Introduction

If you tell the average person that you bought a new 2009 Corvette, they'll likely scrunch up their face, as if they'd just gotten a whiff from a bad carton of milk. "Really, a Corvette?" they'll say. It seems there's a certain stereotype associated with America's sports car, one that involves a midlife crisis and gold chains on exposed chest hair, possibly accompanied by visions of the hideous Vette Mark Hamill drove in "Corvette Summer." However, you can reply with this: "Corvette Summer" was 21 years ago, gold chains haven't come back into fashion yet and the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette has nothing to do with the stereotypes -- it's simply a fantastic sports car.

While there are certainly historical kernels of truth in this stereotype, most of them were excised with the debut of the model's sixth generation (the C6) for 2005. Last year, Chevrolet made further improvements, including more power and a better interior. Even the stats for the base Corvette are enough to drool over. The 6.2-liter V8 cranks out 430 hp, just 50 hp shy of the almighty Porsche 911 Turbo. The track-ready Z06 model puts out even more power (505 hp) and weighs less than 3,200 pounds.

If this isn't enough, there's an additional model being added to the 2009 lineup: the ZR1. The ZR1 moniker was last seen from 1990-'95 (when it was spelled "ZR-1") and represented the ultimate in Corvette performance. The new ZR1 starts with a hand-assembled, supercharged 6.2-liter V8 that cranks out 638 hp and 604 pound-feet of torque, making it the most powerful production Corvette ever -- and one of the most powerful cars ever, period. Naturally, there are further modifications, such as a strengthened transmission, specialized wheels and tires, Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes, unique suspension tuning with adaptive dampers and additional carbon-fiber body panels for weight reduction.