Sixty years ago (if we measure time in model years), Chevrolet introduced a legend to the world.
A response to the success of European sports cars, the first Corvettes were breathtakingly beautiful - pure-white confections of chrome and fibreglass. They were also kinda slow.
Powered by a 150 horsepower inline-six, the original 1953 'Vette had a two-speed automatic transmission and a solid rear axle. Performance? Well, 0-100 kilometres per hour would take you a leisurely 11 seconds or so; not bad for the time, but any ex-G.I. with a hopped-up Deuce coupe would blow your doors off.
Six decades later, here we have a car boasting a seven-litre V-8 engine cranking out a whopping 505 hp: with carbon-fibre body panels keeping the weight down, it'll blitz to 100 clicks in less than four seconds, run down the quarter-mile in the mid 11-second range and keep on going until it cracks 300 km/h, or until your head falls off.
Clearly, some improvements have been made in the intervening six generations of Corvette building. As a last of the breed for the "C6," GM has rolled out this special-edition convertible - the 427 Convertible Collector edition.
As part of the 60th anniversary package - which will be available on any 2013 'Vette - Arctic White exterior paint will be wrapped around a Blue Diamond interior, with special anniversary badging and available Pearl Silver Blue stripes, including tonal striping for the blue convertible roof.
Never mind all the paint codes, my reaction upon first casting eyes upon my tester was: holy Christmas, what an aggressivelooking machine! It's like they clipped the wings off an F-14 Tomcat, bolted on some staggered 19inch and 20-inch alloys and turned it into a convertible.
From afar, it's a low, long and lean silhouette, be-gilled by cooling vents and with a bulging hood that seems to be struggling to contain that whopping V-8 engine. If the '50s original is a sort of swoopy Jetsons take on a sportscar, this machine looks like it'd be perfectly at home on the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Aside from the 60th anniversary badges festooning this special-edition 'Vette, the three digits atop the hood merit a brief explanation. Some time after figuring out that the first slowpoke Corvettes were a great deal improved by shoe-horning a Chevy V-8 under the hood, the first 427-cubic-inch powerplants appeared.
These late-'60s cars were perhaps more directly related to this modern rocketship, what with up to 430 horses (and that figure was probably underrated as well). An engine size of 427 cubic inches is slightly less than seven litres, so GM has rounded things down a tad in favour of shining a spotlight on their heritage.
One day, Chevrolet will get the interior of their top-of-the-line machine right, and then auto writers will have nothing to complain about. Just not today.
Make no mistake, if you think of the 427 convertible as a sort of speedboat for the street, then perhaps the plasticky, water-proofstyle inside makes sense. If, on the other hand, you expect your $114,190 supercar to have a nicer interior than your average highspec Kia, then you will not be a happy camper.
Here's what works inside the 'Vette: the suede covering on the shifter and steering wheel help deal with sweaty palms (and hooboy, will you have those), the pedal-placement is perfect for heel-toe heroics. The heads-up display is a bit old-fashioned compared to next-gen systems like that on the Cadillac ATS, but is uncluttered and helps you keep your eyes on the road.
However, the seats are still not well-bolstered enough, especially given the force with which the 'Vette can fling you around. The navigation system is clunky. The stereo is completely counterintuitive. The convertible top occasionally didn't want to retract, and the manual latch for it required a bit of wiggling.
But let me be very clear: any thought of these minor niggles evaporates instantly as soon as you press the starter, slot the sixspeed manual in first gear and press the accelerator. Piece of advice though? Brace yourself.
There are plenty of high-powered cars these days. You could argue that we're practically choking on horsepower, what with twin-turbo motors in big, fast, German sedans like the Mercedes-Benz E63, or hugely powerful SUVs like the BMW X5M.
Forget all about that. Not only does the 427 Corvette have deliciously old-school motivational power in the form of 3 1 Honda-/2 Civics-worth of engine displacement, it's also much lighter than the competition.
At just 1,522 kilograms, all that carbon fibre has slimmed the Corvette down to the point where its stonking 505-hp engine is hauling around so little, it has a better power-to-weight ratio than almost any other performance convertible on the market. It's slightly ahead of drop-top performance benchmarks like the 911 Turbo S, and shames even the Ferrari California.
Of course, there is little of the refinement of those big-ticket competitors, and quite frankly, thank goodness for that. We are coddled by driving aids, chaperoned by electronic nannies, wrapped up tight in a safety blanket by car manufacturers to the point where you'd feel safe lapping the fabled N脙录rburgring at high speed while texting your mom, getting a high score on Angry Birds and eating a large plate of spaghetti Bolognese.
The 427 'Vette slaps the smartphone out of your hands from the very first, squirming sideways under throttle like a horse fighting the reins. Keep your foot in, and electronic exhaust baffles snap open, freeing the seven-litre beast to bellow: suddenly the thoroughbred is a Tyrannosaurus.
Fast? The word is completely inadequate.
And it's not just a straight-line rail-rocket either: equipped with GM's MagnaRide magnetically controlled suspension and with a racebred chassis, the Corvette's cornering limits are really only safely explored at the racetrack.
Although, it'd be a bit incongruous there. This convertible is not really a track-special like the Z06 coupe. Instead, it's a really fast cruiser, just as much fun to drive slowly as it is to blitz the on-ramp.
The Gran Sport Corvette convertible starts at just $76,600, so there's a laundry list of options to be added in order to get to the 427's price-tag. Preferred equipment (which includes the Navigation and Bose audio) is a fairly whopping $12,810. Then again, those stripes are $890.
Fuel-economy figures - you're brave to enquire - are actually pretty good. Not all the time, obviously: once the instantreadout indicated a consumptionrate of 50 litres/100 kilometres.
Cruise along more gently, and you'll see somewhere in the 16-20 L/100 km range - not bad considering the enormous motor.
In summary, it's a fitting tribute to 60 years of America's fastest car. Nothing can touch it for the price.
