General Motors was established in 1908 in Flint, Mi. Since 1931, GM http://www.gm.com/ was the largest car manufacturer in the world, and today they are second to Toyota http://www.toyota.com/ . With over 270,000 employees, GM manufactures its cars in 33 Countries which translates to over 9 million vehicles produced last year alone. They manufacture cards such as Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, and Vauxhall.
The Corvette C1 was first introduced in 1953 which featured a fiberglass body, no side windows or outside door handles, an inline 6 Engine which had 150 horsepower. The C1 model was last made in 1962 which had a 250 horsepower V8 engine.
For those who seek more power could purchase the V8 327 fuel injected engine which gave you 360 horsepower. 15,000 corvettes were produced in 1962 and you could buy one for $4,000 new.
The C2 corvette was manufactured from 1963-1967. The classic term Sting ray was introduced from a racing car called the Mitchell sting ray. The standard horsepower on the sting rays when they were last produced was a 327 CI pumping out 300 horsepower, and the optional 427 engine put out a whopping 435 horsepower.
In 1968 Chevrolet made significant changes to their new C3 corvette model publishing in their sales brochures all different all over. These cars were now vacuum operated, features T-tops, a more aerodynamic front end, and more exterior colors to choose from. 1982 was the last year of the C3 corvettes and the car used a 200 hp 350 CI cross fire fuel injected engine. Although significant horsepower was lost, performance ratings from previous years were typically the same due to weight savings on the car.
For the next 13 years, the C4 was sold. The LT1 engines were introduced to the corvettes in 1992. These engines were also introduced into the CamaroA?€???s in 1993.
The famous LS1 engine came later in the 1997-2004 Corvettes which featured a 5.7 liter 345 horsepower model. The newly designed engine took the car from 0-60 mph in only 5 seconds and performed the quarter mile in 13.4 seconds. The new LS6 option was introduced on the infamous Corvette Zo6 in 2001 which gave the car a higher lift camshaft, and better flowing heads. The 405 horsepower was enough to drop the 0-60 mph time down to a whopping 4 seconds, and perform the quarter mile in 12.4 seconds.
Chevrolets next model the C6 base model was nearly equivalent to the Zo6 with a newly designed LS2 6.0 Liter engine equipped with 400 horsepower in 2005, but that meant that they needed to upgrade the Zo6, and they did. In 2006, Chevrolet introduced their 198 mph Supercar. With a 427 CI 7.0 liter engine, this gave the car a monstrous 505 horsepower which will go from 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds in first gear. This translates to an 11.7 second quarter mile time. Traditionally, you would easily pay over $100,000 for this car, but you could buy this car today for under $70,000. Not only that, Chevrolet is planning on taking this a step further and releasing the corvette Blue Devil!
Although GM has fallen behind Toyota in terms of revenue and profit, they sure still know how to make great cars.
