The 2009 Corvette ZR1 is the fastest, most powerful automobile ever produced by General Motors. But it may be the last in a long tradition of muscle cars, says the Corvette's chief engineer, Tadge Juechter

When General Motors Corp. pulls the cover off a new supercharged version of the Corvette at the Detroit auto show next month, it will unveil a performance car designed to rival or better even the fastest, most expensive exotic cars from Europe

High-performance vehicles such as this may actually be legislated out of existence," Tadge Juechter said at a recent showing of the ZR1, which is designed to have around 620 horsepower.

President Bush on Wednesday signed into law legislation that will bring more fuel-efficient vehicles into auto showrooms and require wider use of ethanol, calling it "a major step" toward energy independence and easing global warming.

The legislation requires automakers to increase fuel efficiency by 40 percent to an industry average 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

i was wondering when/if this day would come,

down the road fellas, our "sports" cars may only be 200hp, and get 30 mpg

 

For how few corvettes they sell, I'd think they can keep them with poor mileage, if that's what they want.

Since the CAFE standards are sales weighted, it's much more important for them to improve thier larger selling models.

 

And at a $100k they won't be selling many of the '09 ZR1's

 

But this does hurt their futire sales of camaros, which will sell like hotcakes next year, and Ford's mustang, which is a decent chunk of their sales numbers.

 

I remember this happing once before. The headlines read "End of the Muscle car era" have befallen us with the implementation of the "CAFE" standards from congress. The year was 1975. There were few crappy years of sluggish cars but,, the auto manufacturers finally quite pouting and got to work on building muscle cars again around the cafe standards. They'll ****, moan and groan, but in the end, we will have 600 hp diesel powered corvettes.

 

Whats new? this has been happening since the original EPA act of 1970....

 

a diesel vette would be a good laugh though...

 

Get to laughing!
http://cars.about.com/b/2007/04/01/c...r-for-2009.htm

 

I wonder how much of that 620 HP it takes to go 65 or 75 mph? Seriously, who the hell needs that kind of horsepower in any car? I'm not saying I want them banned or legislated away or anything but who is this going to affect?

The car companys have been doing pretty good getting horsepower figures well into the 200's and even 300 HP is routine for family cars. And they do pretty good on gas.

If they would keep the performance at reasonable levels and not try to make every car a sports car, they would have no problem reaching the higher mileage goals,

 

I fully believe in being able to buy a 600+ HP car from a showroom floor. well, at least 500HP...

I am laughin at the diesel. it is funny. really is. would be impresive to see AND hear though on the road.

 

Well said. But you don't even have to go back 30 years to find an example. Heck, it wasn't even 15 years ago that a stock 5.0L V8 Cobra "boasted" 235 hp. Today Ford is getting 265 hp out of a 3.5L V6, with better gas mileage and less NVH, to boot.

 

and that V6 stang is pretty impressive, one of my younger sis's has one, it is a blast to drive. That cobra has to be absolutaly amazing to drive. Thtat V6 feels almost as fast as the old 306 HP '65 cobra stangs I have driven a few times

 

Actually, the V6 in the '05+ Mustang is the 205 hp 4.0L SOHC, the same 4.0L you will find in '01+ Rangers and '97+ Explorers. The newer 3.5L Duratec V6 can be found in the Edge and Taurus, and a few other models, I believe.

 

the 2009 'vette with 350 HP, 675#' torque and 0-60 in four seconds? The laughing will be by the guy driving the Corvette leaving the competition at the starting line.

I just hope they get better reliability out of the 5.7L diesel this time around. That 350 diesel we had in our '78 Olds was great for the first 60k miles - until the head gaskets and the injector pump went. Out went the diesel, in went the 454....

 

Completely differant animal. The new 5.7 diesel is a joint venture with Isuzu (i think) The only thing thats the same is the fuel.