The Chevrolet Corvette rolled out of Flint, Michigan in 1953 and has never stopped—eight generations, no domestic rivals left standing. It nearly didn't happen fiberglass body, straight-six engine, two-speed automatic, and at its Waldorf-Astoria debut, almost none of its 300 hand-assembled units sold.
Give or Take a Cubic Inch. To celebrate the Corvette's 60th anniversary, Chevrolet drops the Z06's 505-hp engine into the Corvette droptop—a thunderous heart transplant that turns an already quick car into something that will pin you to your seat and leave your stomach somewhere on the on-ramp. The result, called the Corvette 427 Convertible, rockets from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds with the top down and the sky wide open. The name pays tribute to the legendary 427-cubic-inch V-8 that powered earlier Corvette generations, though the 7.0-liter V-8 lurking beneath that long hood displaces a rather unpoetic 428 cubic inches. Don't worry, Chevy; math isn't our strong suit, either.
