About the only area where the Corvette can't match its European or Japanese competition on numbers is with its relatively inexpensive price.

With 0 – 60 time in less than four seconds, the 2010 version of the Corvette Grand Sport can run with just about anything sold — at any price.

And that’s not only straight line. performance that American muscle cars were notorious for.  Grand Sport delivers 1.0g on a skid pad, and has pavement ripping stopping distances as well. It can truly to it all.

“These numbers are unmatched by any of Corvette’s competitors,” says Karen Rafferty, Chevrolet Product Marketing Director, who also noted Grand Sport ‘s 26 highway mpg  performance.

No argument here from us.

GM Bowling Green Assembly employees with the 1,500,000th Corvette, a 2009 convertible.

About the only place the car is  bit light on numbers is its price. The Grand Sport coupe will sell  starting at only $55,720 and GS convertible is $59,530. Both of these  prices include a $950 destination freight charge. That’s tens of thousands dollars less than European or Japanese sports cars with equivalent performance capabilities.  

The new car, of course, is named after a Grand Sport that was originally created by Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov in 1963 as a factory-built, lightweight racing model that successfully challenged all domestic and overseas competitors in the hotly contested road races of the 1960s.

Unlike the original cars, the new Grand Sport models are spread across the line, including both coupe and convertible body styles, with either a six-speed manual or a six-speed paddle-shift automatic transmission.

The LS3 6.2L V8 engine is rated at 430 horsepower (321 kW) and 424 pound feet of torque (575 Nm) with the standard exhaust system. An optional two-mode exhaust system elevates the power ratings to 436 horsepower (325 kW) and 428 pound feet (580 Nm).

Grand Sport coupe models equipped with the manual transmission are ready for the race track, with a dry-sump oiling system, differential cooler and a rear-mounted battery.  They likely will be as successful as their namesakes.