[POLL] What’s Your Favorite C8 Corvette?

Photo Credits: Chevrolet

With the introduction of the Grand Sport twins for the 2027 model year, Chevrolet says the C8 Corvette family is complete. Like parents sending their kids off to college or walking a daughter down the aisle, this occasion has us pulling out the old scrapbooks to reminisce on how fast the car that feels like a member of our family has grown up while contemplating our favorite age of an incredible generation that’s produced no fewer than eight distinct models in as many years of production.

Stingray 1.0

Or, Stingray 6.2, if you will. The car that after literal decades of reports, rumors, and rumblings finally dropped a bomb on the sports car establishment by bringing mid-engine V8 mysticism to the masses with an optional power-retractable hardtop convertible, 495 horsepower, the ability to post quarter mile times previously only imaginable in supercharged “Z” badged models – 11.2 seconds at 122 mph – and still provide the comfort and daily usability of a true Corvette all starting at just $60,000. To say it was a gamechanger is to take top prize at the understatement games.

Z06

If the Stingray was a bomb, then the Z06 was a Death Star. Not only did the new ‘Vette wear classic Italians proportions, but this is where it proved that it could sing all the Italian hits, too. The largest Ferrari-style flat-plane crank V8 ever fitted to a production car (after years of testing and proving itself in competition in the C8.R) made the first C8 sub model into a bona fide exotic. With an 8,600 rpm redline, it revs to the moon, and on the way there, it makes more horsepower than any naturally aspirated production V8 in history – with its peak of 670 ponies besting the previous mark held by Mercedes-AMG by nearly 50 HP.

Grand Sport

It took eight excruciating years, but “Goldilocks” is finally back in the Corvette lineup for 2027, and it debuts a hot new generation of the venerable Chevy Small-Block in the process. Under the glass of the C8 GS’s sultry wide fenders resides a new 409-cube (6.7L) V8 that’s so good that it earned the legendary LS6 moniker. It ups the ante to 535 horsepower, and a monster 520 lb-ft of torque: the most twist ever seen from a free-breathing V8 in the SAE net ratings era. That motivator combined with the best paint scheme in the entire portfolio should easily catapult the GS back to the sales-leader status it enjoyed during the C6 and C7 generations.

Stingray 2.0

The new Grand Sport isn’t the only model on the receiving end of the LS6’s debut. In an ironic reversal of fortune from previous generations, it’s now the base Stingray that gets GS muscle after lending its big brother its LS3 from 2010-13 and LT1 from 2017-19. 535 represents a significant power grab, compared to the 495-horse 2020-2026 cars that were already capable of ripping off sub-three-second 0-60 sprints. The seemingly underappreciated base of the pyramid just got its mojo back!

E-Ray

Speaking of underappreciated, or maybe just misunderstood, “the Corvette of firsts,” just solidified starring roles in hundreds of future “did you know,” “have you heard of,” and suspenseful “this forgotten model was the genesis of hybrid and AWD ‘Vettes” articles and videos. The E-Ray has been retired after just three model years and fewer than 6,000 units sold (5,375 as of 4/3, according to the C8 production tracker). While it’s easy to pick on Ol’ ‘Ray for the lack of traction in the marketplace, you can’t argue against the traction its trick front axle brought to testing. When it hit the scene, it instantly became the quickest ‘Vette Car and Driver had ever tested, hitting 60 in just 2.5 seconds – .4 ahead of the 100-HP richer 2019 ZR1. It earned rave reviews from everyone who ever got a chance behind the wheel and stands out as an engineering marvel.

Grand Sport X

The E-Ray is dead, long live the GSX! Taking ‘Ray’s spot (and elevating it to new heights) is the new-for-’27 Grand Sport X that adds its predecessor’s electrified front axle – now in extra-strength 186 HP potency – to the widebody/LS6 recipe of the traditional GS. The result is a 721-horse AWD beast that should give the next car on the list a run for its money at any streetlight in America. With Z06+51 horsepower and a cleaver new designation, the GSX is going to be the car world’s most interesting case study in branding and judging by early hype surrounding the E-Ray by another name, this middle child’s sales woes should be a thing of the past!

ZR1

The modern rendition of the King of the Hill bolted the biggest turbos ever fitted to a production car to a beefed-up version of the Z06’s screaming DOHC V8 to the tune of 1,064 horsepower (which is, against all odds, actually underrated!). Throw in the most extreme aero package ever fitted to a civilian General Motors product, and you’ve got a track terror capable of giving everyone from McLaren to Porsche nightmares while also being as livable as a Stingray. This unthinkable miracle is where people really started thinking that maybe the Corvette team was into some sort of witchcraft.

ZR1X

But wait, somehow, there’s more. Add the driven front wheels from the E-Ray/GSX to the ZR1 recipe, the mainstream American hyper car is born. 1,250 combined HP in a Corvette that can even be driven in the snow; we’re still speechless. What can they possibly think of next?

All of this begs the question; what one is your favorite? Good luck choosing from this lineup, Corvette Nation!

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Photos by Chevrolet

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