. Lighter is always better, so that in itself is already a good start. Secondly, internet rumours speculate that the new generation of Vettes may feature a 7-speed manual transmission.

There is also evidence to suggest the next generation will be powered by a 5.5L V8, as opposed to the current 6.2L. The downsizing of the engine is a little bit questionable in my opinion, but I’m sure GM won’t be making any uneducated decisions around their icon car. I estimate that the base model will be the only one with the downsized engine, and the C7 ZR1 will maintain the 6.2L V8 that it has today. Either way, don't expect to see any new models until 2013.

There have been countless Corvette concept renderings circulating the internet, speculating what the new generation will look like. We all saw the modified Corvette in transformers (above), which has been the inspiration for many of the fan-submitted concepts.

Oh God, please no.

I wouldn't mind this.

Regardless of what GM decides for the new Vette, I am sure that the popularity of this American icon will spike once again upon release. That’s just how these things work – you show people something has changed, and they pay attention. I, for one, am just excited to see the next Z06 and ZR1 models.