June Road & Track
 

R&T reports that the C7 will stay front engine, will be smaller and lighter. It will have a 4.7 liter V8. Sounds like it will be based on the Pontiac Solstice. The Solstice assembly is slready being shifted to Bowling green.

Ughh - I don't want a Miata size car:toetap:

Why the hell does GM want to do that?

GM knows what they are doing and would do anything to the vette without thinking it through. Not that i like the new direction but it was inevitable.

As I understand it, the Solstice was originally going to be designed to house the LS2. Now how fun would that've been?

However, in light of the fact that gasoline prices won't be coming down anytime, period. Combined with the new Federal regulation package, we all knew the Corvette would need to change direction. They just can't keep making the displacements larger every year.

Now, a light weight, v-8 supercharged roadster making about 400hp and getting 30mpg highway, might be a good thing. Times are a changing.

Turbocharging is a better direction for fuel economy. A supercharger takes horsepower (fuel) to turn all the time.

I would expect to see a smaller displacement turbo 8 or six, perhaps a high pressure diesel, who knows.

Fixed it for you.

:lol:

I'm glad I got my '07 C6 then. I feel like Mel Gibson in Madd Maxx; "laahst of the veee-ates.":D

Agreed! Im waiting for feedback on when the C6 Z will be disco'ed, and then getting one. I knew the C7 was going to be a little rice type car.:ack: If i wanted one of those I'd buy a 335.:toetap:

Smaller is good. Even C4 sized.

Hot Rod Magazine and GM Power Train already did a Solstice with a LS7 under the hood back in 2006 ... the car has been in magazine articles and was on the Hot Rod Power Tour in 2006. I was lucky enough to take a ride in it. Quick is a good one word discription of the car. As to a V8 with 400 HP and 30 MPG..that is pretty much where we are now with the C6. MPG is going to have to be a lot better than that to justify a down size for the C7.

The only place the C4 was small was the interior.

Hasn't this already been done by Mallet?

http://www.mallettcars.com/images/so...esert005lg.jpg

http://www.mallettcars.com/images/so...nginefetts.jpg

Good question. Lets ask them. Ya right.

I do love that little Mallett car!

I hate it!
I sat in one and the top of the windshield was eye level - seat had no room to recline. If that is the way the vette is going they can keep it. But with gas prices going the way they are and the SUV's going to go down size it leaves very few cars to make money on. The Corvette, CTS, and the G8 come to mind.

I am lost here, what does the price of gas have to do with anything?
Gas is still the same price as it was when I was a kid. A Corvette was about $5000 in 1970 and gas was about 50 cents a gallon. A Corvette is about 40 grand and gas is about $3.50. It has not changed at all. In europe, where most of the cars get slightly better mileage, gas is about $9.00 a gallon. It is the cost of doing business.. ;)
The Corvette philosophy changed when the C4 came out. It was no longer cheap, blue collar fun and hasn't been since because the price essentially doubled. If you have $50,000- to buy a toy, why would the gas for it being 20 bucks or 60 bucks make a difference? It already gets fantastic mileage anyway. If gas is a problem, you are in over your head financially. I will guess that there are 40,000 people in the USA that don't worry too much about gas prices..

Small cars with big engines are really fun and anyway GM may not be able to change their tooling over fast enough to survive the downturn in truck and suv sales. Maybe TATA will buy Corvette like thay bought Jaguar and Range Rover? :)

I was in a bad mood and should not have posted in that state. Sorry.

Yea if smaller ie miata, TT, solstice etc they start looking like chick cars. Time will tell as to to what direction they take but if this is what they choose to do in all likleyhood the C6 is going to be my last vette. Also keep the ground pounding V8 leave the 4's/6's and fart cans for the ricers.

The AC Cobra is a smaller car. Is it a "chick car" car or a "ground pounding V8"? Do you guys have any imagination?

At over 200 pounds I fit in a Lotus Elise. It is a very small car. A little bigger and it could fit a V8. With a V8 and weighing 2500 pounds (~500 more than it does now so allowing a lot of weight gain) it would be a rocket. It would get good gas mileage, but probably would not be the roomiest, most comfortable cruiser on the planet, nor would it have an electric bottom wiper, or be quiet at that weight, but it would handle better.