Infographic Charts Corvette Power Through the Years

By Detroit Steel - July 27, 2015

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Here’s an interesting take on Corvette history – an infographic detailing the horsepower of different models over the 62-year history of the American sports car.

Taking a look at all seven generations of the ‘Vette, the chart shows that the model with the least output is (yup, you guessed it) the C1 with a 3.9-liter inline-six that put out a heart-pounding, can-barely-breathe 150 horsepower, according to an Automobile report presenting the infographic.

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That number may stem some of your desires for those yester-year models, if you’ve driven any Corvette from the past 10 years. To put it more simply, that would make the new Z06 almost five times more powerful than the first Corvette.

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Following the introduction of the C1, the Corvette went on to break the 400-hp barrier in the mid-sixties, with the Big Block V-8 available in the 1965 Corvette Stingray. But tighter emissions regulations brought the power back down to a low of 165 during the seventies.

In fact, had it not been for a few people internally at General Motors, who pushed for the ZR-1 during the C4 period, the horsepower in the C7 might have been substantially lower.