IMMORTAL CORVETTE GRAND SPORT

By Casey Williams

A car like the 2010 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport can make even amateurs immortal. Maneuvers that take great skill in lesser automobiles are executed with such ease and precision as to seem unchallenging. And what beauty! You can really get a complex with everybody popping flash bulbs in your eyes – friends, family, co-workers, delivery guy, neighbor standing alone in my driveway. To really cause drama, choose a GS Convertible in bright yellow with white hash marks on the front fenders. Lady GaGa riding horseback upside-down through Central Park would not draw so many pa-pa-razzi.

Grand Sports were originally built for a race series that included the 24 Hours of LeMans and 12 Hours of Sebring in 1963. Engineers removed 1,000 lbs. from standard Stingrays, installed aluminum engines, Plexiglas windows, fender flares, and bathed them in a blue and white paint scheme. Chevrolet planned 125 units, but built only three coupes and two roadsters. Another GS was offered as a farewell for the C4 generation in 1996, painted blue with white stripes and red fender hashes.

It’s easy to be seduced by the Vette’s beauty and power. Hit the Zeus pedal and you’ll defy gravity like your favorite Greek deity while cackling in five registers. Nothing is more heavenly than letting a mom in her porked-out SUV ride your bumper at 70 mph, then tap down and tap her out as a blur of numbers rips across the heads-up display. The ethereal sound that comes out of the GS’s pipes when the second mode opens shakes the rafters like Celine Dion on testosterone.

It is hard to believe this is the base Corvette’s 6.2-liter V8 engine, producing 436 hp — far less powerful than the Z06’s 505 hp or the ZR-1’s 638 hp. Further keeping this in perspective, the Grand Sport produces 61 hp more than the vaunted ’90 ZR-1. The Grand Sport can do the naught to 60 strut in 3.98s and top out at 190 mph. It will also pull 1.0g on the skidpad and achieve 15/25 mpg city/hwy. Vented and cross-drilled brake rotors, four-wheel ABS, traction control, electronic stability control, and mama’s largest rubber sneakers keep this toboggan gliding mostly straight.

You expect unrivaled performance, however Corvettes are also some of the easiest cars to drive. Wind, semi-wake, and long days just don’t affect you in a Corvette cockpit as they would in other vehicles; it is wide, planted like a steamroller, and if the trip is getting a little long, a slight twitch of your big toe can move things along. Skip the Magneride adjustable suspension — the base chassis is nearly perfect.

On a short drive around town with her hair blowing about, my four-year-old niece whispers to me, “My daddy said to talk you into getting ice cream.” I figure nothing goes better with a convertible and a niece better than ice cream. Besides, how was I going to resist that cute face? I also had to usher each of my two nephews through the same drive-up window. The little gremlins were wearing as much twist cone on their clothes as was smushed on their lips, nose, cheeks, and leather bucket seats. The fact that my sister suggested I limit them to milkshakes with straws is beside the point — not the first time I did something controversial.

Kids love Corvettes, and this big kid went absolutely drooly over the Grand Sport Convertible. Check the exterior. Exposed projector beam headlamps look good in the car’s long, sloping hood with bulging fenders. A low cowl lets drivers have a great view of the road or track. The bulge that starts in the doors and flows back into the rear fenders is taken from the 1963-67 C3 generation Vettes.

The power top goes from 0 to sunshine in 18 seconds to reveal an available stitched leather dash, heads-up display, shift paddles, navigation, Bose audio with CD, XM Satellite Radio, and heated leather seats with power-adjustable lumbar. Corvettes should immediately receive a USB port for full iPod compatibility, higher-grade trim leather (like Porsche or the Escalade Platinum), and removal of the generic steering wheel (I recommend installation of the Camaro’s deep-dish wheel). Nobody should complain about the roadster’s basketball star legroom or generous luggage locker.

Unlike many over-hyped, under-satisfying products, Corvettes surpass your wildest imagination, causing you to praise your savior of choice each and every time you hit the throttle. Whatever you dreamed as a little boy, the real thing is better as a man (or woman).
After your time in a Vette, there is an eerie silence around you as your celebrity wanes. All of the photos have been taken, obscene amounts of gas were burned, and you’re mortal again. Even more than an American icon, directly tracing its pedigree to the exuberant 1950s, the Corvette defies the grim reaper’s swath to plant its flag around the world. GS Convertibles start at $58,580; ours came to $75,740.

2010 Chevy Corvette GS
Two-passenger, RWD Roadster
Powertrain: 436-HP 6.2-litre V8, 6-speed automatic transmission
Suspension f/r: Ind./Ind.
Wheels: 18″/19″ alloy f/r.
Brakes: Disc fr/rr with ABS
Must-have feature: Performance, style
Fuel economy (city/hwy): 15/25-MPG (T4)
0-60 mph: 3.98s
Top speed: 190 mph
Manufacturing: Bowling Green, KY
As-tested price: $75,740

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