Z06 rims on it.

As posted in Z06 section

Nice post and it looks like a Blade Silver or an AW - cool - it also appears to have that ground effect side skirt jog in it like the C7 Z06 - my money is on a vert, notice how the window area in the back is not like a coupe

Looks like a Z06 convertible.

Yep, it does look like a Z06 vert from the picture. If it is, that will complete the circle of everyone being able to go direct to GM for their street supercar, rather than having tuners be their first stop. I guess the next logical step for the tuners, would be maybe a larger supercharger. Thing is though, most will likely be pretty stoked with the Z06 power. Fun times ahead for everyone. I might even consider a vert this time around if the Z06 is revealed next week.

I think they should build a stripped down Corvette and call it a Chevette. It would be sweet.

My vote
 

I'm in your camp......that would be my best guess.

Bill, you bring up a good point. I have noticed that in the "delivery" pictures posted on the forum that the average age appears to be in their 60s (not being critical, I'm in my 60s). Many people said the C7 would be styled to appeal to a younger audience. While the car is successful so far, it's not bringing in that demographic.

You are overlooking the fact that most young people are very trendy. Older means wiser so old folk spot the C7 immediately as an unbelievably beautiful and hot car; ... it's an auto home run!. For the money the C7 is absolutely incredible! Just give the young folks a chance to warm up to it. Once they get there socks beat off over and over at the autocross track they will drive the price of the C7 out of sight! Quit talking about them! Enjoy your C7! What they don't know is their problem!

Sam :thumbs:

No, they should call it the Carvette...

To appeal to anybody under 35, the Corvette would need to look like this:

http://rickdebruhl.com/wp-content/up...be-300x164.jpg

I'm with the Z06 vert theory. Can't think of anything else that could be. Though the angle of the pic isn't the greatest, it certainly looks like a vert. I also imagine that whoever took that pic saw more than that photo, and the article seems to suggest that.

My thinking is that if they were going to introduce the C7 "Grandsport" they would be rolling out a coupe for the first showing, which this doesn't appear to be.

As far as an 'entry level'? No way. Just not gonna happen. The base 1LT is as low as it's ever gonna get. Yes, they want to attract the younger buyers, but they're not going to shoot themselves in the foot by alienating their current buyers to do this, and with a "low rent" Corvette they run a huge risk of doing just that. Part of this 'younger buyer' philosophy is also to attract many of these 25-40 year olds to Chevrolet. It might not be a Corvette for them right now, but the allure of the car will make many take a closer look at other Chevrolet products, that might fit their budget and/or lifestyle. The SS, Impala, Camaro, even some of the lower models like the Cruze and the Spark. Waht the C7 is doing is making it cool to own a Chevy again. These youngsters may not be able to own a Vette today, but they'll start working to get one tomorrow. That's my take on their marketing plan.

They didn't build this Corvette just for the sake of selling Corvettes. They built this Corvette to sell Chevrolet, period.

If there really be an entry level Vette, will that reduce C6 prices?

I'd buy a C7 with a 5.3L V8 motor if GM lowered the base price by around $6000. I really believe the cars would sell much quicker at that pricing.

Looks like the Z06 vert to me, as I have suspected since they announced the pending debut of a new model :thumbs:

Old people buy more Elements than young people... I'm 28 and have ALWAYS thought the box cars were ridiculous

The price advantage of the 5.3 vs the LT1 is pretty much nil... so there would be little point in installing it

I would buy a C7 in a heartbeat if they offered a decontented stripper model with basic, manual seats and a bolted-in roof panel... that would be the ideal basis for a performance build and would be the truest sports car Chevy has made in years

An "entry level" would dilute the brand.....I wouldn't wanna be seen in it and I'm sure that holds true for a lot of others.

My money is on a Z06 Convertible and, a Grand Sport of some sort.

Oh, yeah, I bet it would just destroy public perception of the Corvette :rofl: it would be fine, but I just don't see there being a profit in it for GM

If anything, I could see them doing a stripped model down the line, but one that compares to the Z06 as the Z28 does to the ZL1... meaning a stripper with some serious racing hardware and the price to match

What type of crack are you smoking? Holy ****!!

He's right... the FRC didn't sell well. To recoup the investment they got smart and created the Z06 out of it.

This new car is clearly a Z06 convertible.

I've seen quite a few C7's now with teenage kids clicking cell phone pictures of them.

No way................................... unless it came with black wheels and was a gift from his grandparents.

So you failed Marketing 101 in school huh? :rofl: :D

FLYNLO is correct. The FRC sold 4,000 copies in 1999 compared to 29,000+ regular coupes and 'verts, and in 2000 that number dropped like a brick to just over 2,000. That is a flop in any sane man's mind!

The Z06 sales pulled that number up to almost 5,800 in 2001 and 8,300 the following year. :thumbs:

The news is out.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c7-z...-released.html

And when they took that loser and made a Z06 out of it and jacked the price way, way up, it sold like hot cakes.

Wow, where did that apparent dig at GM and/or Z06 buyers come from? :crazy2:

Yes, the price increased $7,600,but the buyer got a different car. They got more power, lightweight exhaust, wider wheels, different tires, different suspension, etc. In other words, the buyer got a better performing car and did not mind paying additional for the improvements.

It's the right move. Demand should be pretty healthy, not to mention profit margins.

I wonder if GM had reversed the releases of the C5 Z06 and the FRC, if the outcome would have been different. Say, they came out with the fix roof Z06, higher performance, higher price, fixed roof, then came out with the FRC, at the coupe price point fully optioned or a little less as the 'stripped out' version as it was first released.

I would say they would have sold quite a few more FRC's, as they did with the Grand Sports for the C6. I think this is where they learned there lesson. They probably will come out with a Grand Sport version of the C7, but definitely not a cheaper version.

Hard to say, the attraction of the C5 Z06 was the incredible performance, the attraction of the GS was all in the styling. I'm not sure the FRC was so much of a styling hit - it didn't have the "wide body" appeal.

What the C5 FRC showed is that there is NOT some big pile of money that can be saved by de-contenting a Corvette. The FRC was $400 less than the coupe, if I remember correctly. The numbers posted show what a sales disappointment (by Corvette standards) the FRC was.

Jimmy

No dig at the Z06 buyers Jack. The original FRC was a sales flop and the replacement Z06 wasn't. Just shows you that people are willing to pay for a high performance version, which the FRC wasn't.

Dig at GM? I suppose so, as their high priced suits in their marketing department are supposed to know what people want, and they didn't want an el cheapo version of the Corvette, but wanted a high performance version, even at $7,600+ more.

Notice that with the C6, GM skipped over a el cheapo version and went straight to a high performance version(Z06) for some $20,000+ premium to get one the very next year.

Oh, and the GS was a high performance version as it replaced the previous Z51 but added even higher performance items such as the Z06's brakes, wheels/tires, and the dry sump system on the manual transmission coupe. It was not an el cheapo version. They made a new model, and jacked the price up over the base C6, and it sold like hot cakes.

And to top it all off, GM did not make a el cheapo C6 convertible, but made a high performance version called the 427 Convertible, that also sold like hot cakes, at a premium price.

I sort of believe that most Corvette buyers are not looking for a el cheapo version.

:iagree:

I think the only Corvette buyer who is looking "el cheapo" Corvette is the buyer who can't afford one.

In current dollars that would be a little more than $500, not anywhere near enough to budge the value calculation for any buyers. That the FRC came with limited options meant that it couldn't be priced as high as a loaded hatchback, but that just made it less desirable for many buyers (fewer available features).

:thumbs: I misunderstood your comments. Sorry. :cheers:

No problem Jack. Sometimes my comments don't come across the way I intended them to read.

They were aimed at an entirely different market. The Miata market. They sold around 30,000 in 2007(before the economy crashed) but built around 40,000 of them that year.

At $25,000, GM wasn't making any money on them, so they were easy for GM to dump. At $35,000, they would have made some money but they would have not sold as they wouldn't have been competitive with the Miata, pricewise.

At the time, the Sky/Solstice DE plant was the most modern/efficient plant that GM had, so no room to lower the manufacturing costs for the two cars, so GM could make a profit.

And they had been cleverly designed with no trunk space and a convertible top that was nowhere near as easy to operate as a Miata's . . . .

:toetap:

And then there's that.....

And don't forget the Solstice/Sky twins weighed 400 pounds more than the Miata. It's one thing to try to make a new niche, it's another when the target is RIGHT in front of you (Miata) and miss that badly.
The Solstice/Sky/Opel were GREAT show cars, sadly, they show what happens when the designers win all the battles verses the engineers (say, like, the Fisker Karma...beautiful but mythically flawed as an actual CAR).

Jimmy

The weight thing was a bit different... the components on the Kappa platform are MUCH stronger than the components on the Miata

You can literally bolt an LS2 in a Solstice and the rest of the drivetrain will hold it, and the chassis was engineered the same way, leaving plenty of headroom for the turbo variants and modifications