In today’s community question, we decided to toy with your heart strings a bit. With the 2017 C7 Corvette Grand Sport as the new kid on the block, does it do enough to sway you away from a 2016 C7 Corvette Z06?
Thankfully, these two beasts don’t compete with each other, but only strengthen the Corvette’s brand. The C7 Corvette Grand Sport takes nearly everything that makes the C7 Z06 so great, and places it together with the 6.2-liter LT1 V8 engine. That includes some styling cues, but also its aerodynamics and extra grip.
The C7 Corvette Z06 it still in a totally different league, though. Its 6.2-liter LT4 supercharged V8 engine dials things up way past 11. The power is there for better or for worse, with some saying there’s simply too much power for the car to handle. That’s for the individual to decide.
Either Corvette variant would make a lovely companion, but we’d have to take home the Grand Sport in this situation. We love the supercharged small-block, but natural aspiration is oh so charming.
Now, it’s your turn. Go ahead and vote in the poll below, and talk to us in the comment section below.
Comments
I have a 2011 Corvette Grand Sport, which I bought new. I bought it because I love the aggressive looks of the C6 Z06, but don’t need or want the hose power. I think the Grand Sport is the perfect combination of aggressive looks, performance and value. I believe Grand Sports represent nearly half of all Corvettes sold from 2010 to 2013…If I’m correct a lot of people agreed with my assessment. I think the C7 Grand Sport will present the same value proposition and will therefore be just as popular. But I’ll keep my C6 Grand Sport, in my opinion its much more aggressive looking and I love the big round tail lights,
AND YOU ARE A BULLSHIT! I WILL BUY THE VOLT!
I voted GS but this poll is rather useless when we don’t know the exact price point(s) of the GS or how it exactly will be equipped for said price point(s). The whole bang for the buck perspective plays a major role here and IF the GS is truly a Z06 without the blower, then the price needs to be below what the difference is between the LT1 and LT4. According to GM Performance, there is only a $5K max difference between the two powerplants so to me, there needs to be a considerable price difference between the GS and Z06 or I’ll just go Z06 as in the long run, the Z06 will be worth more than $5K difference between the two engines, IMHO.
Give me Naturally Aspirated Grand Sport ANY day it’s the mark of REAL power.
GS all day any day. The looks and more street friendly bits of the Z06, without the “cus racecar” ridiculousness of the Z06. In a word, the perfect street bruiser. And if 450hp isn’t enough for you, the options for increasing the output are nearly limitless: bigger cam, heads, stroking, turbos, nitrous, supercharging, some crazy combo of ALL of the above. I love choice, and the GS just enables more of what I love!
Grand Sport is the best option if I were to choose a C7 to have in my driveway! This generation Z06 is a tad too much given its inability to properly put its power down.
Depends on what you want to use the car for, street or track. If you are going to track the car heavily, then, the Z06 is the obvious choice when you can actually drive to the edge and then spend another 20K on suspension mods tuning the car for the way you drive, because that is what we do. But if you are just going to enjoy the car on the street, the Grand Sport is the car to have. It has all the bells and whistles of the Z06 and it is such a wonderfully balanced car. Where the Z06 is less forgiving and sometimes tries to kill you, the Grand Sport is easier to drive and gives you plently of feedback before spinning the car out with terminal throttle oversteer. Even if you only track the car once ar twice a year, the GS is the ticket. I like both cars, but like the articles points out, they are two completely different cars. So if you are honest with yourself, the choice will be obvious. For myself, I already have several purpose built race cars, so this will be my street car and I am getting a GS.
Both cars amazing grip /stopping power especially w z07
Bought a 17 z06/z07. With the dealer discounts and GM incentives my car came in at $82k ($97k MSRP)
I have seen plenty of GS z07 3LZ cars in the $90k+
Can’t justify the big spend on that LT1.
Btw the admiral blue with the white stinger/ roof stripe and red heritage gender stripes/ black cup wheels is the way to go as far as color combo