![\"grandsport_tadge\"](\"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/2d56ffea67e6f63b43e8c8210e9338b2143cc16e\/c=516-0-3612-2322&r=x404&c=534x401\/local\/-\/media\/2016\/07\/22\/DetroitNews\/B99420271Z.1_20160722224721_000_GO111P8PU.1-0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>Dawsonville, Georgia<\/i><\/p>\n
The much-anticipated 2017 Corvette Grand Sport debuted to the media at Atlanta Motorsports Park here this week with a bang, challenging the production car track record in the hands of pro racer Andy Pilgrim.<\/p>\n
Forecast to be the marque\u2019s best-selling trim (Stingray and Z06 are the others), the Grand Sport started production this month at a time when Corvette\u2019s Bowling Green factory is already straining to meet near-record demand at over 35,000 units for the 2016 model year. So rich are Corvette\u2019s coffers that its profits are being plowed back into major production and heritage museum upgrades. And if that wasn\u2019t enough, the C7-R race car is leading its IMSA Championship sports-car class<\/a> from a formidable field of Ford GTs, Ferraris, and Porsches.<\/p>\n Not bad for a car that was on the chopping block just eight years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we were headed toward bankruptcy, an all-new Corvette program would have been difficult to justify,\u201d says Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter, sitting trackside in Atlanta as he recalled the dark days of 2008. \u201cWe were just going to keep building the old car.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, the sixth-generation C6 Corvette was already long in the tooth \u2014 a five-year program being stretched into a ninth model year. So Juechter and his team prepared to put off the C7 for years more as the U.S. government reorganized General Motors. After billions in U.S. bailout dollars and a complete revamping of the General\u2019s brands, the seventh-gen C7 was given a green light.<\/p>\n From the ashes of old GM rose a new Corvette in 2013 \u2014 a V-8-powered Phoenix unlike any \u2019Vette that had come before.<\/p>\n Gone were the iconic round taillights. Gone were the sexy, smooth lines. In its place was still a front-engine, push-rod powered sports car \u2014 but one that looked more European: cut, Lamborghini-like edges, sharp headlights like shards of broken glass, and … horrors! Rectangular taillights.<\/p>\n \u201cI got hate mail,\u201d Juechter says. \u201cBut our demographics were getting older each year. We had to figure out (how) to get more young people into the car. That made us consciously walk away from the traditional bill of design.\u201d<\/p>\n The risk paid off.<\/p>\n The C7 was hailed for its sci-fi looks and staggering performance, due in part to its co-development with GM\u2019s New Hudson-based race partner Pratt & Miller. The ultra-high performance Z06 \u2014 powered by a gravity-bending, 650-horsepower, supercharged V-8 \u2014 outperforms McLaren and Lamborghinis<\/a> costing twice as much. Stingray and Z06 have sold as fast as they can be built.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is working,\u201d says Juechter, a soft-spoken, youthful 58-year-old. \u201cIn the first year, 30 percent of our customers \u2014 30 percent \u2014 had never bought a Corvette before. And that\u2019s in spite of our traditional customers who were lining up at the dealership to be the first (buyers). Ten years younger, much more educated, more ethnic, more urban, more coastal \u2014 all the things we want Corvette to appeal to.\u201d<\/p>\n Now comes the $66,445 Grand Sport. You\u2019ll know it by the twin stripes over each front fender. Featuring the Z06\u2019s ground-sucking performance package and powered by the Stingray\u2019s normally aspirated, 460-horse 8-holer, Juechter says it occupies \u201cthe sweet spot\u201d between the Stingray ($56,445) and Z06 ($80,445).<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredible,\u201d says Pilgrim who, as a Porsche pilot in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, knows a thing or two about iconic sports cars. \u201cAnd (the Grand Sport) is as comfortable on the road as it is fast on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n Corvette anticipates the Grand Sport will make up 40 percent of Corvette sales. That\u2019s quite a change from a specialty badge that only graced five race cars when it debuted in 1963.<\/p>\n More importantly, Grand Sport and Corvette are now solid, profitable contributors to a GM product juggernaut that grew by a full point of market share in the first quarter of this year. GM product development chief Mark Reuss has said Corvette \u201cmakes as much money<\/a> as any of the top-profit models in our company.\u201d Motley Fool financial services estimates <\/a>GM pockets more than $10,000 for each Corvette sold.<\/p>\n \u201cCorvette is now a bread-and-butter part of the lineup,\u201d says Juechter. \u201cWe don\u2019t do it for intangibles \u2014 like driving showroom traffic, halo effect, or technology development. It is all about the business case.\u201d<\/p>\n That bread and butter is now being fed back into the National Corvette Museum and production facility. The museum\u2019s $20 million, 80-acre upgrade<\/a> was completed in 2014 and has a test track to enhance the new buyer\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n