Chevrolet Corvette 2017 Grand Sport: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know

Chevrolet’s 2017 Corvette Grand Sport borrowed nearly every piece of the supercharged Z06’s wide-body chassis, brakes, and aero, then deliberately left out the supercharger itself. That decision made the naturally aspirated Grand Sport the second most popular C7 variant that year, trailing only the base Stingray in production numbers. Here’s why Chevy’s restraint turned out to be the smarter engineering call for most buyers.

Take a look at the recently announced Chevrolet Corvette GS. With all the features of the Z06 sans super charger, this Corvette is for those looking for the handling of its bigger brother at a more affordable price point.

What happens when an automaker builds the ultimate track car, then deliberately leaves out the part everyone assumes is the whole point? That is essentially the question Chevrolet answered when it revived the Grand Sport name for the C7 Corvette. Instead of stuffing the supercharged 650-horsepower LT4 from the Z06 under the hood, engineers handed the 2017 Grand Sport the naturally aspirated 460-horsepower LT1 — the same engine as the base Stingray — while bolting on nearly every piece of the Z06’s wide-body chassis, aero, and braking hardware. Why would Chevrolet build a car this capable and then intentionally hold back on power? The answer says a lot about who this Corvette was really built for.

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Borrowing the Z06’s Hardware Without Its Heat Problem

The Z06’s supercharged LT4 was blisteringly fast, but it also ran hot enough on track days that Chevrolet built elaborate cooling systems just to keep it alive through repeated hot laps. The Grand Sport sidestepped that entire problem by pairing the Stingray’s naturally aspirated 6.2-liter LT1 with the Z06’s wider fenders, upgraded cooling, Michelin Pilot Super Sport Cup 2 tires, and a Brembo brake system carried over almost wholesale from its supercharged sibling.

Chevrolet also offered the Z07 performance package on the Grand Sport, which added even larger carbon-ceramic brake rotors and pushed the estimated 60-0 mph stopping distance under 100 feet. Equipped with the Z07 package and the eight-speed paddle-shift automatic, a Grand Sport could run the quarter mile in roughly 11.8 seconds at 118 mph — numbers that put it within shouting distance of cars costing far more.

The Numbers Behind Chevy’s Best-Kept Secret

Chevrolet built a total of 32,782 Corvettes for the 2017 model year. Of those, the Z06 accounted for roughly 18.9 percent of production — around 6,200 cars — while the Grand Sport claimed about 30.2 percent, making it the second most popular C7 variant behind the base Stingray. That production split tells its own story: far more buyers wanted the Z06’s track-honed chassis than wanted to deal with a supercharged engine’s heat, maintenance, and insurance premiums.

For muscle car and sports car enthusiasts alike, the Grand Sport occupies a sweet spot that has aged well in the used market. It offers nearly all of the Z06’s cornering ability and visual drama — the flared fenders, the functional hood vents, the fender badging — without the ownership headaches that have made some supercharged Z06s expensive to maintain long after warranty coverage runs out.

That combination of usability and performance is exactly why the Grand Sport nameplate carries weight with collectors today. It revives a name Chevrolet first used on a handful of lightweight 1963 racing Corvettes built to battle Shelby Cobras, and the 2017 version honors that legacy by prioritizing balanced, everyday-drivable performance over headline horsepower numbers.

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