March Corvette Madness – The Detroit Bureau’s Final Four!

Well, since my regular March Madness brackets are already busted, the timing is right here to just move on to a much better topic. Let’s talk about my #1 seeds in CorvetteBlogger’s Corvette Madness tournament.

My selections cover 4 generations (ok, technically 5) of Corvette history. They are the quintessential cars you first think of when tasked with picking the best Corvette. We start at the very beginning paying homage to the reason why we even have a CorvetteBlogger.com, stop in the middle with the ultimate big block Corvette, kick the malaise era right in the face, and then wrap up in the current day as our hobby turns a corner for its next 70 years.

1953 Corvette

With America rolling after WWII, Chevrolet needed something different, something sporty. What they came up with was stylish 2-seater like no American automaker had produced before. Unfortunately, it was powered by 6-cylinder truck-based engine. Despite the lack luster performance, the new Corvette was an instant hit and quickly developed a community of loyal followers. Our Corvette hobby begins here so the 1953 Corvette gets the #1 overall seed in this bracket.

The L88 Corvette

I know this isn’t a single Corvette, but you can select the year of your choice here – 1967, 1968, or 1969. The L88 exemplifies the excess of the late 60’s and early 70’s. They’re loud, hard to start due to ridiculous compression, overheat easily, and were underrated intentionally by the factory to keep them under the radar. They were the Area 51 of Corvette engines at the time. Only a select few knew they existed so only 216 were made over the 3-year run. Today, a real L88 Corvette costs more than most houses.

The 1990-1995 ZR-1

I’ve been a ZR1 fanboy since the day they arrived in 1990. I was 14 years old and still getting into cars, when the automotive world was all a flutter (back then we read magazines) with this monster Corvette sporting an exotic 4-cam, 32-valve engine. 0-60 in just over 4 seconds? 180mph+ top speed? Only European exotics can do that! Not anymore, here comes the old red, white, and blue riding shotgun in a 2-seater built in Kentucky. No “best of” Corvette list is complete without the King of the Hill. Period.

The C8 Corvette

Everything evolves. Even Corvettes. Living in metro Detroit my whole life, I’ve heard the mid-engine Corvette rumors for more years than most. When the C8 layout was confirmed, it just made sense to me. It’s the logical next step for a car that had done basically everything you could do with a front engine layout. It was now time to take on the exotics at their own game, but now on our terms. We’re still throwing a big, honking pushrod V8 at you. You just sit in front of it now. The colors are brighter (hello Accelerate Yellow), the manual transmission is gone (hello DCT), and the cost has gone up, but that’s still a small percentage of the price of many cars it’ll beat on the track. Now, we’ve got another overhead cam V8, and even a hybrid version. As the C8 evolves, so does the automotive industry. Corvette will still be there as electrification becomes the main mode of propulsion. Folks, this is 1953 all over again and Corvette still demands your attention as much as it ever did.

So that’s my Final Four flavored trip through Corvette history. Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below. Did I select the correct 4? Or do you have an upset special ready to take down one of my favorites?

This is Part III of our Question of the Week series about a mythical “Corvette Madness” Tournament. You can read the previous entries from Alex and Mitch.

Related:
In a “Corvette Madness” Tournament, Which Years/Models Would Earn Your Four #1 Seeds?
Mitch Makes His Final Four Picks in our Mythical “Corvette Madness” Tournament
Question of the Week: The Ultimate Two Corvette Garage