grampi50

Wasn't the C5 the first U.S. built sports car to achieve a sub .3 drag coefficient and pull over 1G on the skidpad?

Patches

The C5 Corvette development team was, at times, forced to act almost as a separate entity within GM to ensure the "survival" and development of the C5, and so, were so dedicated and so invested personally in the Corvette, that they did a masterful job of engineering a car far ahead of it's time - it blew away many conventions of car design thinking and made a decisive mark in the world of automotive technical standards and engine development. It's so good, in fact, that the C6 design team left the basic platform intact for the next generation, only moderately tweaking all the systems and giving the esthetics a facelift to reflect more recent design trends. Even the C7 still uses the same basic configuration, albeit with significant technological updates and refinements of the platform.

The Society of Automotive had the following to say about the C5 - it's the '99 C5 mentioned here but it's the same basic Corvette introduced in '97.

Best Engineered Car of the 20th Century
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Readers of Automotive Engineering International voted on the best engineered cars of each decade of the 20th Century. An overall winner was chosen from among the entries.

by Daniel J. Holt, Editor-in-Chief

First of all, AEI would like to thank the SAE Historical Committee for its assistance in completing this project. Also, we would like to thank the thousands of readers who submitted their choices for the best engineered cars in each of the ten decades of the 20th Century both via mail and over the SAE website at www.sae.org. The readers were asked to vote on the car and check the following criteria that fit their choice:
•The car successfully introduced a new engineering system and/or solution that was subsequently adopted by others, either wholly or in part.
•The car enjoyed exceptional longevity in the marketplace, thereby indicating and validating sound initial engineering capable of further development.
•The car achieved better performance than its contemporaries by virtue of the excellence of its engineering. Performance is defined as any combination of the following attributes — accommoda- tion of people and/or luggage, comfort, durability, economy of operation, environmental responsi- bility, handling and stability, production cost, quality, safety, and/or speed.
•The following are the winners for each decade. There was a clear winner for each decade except for the last and the overall winner, where there was a tie. Since both vehicles for that decade are shining examples of engineering excellence we decided to award both vehicles the honor.
•1900 - 1909: 1908 Ford Model T
•1910 - 1919: 1910 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
•1920 - 1929: 1924 Chrysler Six
•1930 - 1939: 1930 Cadillac V16
•1940 - 1949: 1949 Volkswagen Beetle
•1950 - 1959: 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SL
•1960 - 1969: 1964 Porsche 911
•1970 - 1979: 1974 Honda Civic CVCC
•1980 - 1989: 1984 Plymouth Voyager
•1990 - 1999: 1999 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible and 1999 Mercedes-Benz S500

Best Engineered Car of the 20th Century

After reviewing all the votes for the winners of each decade and carefully reviewing the vehicles, the overall winner turned out to be a tie between the 1999 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible and 1999 Mercedes-Benz S500. Both vehicles have a long heritage of engineering excellence and these two cars are fine examples of the engineering technology that developed over the past 100 years. Each is a winner in its own right — the Corvette as a two seat convertible and the Mercedes-Benz S500 as a sedan. Our congratulations to both companies!