Corvette C6 Dual-Mode Performance Exhaust Demonstration - Chicago Motor Cars with Chris Moran

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Find out how the optional Dual-Mode exhaust works on the LS3-equipped C6 Corvette. It's some cool technology...and then check out the 2012 Corvette Grand Sport on our website...www.ChicagoMotorCars.com
Here's what Edmunds says about the C6 Corvette:
We have driven many, many Corvettes over the years, from bone-stock automatics to the absurdly endowed ZR1 to Ron Fellows' C5-R GT1 racecar, and it occurs to us that rarely have we ever pined for more power in Chevrolet's plastic fantastic.

All this occurred to us as we were driving the 2010 Corvette Grand Sport Coupe on GM's road course at its Milford proving grounds in southeastern Michigan. And, you know, despite the endless flood of headlines about the hairy-beast Z06 and the stupid-fast ZR1, the standard Vette's 436-horsepower LS3 V8 still gets the job done.

This is because 436 hp is still a big mess o' horsepower (or 430 hp without the trick, two-mode exhaust flaps that are optional), and also because the Corvette remains trim in an increasingly obese world, since the Grand Sport coupe weighs in at 3,311 pounds.

With a little help from its fatter-than-standard tires (275/35R18s up front and 325/30R19s out back), a Grand Sport will scamper to 60 mph about a tenth of a second or so quicker than the last standard Corvette we tested — a coupe which got to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds (4.0 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip). And we reckon the tires will also help us pick up a little in max lateral grip compared to the last '09 we tested with its standard 245/40R18 front and 285/35R19 rear items — figure around 0.98g. We'd also expect the fat tires to chop at least a few feet off of that car's 60-0 braking distance of 110 feet.

And you could live with this performance, couldn't you?

Numbers Game
We've yet to meet the human who can feel the difference between 3.9 seconds and 4.0 seconds to 60 mph. It's an academic exercise, really. But the 2010 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, which goes on sale this fall alongside the rest of the 2010 Corvettes, represents more than just a miniscule improvement in acceleration. After all, even the nuttiest Corvette nut might have a hard time swallowing the $5,840 premium the Grand Sport coupe commands over the standard coupe for a tenth-of-a-second here and a hundredth-of-a-g there.

The Grand Sport represents a bridge between the $49,880 standard Corvette and the Corvette Z06, which starts at $75,235. The Grand Sport coupe's price, which starts at $55,720, is nearer that of the standard car since it is constructed with steel frame rails instead of the Z06's pricier aluminum and also makes do with conventional fiberglass body panels instead of the carbon-fiber front fenders of the Z06. And let's not forget that the Z06's 505-hp 7.0-liter V8 is a very pricey hand-built thing.

In years past, the only bridge vehicle between the standard Vette and the serious nut-ball performance version has been the Z51-code car, which the Grand Sport replaces. And the current C6 version of the Z51 came with not just a stiffer suspension as in years past but also slightly larger brakes with drilled rotors, as well as shorter gearing for the first three slots of the six-speed manual transmission. But, let's face it; the Z51 still looked the same to all but the most Corvette-obsessed eyes.

With its Z06-style, wide-body fender flares and Z06-style front fascia and rear brake cooling ducts and the little mail-slot air inlet just forward of the hood, the Grand Sport is easily identified as something else. You might mistake it for a Z06, or a standard Corvette owned by a guy who added some Z06-style parts to the bodywork, but you won't mistake it for the run-of-the-mill coupe. Corvette people have been trained to identify models and model years by the trim on the front fender gills, and so the Grand Sport adds a new gill style for their inventory: two vertical body-color pieces connected at the top by a horizontal chrome strip with "Grand Sport" script molded in.

Name Game
Let's deal with the name right now. Grand Sport is simply one of those monikers that sits around in the Corvette history books. But the now-three vehicles that have carried the name have so little in common, the name is almost meaningless. The original Grand Sport was Zora Arkus-Duntov's factory-engineered 1963 Corvette Sting Ray racer. It might have been just about the meanest and therefore coolest-looking road racer of the day, but ultimately the program never really took off as planned. The second Grand Sport was a special-edition 1996 Vette C4 with an LT4 motor, big wheels and tires and two silly red hash marks on the front fender.