Best 2017 Chevrolet Corvette Grand

Indeed, the 2017 Corvette Grand Sport adopts the strategy of borrowing suspension components and wider wheels and tires from a burlier variant and mixing them with the standard V-8 engine option. Just as the C6 Grand Sport got fat fenders, wider wheels and tires, and a sportier suspension tune designed to offer Corvette Z06–levels of handling in a more affordable package, so, too, does the C7 variant.

Wider is Better

Chevrolet bolts to the ’17 Grand Sport the current Z06’s cooling systems, wider rear fenders, and a look-alike grille. The 19-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels wear Z06-fitment 285/30 and 335/25 Michelin Pilot Super Sport rubber. The regular Corvette’s optional Magnetic Ride Control adjustable dampers come standard, as do specially tuned anti-roll bars and front and rear transverse composite leaf springs. The GS’s brakes are in-betweeners, with 14-inch front rotors and 13.4-inch rears being larger than the Corvette Stingray’s (even those on the optional Z51 performance package) but smaller than those on the Z06. Brembo six-piston calipers squeeze the front rotors, while four-piston units clamp the rears. Finally, the Stingray Z51’s electronically controlled rear differential is standard.

Power comes from the same LT1 6.2-liter V-8 engine used by Corvette Stingrays, albeit with those models’ optional dual-mode exhaust bolted up to every example. The sweet-sounding exhaust adds loudness and five horsepower to the Corvette’s V-8, bringing the sums to hellaciously loud and 460 horsepower. Chevrolet will offer both its seven-speed manual transmission and its eight-speed automatic, and the Grand Sport will be available in both coupe and convertible body styles. The fender hash stripes are optional—in your choice of six colors!—and so, too, are full-length body stripes.

Critically, the Grand Sport’s V-8 borrows its dry-sump lubrication system from the Z51-package Corvette Stingray. This lubrication setup is well equipped to handle engine oiling during high-g cornering—and the Grand Sport is certainly capable of some seriously high-g cornering, with Chevrolet claiming that this newest Vette can pull 1.05 g of lateral grip on the standard Michelin tires. The optional Z07 package is modeled after the Corvette Z06’s identically named bundle and brings that figure to a claimed 1.20 g. The Z07 kit includes Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, carbon-ceramic brakes, and a passel of functional carbon-fiber pieces for aerodynamics. Of course, testing procedures and the size of the test skidpad can affect lateral-g readings, but we’ve coaxed 1.19 g out of a Z07-equipped Corvette Z06 on our 300-foot-diameter skidpad. Which is to say that Chevy’s estimates for the Grand Sport might not be hyperbole.