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The 2014 Corvette Stingray spent seven years and three delayed launch dates becoming GM’s answer to a demographic problem nobody wanted to say out loud. Carbon fiber panels, a 455-horsepower LT1 V8, and a completely redesigned cabin were only part of the plan — the rest played out in a video game and at Indianapolis. Read on to find out how a seventh-generation Corvette tried to out-argue its own reputation.
The Corvette almost didn’t survive its own first decade. Built from fiberglass because postwar steel was scarce, sold in a color palette limited to white, and slower to stop than it was to go, the original 1953 Corvette came close to cancellation before Ford’s Thunderbird forced Chevrolet’s hand. What followed was a rapid string of changes — a real V8, a fuel-injected small-block, a bored-out 327 — that turned an awkward experiment into the car GM couldn’t afford to kill. Read on to find out how it got there.