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Chevrolet Corvette C7: Stingray, Grand Sport, Z06 and ZR1 guide

28 October 2026

Red C7 Corvette Stingray coupe with a black bonnet vent and split-spoke wheels, parked on a wet forecourt
A 2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT with the Z51 package, in Torch Red, New Castle, Pennsylvania, October 2023. Photo: MercurySable99, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Chevrolet Corvette C7 is the seventh of the Corvette’s generations, built by General Motors at Bowling Green, Kentucky, for the 2014 to 2019 model years and the last Corvette with its engine in front of the driver. It came as the Stingray, Grand Sport, supercharged Z06 and 755 hp ZR1, and Chevrolet built 189,507 of them. In the UK it was sold new in left-hand drive only, from £61,495; in the US a base C7 now sells at auction for about $43,000.

History and development of the Chevrolet Corvette C7

The Corvette C7 made its debut, as the 2014 Stingray, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on 13 January 2013, to go on sale in the third quarter of that year. Chevrolet’s launch release said the new car shared only two parts with its predecessor, the C6, and that Bowling Green had been given a $131 million upgrade, about $52 million of it for a body shop to make the aluminium frame in-house for the first time.

Red C7 Corvette Stingray coupe on a turntable under the Corvette crossed-flags sign, with a 1953 Corvette at the left edge
The 2014 Stingray on its stand at the Detroit show where it was launched, January 2013. Photo: Sarah Larson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Detroit launch

GM held the unveiling the night before the show opened, SkiddMark reported on 14 January 2013: Lenny Kravitz played American Woman, and the C7 was introduced by Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, Tadge Juechter, the Corvette’s chief engineer, and Ed Welburn, GM’s vice president of global design, in a 20-minute presentation. Welburn called the car “lower, longer, wider, more exotic but obviously still Corvette”.

The report questioned GM’s claim that the C7 was “defying convention”: a mid-engined, twin-turbo V6 would have defied convention, it argued, while a 6.2-litre two-seater with a long nose was exactly what a Corvette was expected to be. It also pointed out that the Active Rev Matching GM presented as unique had been on the Nissan 370Z since 2009. On the styling, it said the car “still looks unmistakeably American”, and it gave the car an opening four out of five. It quoted the line “the 2014 Corvette delivers the fastest acceleration, the most cornering grip, the most track capability, the best braking performance and what we expect to be the best fuel economy ever for a standard Corvette” as Welburn’s; GM’s own release gives it to Juechter.

The 2013 report also carried GM’s plan to build the C7 in right-hand drive for markets such as the UK, South Africa, Japan and Australia. No C7 was ever built in right-hand drive.

Model years and the end of production

The supercharged Z06 followed for the 2015 model year, the Grand Sport for 2017 and the ZR1 for 2019. The 2018 model year was cut short by a shutdown at Bowling Green in the second half of 2017, and only 9,686 2018 cars were built, the lowest annual total since 1959 according to Corvette Blogger’s 2018 production figures. The last C7, a black Z06 with the seven-speed manual, left the line on 14 November 2019, Hagerty reported. It had already been sold at Barrett-Jackson for $2.7 million for the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Its successor, the C8, moved the engine behind the cabin.

Design and engineering

The Corvette C7 kept the front-mid-engine, rear-drive layout of earlier Corvettes, with the gearbox at the back as a transaxle, but almost everything else was new. Chevrolet’s preliminary specification lists a hydroformed aluminium frame, composite and carbon-fibre body panels, double-wishbone suspension at each corner with transverse composite leaf springs, and a 50:50 weight distribution. It was a new platform: the frame was made in-house at Bowling Green. The bonnet and the removable roof panel are carbon fibre; the wings, doors and rear quarters are composite. Inside, the launch release listed real carbon fibre, aluminium and hand-wrapped leather, two seats with magnesium frames and two eight-inch configurable screens.

Autocar’s road test gives the frame as 60 per cent stiffer than the aluminium one in the C6 ZR1 and 45kg lighter than the steel frame of the standard C6. Its testers measured 1.15g of cornering grip, a 4.4-second 0–60mph run and a 12.6-second standing quarter mile in a European-specification manual Stingray.

The LT1, LT4 and LT5 engines

Every C7 has a 6,162cc pushrod V8 with two valves per cylinder. The LT1 in the Stingray and Grand Sport is a fifth-generation (Gen V) small-block, with direct injection, variable valve timing, cylinder deactivation (GM calls it Active Fuel Management) and an 11.5:1 compression ratio. Its rating was confirmed in May 2013, AutoGuide reported: 455 hp, or 460 hp with the optional performance exhaust, and 460 lb ft. Autocar quotes 465 lb ft for the European car, which had the performance exhaust as standard.

The Z06’s LT4 adds a 1.7-litre Eaton supercharger that spins at up to 20,000 rpm, titanium intake valves and forged aluminium pistons, and is about an inch taller than the LT1, according to Chevrolet’s Z06 launch release. The ZR1’s LT5 has a supercharger with 52 per cent more displacement than the LT4’s and GM’s first dual fuel-injection system, with direct injection supplemented by port injection, Chevrolet’s ZR1 release says.

Black leather cockpit of a C7 Corvette with a manual gear lever, drive-mode dial and eight-inch touchscreen
A C7 Grand Sport’s cockpit with the seven-speed manual and the drive-mode dial behind the gear lever, Böblingen, Germany, 2021. Photo: Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Gearboxes

The manual transmission is a seven-speed with Active Rev Matching, which blips the throttle on both upshifts and downshifts and is switched on or off with paddles on the steering wheel. The 2014 cars offered a six-speed paddle-shift automatic; from 2015 GM’s own 8L90 eight-speed automatic replaced it, first announced with the Z06. European cars were sold with the manual only at first, Autocar says.

Performance Data Recorder

From the 2015 model year the C7 could be ordered with a Performance Data Recorder, a system that records high-definition video of the view through the windscreen from a 720p camera in the header trim, records cabin audio and overlays speed, revs, g-force and lap times. Chevrolet’s January 2014 release says it was developed with Cosworth, the British motorsport engineering company that supplied Corvette Racing’s data systems, and that its laps can be analysed in Cosworth Toolbox software. In 2019, 18,004 of the 34,822 C7s built had it, bundled with navigation, according to the National Corvette Museum’s year-end data.

The Z51 Performance Package

SkiddMark’s June 2013 report on European prices listed what it adds: an electronic limited-slip differential (eLSD), dry-sump lubrication, closer gear ratios, cooling for the differential and transmission, an aero kit, uprated springs, dampers and anti-roll bars, 19-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels and 345mm front and 338mm rear brakes. Chevrolet’s European importer fitted the Z51 package and magnetic ride dampers to every official car, and Autocar notes that GM engineers admitted the drivetrain could overheat on track or on the autobahn without the extra coolers.

Specification and performance of the Corvette C7

The Corvette C7 ran from 455 hp in the base Stingray to 755 hp in the ZR1, and the fastest version reached 212 mph. The table lists Chevrolet’s US figures for each model.

Chevrolet Corvette C7 models compared (US figures)
ModelYearsEnginePower and torque0–60 mphBase price new
Stingray2014–19LT1 6.2 V8455 hp, 460 lb ft (460 hp with performance exhaust)under 4 sec$51,995
Grand Sport2017–19LT1 6.2 V8, dry sump460 hp3.6 sec (auto, Z07 package)$66,445
Z062015–19LT4 6.2 V8, supercharged650 hp, 650 lb ft2.95 sec (auto), 3.2 sec (manual)$78,995
ZR12019LT5 6.2 V8, supercharged755 hp, 715 lb ft2.85 sec$119,995

Sources: Chevrolet’s releases for each model, including its April 2016 Grand Sport price release (price with destination charge, estimated 0–60); AutoGuide (Stingray rating, May 2013); Autoblog on the Z06’s certified 650 hp; LSX Magazine on GM’s Z06 performance figures; Automotive Addicts on the Z06 price; Carscoops on the ZR1’s acceleration; Jalopnik on the ZR1 price. The Stingray price is SkiddMark’s 2013 figure. Z06 times are for cars with the Z07 package.

How much horsepower does a Corvette C7 have?

The base model, the Stingray, has 455 hp, or 460 hp with the performance exhaust that most Z51 cars carry. The Grand Sport has 460 hp, the Z06 has 650 hp and the ZR1 has 755 hp, which Chevrolet called the highest output of any production Chevrolet at the time.

How fast is a Corvette C7?

The quickest C7 is the ZR1. Corvette product manager Harlan Charles gave its times as 0–60 mph in 2.85 seconds, 0–100 mph in six seconds and a 10.6-second quarter mile at 134 mph. Chevrolet timed it at 212 mph at the Papenburg test track in Germany, the average of runs of 214.88 mph and 210.2 mph in opposite directions, Motor Authority reported; the car is limited to 215 mph. GM quoted a 10.95-second quarter mile at 127 mph for the automatic Z06 and 11.2 seconds for the manual. For the Stingray, Chevrolet’s own claim was 0–60 in under four seconds.

Models and special editions of the Corvette C7

The Corvette C7 came in four models, each as a coupe with a removable roof panel or as a convertible with a power-folding fabric roof: the Stingray, the Z06, the Grand Sport and the ZR1. Trim levels were 1LT, 2LT and 3LT on the Stingray and Grand Sport, 1LZ to 3LZ on the Z06, and 1ZR and 3ZR on the ZR1.

Stingray coupe and convertible

The Stingray was the C7 most people bought: 33.0 per cent of 2019 production was Stingray coupes alone. The convertible was on show at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2013. The eight-speed automatic became the usual choice: in 2019, 77.6 per cent of buyers chose it over the manual transmission.

Grey C7 Corvette Stingray convertible with tan leather seats and five-spoke silver wheels on a show stand
The Stingray convertible on the Chevrolet stand at the Geneva Motor Show, March 2013. Photo: Norbert Aepli, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Z06

The Z06 was shown in Detroit in January 2014, a year after the Stingray. It was the first Z06 with a supercharged engine, an automatic gearbox and a removable roof, and Chevrolet said that with the Z07 package (Brembo carbon-ceramic brake rotors, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres and more aero) it lapped faster than the C6 ZR1. GM quoted 1.2g of cornering grip and a stop from 60 mph in 99.6 feet for a Z07 car. Chevrolet built 8,653 Z06s for 2015, more than in any earlier Z06 launch year, according to Corvette Blogger’s 2015 figures. The LT4 was built at Tonawanda, New York, and at a new Performance Build Center at Bowling Green.

Yellow C7 Corvette Z06 coupe with black wheels, black bonnet vent and a carbon front splitter, indoors
A 2015 Corvette Z06 in yellow, with the wider rear wings and larger vents of the Z06 body. Photo: Tony Hisgett, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Grand Sport

The Corvette Grand Sport, launched at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2016, pairs the Stingray’s naturally aspirated LT1 with the Z06’s chassis tuning, cooling, grille and wider rear wings. Chevrolet’s Grand Sport release lists 285/30ZR19 front and 335/25ZR20 rear Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres, six-piston front brakes, magnetic ride control as standard, and 1.05g of grip, or 1.2g with the optional Z07 package. It takes its name from the five Grand Sport racers of 1963. By 2019 it was the second best-selling C7, at 32.3 per cent of production.

Red C7 Corvette Grand Sport convertible with the roof up and silver wheels, in a car park
A Grand Sport convertible, with the Grand Sport badge on the wing vent, at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon, July 2019. Photo: Vauxford, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ZR1

The ZR1 was unveiled in Dubai on 12 November 2017 for the 2019 model year only. Its front end carries four extra radiators, bringing the total number of heat exchangers to 13, and a carbon “halo” bonnet open in the middle to clear the supercharger. It was the first ZR1 offered with an automatic. The optional ZTK package adds a two-way adjustable high wing that Chevrolet said gives about 60 per cent more downforce than a Z07 Z06, up to an estimated 950 lb. Chevrolet built 2,953 ZR1s, according to the National Corvette Museum’s 2019 year-end data.

Orange C7 Corvette ZR1 with a carbon rear wing, black wheels and an open bonnet centre, on a show stand
A ZR1 in orange with the high rear wing, Retro Classics show, Stuttgart, 2019. Photo: Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Limited editions

Most C7 special editions were trim and paint packages built in small numbers. The National Corvette Museum’s 2016 figures count 650 Z06 C7.R Editions (570 coupes and 80 convertibles). The 2017 Grand Sport Collector Edition, in Watkins Glen Gray with Tension Blue trim, was planned at 1,000 but 935 were built, Corvette Blogger’s 2017 figures show. All 650 2018 Carbon 65 Editions were built, 297 Grand Sports and 353 Z06s. The rarest is the 2019 Drivers Series Grand Sport, styled with the four Corvette Racing drivers: 95 were made, 35 Oliver Gavin, 25 Jan Magnussen, 21 Tommy Milner and 14 Antonio Garcia cars, the museum’s 2019 summary records.

The C7.R in competition

The C7.R was Corvette Racing’s GT car from 2014 to 2019, based on the Z06. The No 64 car won the GTE Pro class at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans by five laps from the No 71 Ferrari, after the No 63 car was withdrawn following Jan Magnussen’s accident in qualifying, the Le Mans organisers record. It was the C7.R’s only Le Mans win, the organisers noted before the 2019 race.

In IMSA’s GT Le Mans class the C7.R took the drivers’ and teams’ titles in 2016, with Gavin and Milner, and again in 2017, with Garcia and Magnussen, according to Corvette Racing’s October 2017 release. Chevrolet tied the road cars to it: the 2017 Grand Sport release opens with the Le Mans-winning C7.R, and the ZR1’s wings are mounted to the chassis in the same way.

Yellow Corvette C7.R number 64 in Le Mans livery with a large rear wing, driving past straw bales
The No 64 C7.R in its Le Mans colours on the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, June 2016. Photo: Matthew Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How many C7 Corvettes were made?

Chevrolet built 189,507 examples of the Corvette C7 over a production run of six model years, all at Bowling Green. The peak was 40,689 cars for 2016; the plant shutdown left 2018 at 9,686. The 2019 model year ran for about 20 months, from January 2018 to the end of production.

C7 Corvette production by model year
Model yearCars builtMain changes
201437,288Stingray coupe and convertible
201534,240Z06, eight-speed automatic
201640,689Z06 C7.R Edition
201732,782Grand Sport
20189,686Carbon 65 Edition
201934,822ZR1, Drivers Series
Total189,507

Sources: GM’s 2014 figure as reported by GTSpirit; Corvette Blogger’s final statistics for 2015, 2017 and 2018; the National Corvette Museum for 2016 and 2019 (the 2019 total also in Corvette Blogger’s 2019 figures). The total is the sum of the six years.

Most C7s stayed in the US market. In 2019 Chevrolet sent 4,047 cars abroad, 11.6 per cent of production: the museum’s data lists 2,986 for Canada, 738 for Europe and 101 for Japan. Europe took 582 cars in 2017.

The C7 in the UK

The C7 was sold new in the UK through Chevrolet’s European importer in left-hand drive only. In June 2013 the UK price of the Stingray coupe was £61,495, against $51,995 in the US, with the Z51 package standard, and options including metallic paint at £600, tintcoat paint at £1,000 and navigation at £1,450. Top Gear’s review later listed the Stingray at £62,450 and the Z06 at £87,860. Chevrolet announced that it was pulling its brand out of Europe in 2015, but still planned to bring the Corvette over in small numbers, CAR magazine reported in 2014.

White C7 Corvette Stingray with British number plate, bonnet and roof panel open, at a grass-field car show next to a C3 Corvette
A UK-registered 2019 Stingray beside a C3 at the Bristol American Classic Car Show, Keynsham, August 2025. Photo: Hugh Llewelyn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Was the C7 ever built in right-hand drive?

No. GM’s chief executive Dan Akerson told reporters the C7 would be made in right-hand drive, but Juechter told CAR it was not certain and would be years away. Every C7 left Bowling Green in left-hand drive. When the C8 was revealed in July 2019, Holden’s managing director Dave Buttner said the Corvette “will now be built in right-hand-drive for the first time ever”, Corvette Blogger reported.

How many C7s are in the UK?

The Department for Transport’s licensing statistics (table VEH0120) list 116 cars under the model name Corvette V8 Stingray at the end of June 2026, 91 of them licensed and 25 on SORN. That entry grew from 29 cars at the end of 2014 as C7s were registered; the C8 has its own entry, Corvette Stingray Auto. Many imported Corvettes of every generation sit under a generic Corvette entry with no model name, so the real number of C7s is higher.

Vehicle tax and recalls

Autocar gives the Stingray’s CO2 as 279g/km, so a C7 first registered in the UK before 1 April 2017 sits in band M, which is £790 a year on the current GOV.UK rates. One first registered later pays the standard £200 a year, plus £440 a year for five years from its second tax payment if its list price was over £40,000. The DVSA recall file has two UK recalls for the C7: airbag and pretensioner software (2016, 49 vehicles) and power-steering assistance that could be lost (2019, seven vehicles built between August 2016 and April 2017).

How much is a Corvette C7 worth?

In the US a Corvette C7 now sells at auction for about $43,000 in Stingray form and about $179,000 as a ZR1. Those are the medians of 227 sold C7s in OUTLAW 8’s auction records from 27 October 2025 to 26 October 2026, mostly from Bring a Trailer, Mecum and Cars & Bids.

C7 Corvette auction prices in the US, sold cars, 27 Oct 2025 to 26 Oct 2026
ModelCars soldLower 10%MedianUpper 10%Median a year earlier
Stingray65$34,000$42,750$55,000$43,000
Grand Sport24$47,250$55,500$69,300$56,377
Z0694$59,400$77,000$93,569$71,500
ZR144$137,777$178,750$249,000$175,000

Source: OUTLAW 8 listings database, sold auction results for 2014–2019 model-year Corvettes located in the US, one sale per VIN, race cars, conversions and salvage cars left out; the earlier column covers 27 October 2024 to 26 October 2025.

Z06 prices have risen about 8 per cent in a year while the others have held level. A Z06 now costs less at auction than its $78,995 list price in 2015, and a ZR1 sells for about half as much again as its $119,995 list price. UK auction results are few. The only one in pounds in the same records is a left-hand-drive 2019 Grand Sport that sold on Car & Classic for £49,100 in February 2026.

Is the Corvette C7 reliable? Known problems

The Corvette C7’s best-documented faults are Z06 overheating on track, a shudder from the eight-speed automatic, and bent or cracked wheels on wide-body cars. Each has a GM bulletin, warranty extension or reimbursement programme, with the dates and model years below.

Z06 overheating on track

Some early Z06s went into reduced-power mode on track in hot weather. Juechter said fewer than 5 per cent of owners reported it, and that the cooling had been designed to the long-standing Corvette target of a professional driver at 86°F, The Truth About Cars reported in July 2016. The 2017 Z06 got a bonnet with larger vents and a modified supercharger cover. In December 2020 GM extended cover on 2015–18 Z06s to seven years or 72,000 miles for the condition, with an updated radiator package and new shift calibration for automatics, Corvette Blogger reported.

Eight-speed automatic shudder

The 8L90 automatic can shudder at light throttle between 25 and 80 mph, as if driving over rumble strips. GM service bulletin 18-NA-355 (August 2019) blames torque-converter clutch shudder and calls for a fluid exchange to Mobil 1 LV ATF HP on 2015–2019 Corvettes built before 1 February 2019; later cars came with that fluid. Owners’ class action over the 8L45 and 8L90 gearboxes, Cole Ulrich v. General Motors, was allowed to proceed by a federal judge, LSX Magazine reported. The 2014 six-speed automatic and the seven-speed manual are not covered by the bulletin.

Bent and cracked wheels

Owners of 2015–2019 Z06s and 2017–2019 Grand Sports have reported wheels that bend or crack. GM’s Corvette Wheels Limited Special Reimbursement Program pays back the cost of repairing or replacing a bent or cracked wheel during the original warranty and an extended four-year, 48,000-mile period, but not where a repair record names pothole or other impact damage, The Drive reported.

Which Corvette C7 years should you avoid?

The records point to models and gearboxes more than to years. An automatic car built before February 2019 should have had the bulletin’s fluid exchange; a Z06 built before the 2017 cooling changes is the version owners most often reported overheating, and any 2015–18 Z06 may have had the radiator update; a Z06 or Grand Sport should be checked for wheel repairs. A Stingray with the seven-speed manual is outside all three.

Reception and rivals

The Corvette C7 was named the 2014 North American Car of the Year in Detroit, beating the Cadillac CTS and Mazda3, AutoGuide reported. Autocar called it “still big and brash, but so much better than you’d ever expect” and found the interior “a quantum leap” over the C6, but concluded that “the Porsche 911 remains the act to follow”. It also said that in Britain left-hand drive “places the driver in the worst part of the road”.

CAR magazine wrote that the car was “a stellar cruiser, and a fearsome sports car”, with a dead spot in the steering and poor rear visibility. Top Gear’s verdict was “terrific sportscar stands on its own for capability. Great value a bonus.”

The rival sports cars the magazines named were the Porsche 911 Carrera, the Jaguar F-Type and the Audi R8. At its 2013 UK price the C7 cost almost £12,000 less than the 345bhp 911 Carrera and had a better power-to-weight ratio than the Carrera or the R8. Autocar noted that less than £35,000 would buy the same car in the US at the time, and that the C7’s 32.7mpg touring economy was close to that of the last 911 Carrera it had tested.

Questions

What does C7 mean on a Corvette?

C7 means the seventh generation of the Corvette. The first, the C1, appeared in 1953; the C7 covered the 2014 to 2019 model years and was followed by the mid-engined C8.

Is the C7 the last front-engine Corvette?

Yes. The last C7, a black Z06, was built on 14 November 2019, and every Corvette since has had its engine behind the seats.

Does the C7 Corvette have a removable roof?

Yes. Every C7 coupe, including the Z06 and ZR1, has a removable roof panel, in carbon fibre on many cars; the convertible has a power-folding fabric roof that works at low speed.

How much did a C7 Corvette cost new in the UK?

The Stingray coupe was priced at £61,495 in June 2013 with the Z51 package standard. Top Gear later listed it at £62,450 and the Z06 at £87,860.

Which C7 Corvette is the rarest?

The 2019 Drivers Series Grand Sport: 95 were built across four liveries. The rarest single version is the Antonio Garcia car, of which 14 were made.

What engine is in a C7 Corvette?

A 6.2-litre pushrod V8: the naturally aspirated LT1 in the Stingray and Grand Sport, the supercharged LT4 in the Z06 and the supercharged LT5 in the ZR1.

Sources

chevroletcorvettesports carsamerican carsbuying guidemotorsport