The Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport recipe has been pretty simple. Take the base engine and place it in the Vette’s wide-body envelope with all the available chassis upgrades. They call this the “sweet spot” because you get all the handling and braking of the monsters at the top of the lineup but without the expense and complexity of their beastly engines. In this case, propulsion comes courtesy of the new naturally aspirated LS6 V-8 from the base Corvette Stingray, which got an injection of at least 40 horsepower and 50 pound-feet of torque just in time for the arrival of this generation’s Grand Sport.
Actually, we should say Grand Sports, because there’s a new variant that goes by the name of Grand Sport X (and takes the place of the outgoing E-Ray model). It’s a bit of a mouthful, we admit, and we’re always saying GSX around the office. You have our permission to do the same.
While thebaseGrand Sport (wrap your head around that one) delivers the same 535 horsepower and 520 pound-feet as the Stingray, the Grand Sport X packs a mighty 721 horsepower thanks to the addition of a front-axle electric motor plucked fromthe ZR1X. Its tiny battery pack is situated in the center of the car in the tunnel between the occupants. This so-called eAWD hybrid system adds 186 horsepower and 145 pound-feet of instantly available torque to the front axle, a boon at launch—and also when pulling out of corners, thanks to insane levels of torque vectoring. There is a slight penalty for all of this, of course, as the GSX gains around 300 pounds, most of it up front between the wheels. On the other hand, it pips the regular Grand Sport for fuel economy, earning 18 mpg combined for the X versus 17 mpg combined for the regular edition.
The X comes standard with numerous goodies that are optional on the Grand Sport, including carbon-ceramic brakes, Magnetic Ride Control, enhanced powertrain cooling, and Performance Traction Management. The Grand Sport X features monster all-season Michelin tires, sized 275/30ZR-20 in the front and 345/25ZR-21 at the rear, and the touring suspension (softer springs and damper tuning, essentially) for $112,195. The Sport Performance package swaps in stiffer springs and a calibration for the adaptive magnetorheological dampers to match, plus Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires, for just $500 more.