Vetteran Vehicle : Amid Tough Competition, Chevrolet’s Sports Car Enters Fifth Generation
DETROIT — Perhaps no American automobile stirs more passion than the Corvette, the high-performance, two-seat sports car first shown in 1953 at a General Motors extravaganza in New York’s posh Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
As Chevrolet’s flagship, the aggressively styled vehicle with its low-slung profile and snarling, muscular engine has become a cultural icon--the inspiration for TV shows, movies, songs, two museums and about 700 clubs worldwide.
Despite the car’s considerable imperfections, enthusiasts talk about it the way religious cultists speak of God.
So it was with no small bit of reverence and hoopla that Chevrolet on Monday unveiled the 1997 Corvette at the North American International Auto Show here. It was simultaneously shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show before thousands of buffs, including a group that displayed a “Will Work for a ‘Vette” sign.
The new version represents just the fourth major remake of the Corvette in its 44-year history. The competitive stakes are high: The new ‘Vette comes as sports car sales are slumping and motorists can choose from highly touted new entries from Europe.
The redesign is the most thorough ever for a Corvette, with nearly every part of the two-seat coupe rethought and re-engineered. In doing so, GM attempted to keep the distinctive styling and rumbling performance that Corvette owners demand while making the sports car more refined, efficient, contemporary and, most important, practical.
“This is a very user-friendly sports car,” said Dick Almond, GM’s brand manager for Corvette and Camaro.
Those who have test-driven the new Corvette say the typical jolting ride has been softened by a new suspension, and the normal cacophony of bothersome rattles and noises was eliminated by a stiffer structure. Yet the car delivers plenty of raw V-8 power--345 horses under the hood with enough torque to reach 60 mph in 4.8 seconds.
“The Corvette cult will be delighted,” said Ken Zino, Detroit editor of Road & Track magazine. “It’s an improvement from the previous generation.”
George Peterson, president of AutoPacific Group in Santa Ana, said the new Corvette is more comfortable and should appeal to more than just the “macho, gold-chain, hair-on-the-chest” set.
Some sports car purists have long derided the Corvette as more brutish than sporty. Still, the Corvette has one of the most loyal followings in the car world. More than 1 million have been sold and treated with extraordinary affection (an estimated 90% are still on the road). About 45% of Corvette owners buy another.
But just five years ago, Corvette aficionados worried whether the car would survive the 20th century. With GM facing a tidal wave of red ink in the early 1990s, the vehicle’s future was in jeopardy. Its redesign was killed in 1992, then later restored but pushed back four years.
While GM dithered, the sports car market went into a funk. Sales slumped as prices soared. Many aging enthusiasts began to abandon sports cars for sport-utility vehicles. This prompted many of Corvette’s top competitors to abandon the market, including the Toyota MR2, Mazda RX-7 and Nissan 300ZX.
In 1996, nearly 22,000 Corvettes were sold, more than double any of its competitors, which include the Mitsubishi 3000GT, Porsche 911, Toyota Supra, Dodge Viper and Acura NSX. Corvette holds a commanding 39% of the “high sporty” category.
In 1997, Corvette sales will probably fall below 10,000 until its Bowling Green, Ky., plant can be brought up to full production. And with supply limited, buyers may face paying hefty premiums above the $38,000 base price. With options, most Corvettes sell for $42,000-$45,000.
Ultimately, Chevrolet hopes to sell more than 25,000 Corvettes a year--an ambitious target in the face of new competition from a bevy of refined roadsters coming from German makers such as the Mercedes-Benz SLK, BMW’s Z-3 and the Porsche Boxster.
“It’s going to be tough for Corvette to attract the affluent buyers who historically identify with European performance cars,” said Nicholas Colas, an analyst for First Boston CFS.
Before approving the redesign, top GM brass insisted the new Corvette be a moneymaker, something past models often were not. Analysts estimate that GM could make up to $8,000 on each 1997 Corvette it sells.
The company kept development costs in line by borrowing parts and systems from other GM cars and by simplifying design. The 1997 Corvette uses 34% fewer parts than last year’s model, which saves $1,920 per car through reduced assembly time and lower labor costs.
Loyal Corvette owners are standing in line, happy with the promised improvements and with the survival of such familiar Corvette styling cues as its quad tail lamps, scalloped sides and a dual-pod dash.
George Swift, 56, of Riverside, said members of his local Corvette club have been trading tidbits about the new Corvette for months and some have already put in orders. “There’s already a line a mile long at the dealerships,” he said.
For Swift, the introduction of a new Corvette brings back childhood memories about the first time he spied the sports car in 1953: “It was so different, I thought it was a space car. I just had to have one.”
Today, he owns three.
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Corvette Americana
Here are some pop culture imprints left by America’s first sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette:
* Movies: “Death Race 2000” (1975); “Corvette Summer” (1978).
* Songs: “Dead Man’s Curve” (Jan and Dean); “Little Red Corvette” (Prince).
* TV: “Route 66” (1960-64), starring Martin Milner and George Maharis. VH-1, the pop music channel, holds a sweepstakes in 1989 giving away 36 Corvettes.
* Corvette owner T-shirt: “I eat Mustangs for lunch.”
* Board Games: Corvette Trivia Quiz.
* Books: Dozens. Among most recent are “All Corvettes are Red: The Rebirth of an American Legend,” (1997) by James Schefter; “The Heart of the Beast,” (1994) by Anthony Young; and “Corvette: America’s Most Exciting Sportscar,” by Bill Reynolds.
* Magazines: Vette Vues, Vette magazine, Corvette Quarterly and dozens more.
* Web Sites: Thousands.
* Museums: National Corvette Museum, Bowling Green, Ky.; Corvette Americana Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, N.Y.
* Owners Clubs: 700 worldwide.
* Famous Owners: Baseball hall of famer Reggie Jackson; Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; artist Peter Max; G. Gordon Liddy, talk show host and Watergate conspirator; Barbie.
Source: General Motors
