Since the corvette first came out in 1953, it has been a special car, The L68 427 CID was rated at 400 HP and it had a single 4 barrel carburetor, or the L71 optional 3X2 barrel setup which was rated at 435 HP from the factory, and none were more special then the L88 "Extremely Rare, Only 20 Were Built" the L88 had a set of aluminum cylinder heads on it, the powerhouse engine was officially rated at 430 HP, but dynode at around 600 HP. For 1967 the corvette got additional engine cooling vents, and the cars with 427's got a different power bulge hood, and more top end HP with 435 factory rated HP when fitted with the three two barrel intake manifold, a 1967 427 435 HP convertible with the three two barrel manifold carried on 7.7 pounds per horsepower, which meant that the car was able to cove the mile in 11.48 seconds, and could do the 0-60 test in 5.5 seconds. Not a lot of cars during that time period would make these kind of numbers at the track, and was still able to be driven on the street every day, the corvette has made a very good reputation for it's self and for the Chevrolet racing team, it has always performed well beyond the expectations of Chevrolet, and still continues to do it to this very day. For those of you who are always comparing the European cars to our cars, well there you go, Corvette there is no substitute, it has won as many races as Porsche, BMW or any other car during it's career on the track, and when you begin to compare things like price, the corvette will always provide a lot more bang for the buck, no body does it as will as Chevrolet when it comes to that. The corvette has a long proud history at the track, and on the street, and as long as Chevrolet doesn't give up on it, it will continue it's long proud history, and in my opinion, and a lot of the test drivers, it will surprise a lot of the import cars on the track, one test driver even said, if the likes of Porsche, and Ferrari want to came and play, they are likely to leave bloodied, and I fully agree with this analogy. |
