Daily Slideshow: 5 Best Corvettes from SEMA Over the Years
SEMA plays host to dozens upon dozens of cars, trucks, and pretty much anything you can stick an engine into. However, among the plethora of vehicles were these special Corvettes that caught our eye.
Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype
As talk about a mid-engined Corvette shows no sign of slowing, SEMA attendees had the chance to ogle a real live example of the breed. The Corvette Daytona Prototype signaled Chevy's full return to Daytona after years as an engine-only constructor. Action Express Racing took this sharp-looking example to victory at the 2015 12 Hours of Sebring, and it features a tube frame chassis of hybrid steel and aluminum, and a 5.5-liter V-8 pumping out a spec. 560 horsepower.
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Corvette Carbon Edition 65
As the name suggests, Chevrolet is producing the Corvette Carbon Edition 65 to commemorate the birth of the Corvette on June 30, 1953. On sale in the first quarter of 2018, the Carbon Edition 65 package is available on Grand Sport 3LT and Z06 3LZ models (order code Z30). Production, which is limited to 650 models, also includes the following goodies:
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Ceramic Matrix Gray exterior (blue top on Convertibles)
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Unique fender stripes and door graphics
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Black wheels with machined grooves (Cup-style wheels for Grand Sport and Blade-style wheels for Z06)
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Blue brake calipers
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Visible carbon-fiber ground effects, hood section and roof (Coupe models) or tonneau inserts (Convertible models)
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New visible carbon-fiber spoiler (all models) and quarter intake ducts (Coupe)
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Center caps with Carbon logo
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Carbon Flash badges and outside mirrors
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Jet Black suede-wrapped interior with blue stitching
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Carbon-fiber steering wheel rim and gloss carbon-fiber interior trim
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Competition Sport seats
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Carbon Edition sill plates
Ligenfelter C3
Although they're best known for amping up the power quotient on late model Corvettes, Lingenfelter has waved their magic wand over the C3 that you see here. Putting out over 680 horsepower is a start, but as with their modern Vettes, this Stingray offers more than an impressive power curve. Their flared-out coupe was designed to terrorize your local autocross courses with aplomb, well, aplomb and a RideTech suspension, big Forgeline wheels shod with BFGoodrich g-Force Rival rubber, and Wilwood brakes at all four corners.
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American Force C7 Z06
Do you love your C7's performance and reliability but wish it looked more like a Ferrari 458? Or maybe you wanted both, but only had garage space for the one. American Force's C7 Corvette is here to help you out, their front end treatment modifies the headlights of this Z06 to push the Vette's look a little closer to 458 Italia territory. We don't mind it, though we're still undecided about the look of their directional, multi-piece, carbon-fiber American Force Muscle wheels. What's your verdict?
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Mickey Thompson and Smokey Yunick "Mystery-Motor" C2
As pretty as split-window Corvettes are, this particular C2 holds a special place in history. It was raced by Mickey Thompson and under its hood is a prototype engine built by Smokey Yunick. Chevrolet produced 50 or less of these Mark II 427s as development aids for the big block "rat" motors that would come after. The example in the car you see above is the only existing racing version of the Mystery Motor on the planet and was recently dyno-ed by Hot Rod. They limited the revs to 6000, it is 50+ years old after all, but nevertheless came up with a respectable 440 horsepower and 435 lb-ft of torque. Chevy used these engines to test things like screw-in rocker studs, and it mixes some of the features of 409s, like its bore spacing and bore-to-stroke ratio, with later big block features like canted-valve combustion chambers. This is a car that could change a person's answer to the question, "what's your favorite Corvette?" It's a credit to SEMA that 1963 and 2018 can coexist so seamlessly at their event.
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