The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car first manufactured by Chevrolet in 1953. The Chevrolet Corvette is a part of American history. The Chevrolet Corvette is America's undisputed high performance icon, and the main reason for that is under the hood, where for decades pushrod V8 engines have pumped out the kind of serious horsepower and torque that the Vette faithful demand. The Chevrolet Corvette is a cultural icon, a vehicle embedded in the psyches of North American automotive enthusiasts like Harley-Davidson's are to bikers. The Chevrolet Corvette is one of those cars that nobody really needs, but that many people want.

The Chevrolet Corvette delivers supercar performance for the price of a midsize luxury sedan, and it's easy to live with. It's a fantastic feeling and at those moments the Corvette more than justifies its price, which is a bargain compared to other truly capable high-performance sports cars. The Chevrolet Chevrolet has eliminated nearly all the cruder, less desirable traits that characterized Corvettes of yore, and its performance does not exact a painful toll on driver or passenger. Now in its third year of production, the current Corvette is known to sports car enthusiasts as the C6 (for sixth generation).

The Chevrolet Corvette has seen 6 generations of engineering and design changes since its introduction in 1953 throughout the 2007 model year and is extremely popular today amongst sports car enthusiasts as a sleek, sexy and sophisticated sports car. Still power crazy after all these years; Middle-aged but far from mellow, the Corvette offers head-turning flash, pulse-pounding acceleration. Older generations of the Corvette have been criticized for being brutish when compared to European sports cars, although the C5 and C6 generations seem to have silenced all but the most strident of such critics.

Introduction debuting in 1953 at the General Motors Motorama in New York City, the Chevrolet Corvette has become one of the longest-running automotive nameplates in history. The first generation of Corvette was frowned upon due to its lack of power as compared to the European sports cars manufactured during this time period, in addition to its inadequate ability to come to a complete stop quickly and its lack of an advanced performance car transmission. Over the years the Chevrolet Corvette has been the recipient of many awards including the prestigious Best Engineered Car of the 20th Century as determined by the Society of Automotive Engineers in 1999. The Corvette has also been used to represent the pace car on the track of the Indianapolis 500 nine times between 1978 and 2007. Chevrolet Corvette Engine:

The Chevrolet Corvette has a long history of melding exceptional handling and brutal amounts of engine power into an affordable package that is drastically less expensive than prestigious marquees with similar abilities. With the trademark Corvette powerhouse engine and a better price tag than other cars in the prestige class, the Corvette remains a coveted winner on all levels. The new manual transmission and V8 engine were instrumental in changing the opinion of automotive experts and consumers' whose original impression of the Chevrolet Corvette was that it was inadequate and lacking pizazz. In fact, there are so many transformations, such as making the car narrower and shorter, that it philosophically challenged the engineers and Corvette aficionados at first, but in the end it works beautifully.

Starting with a 235 cu-in 6-cylinder engine, the Chevrolet Corvette has since switched to a V8 with a horsepower that is improving each year. Corvettes tend to emphasize simplicity over technical complexity when it comes to engine power. An engine that easily lives up to the heritage of all its Chevy small block pushrod predecessors. The LS3 engine delivers tremendous flexibility, pulling hard from any point in the power band, and displaying quick but refined throttle response. While the bigger engine offers a lot of power you can get near 30 highway miles to the gallon if you use a manual transmission (same with the smaller engine).

What makes it better than the previous generation is everything: performance, refinement, ease of operation. Even more significant was the introduction of the latest-generation, ultra-high-performance Z06 model. Base models are reasonably practical daily drivers that cost thousands less than rival sports cars with similar performance. A myriad of performance-minded revisions grace the suspension and braking systems and even the exterior styling gets a few tweaks. This system has been well programmed to provide noninvasive assistance, and a performance driving mode gives the driver even more control at the track -- while maintaining a safety net. Until the Chevrolet Corvette produced performance to match its appearance, buyers were skeptical to purchase the new sports car. But with its redesign and performance upgrade, the Corvette finally rates as a supercar in seemingly every way but price.