When Mike Duff drove the Corvette Grand Sport for PH last year, he wrote that it was a little like trying to pen a review of the Lunar Rover, so unlikely was it that one would ever actually cross our paths. Well, here one is - one of several currently for sale in the PH Classifieds, in fact.
Sitting persuasively between the standard Stingray and the range-topping Z06, the Grand Sport, with its 460hp, 465lb ft and 3.8 seconds 0 to 60mph time, might actually be the best suited to British roads. It may not make quite as much sense here as it does on those long, lumbering US highways, but American cars are good now, remember, and as we discovered during our recent time with the Steeda Mustang, they can still be an awful lot of fun on this side of the pond.
Sure, quenching the thirst of the dry-sumped 6.2-litre V8 isn't going to be cheap, but what performance car is? And it's left-hand drive, but that hasn't put people off E30 M3s or Delta Integrales, or cheaper imported F355s for that matter. And just look at it, it's every inch a proper American sports car with its bulbous bonnet, quad exhausts and racing stripes.
At the best part of £90,000 you'd no doubt have to be seriously into your Americana to justify not spending the money on any of the myriad alternatives. But should you do so, you'll be in for an ownership experience quite unlike anything offered by a European performance coupe.
Then again, Mike did also decide that he'd likely enjoy the 'vette a lot less in the UK than he did in Michigan, and the low mileage of this example suggests that someone else came to the same conclusion. Perhaps it's an idea best left on paper. Although someone probably said that about the Lunar Rover, too - and look how that turned out.
SPECIFICATION - CORVETTE GRAND SPORT
Engine: 6,162cc V8
Transmission: 7-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 460@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 465@4,600rpm
0-60mph: 3.6sec
Top speed: 175mph
Weight: 1,590kg (manufacturer figure)
MPG: 25 (est.)
CO2: Are you, or have you ever been, a communist?
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