Need proof that the Corvette has been a legit sports car since 1953?
The Chevrolet Corvette is 100 percent a true, red-blooded American sports car, and if you need proof of that, just start following Optima's Search for the Ultimate Street Car. In the first three races of the 2020 season, all eight generations of the Corvette have been represented from modified C1s up to bone stock C8s.
Part car show, part road rally and part racing event, this series is all about pushing the performance of street-legal vehicles, so it should come as no surprise that so many Corvettes compete each year. While a design element judges a car's looks and the road rally portion tests each car's road worthiness, at the end of the day, it's the actual track events that push each participant (and his or her car) to the limit. These events include autocross, road course and speed stop, and there are seven different classes of competition to ramp the excitement up even further.
Not surprisingly, the examples of the C1, C2 and C3 Corvettes that Optima shows on its Facebook page are all heavily modified pro-touring cars with fat wheels/tires, big brakes and even some added aero. While the details weren't available for each car, we can only imagine these mean-looking 'Vettes are packing some serious power under the hood. Even the C4 and C5 Z06 Corvettes show significant upgrades to improve aerodynamics.
Since the C5 generation, the Z06 has stood track-ready version of the Corvette, so it only makes sense that C6 and C7 Corvettes shown here are Z06 models. Finally, the Willow Springs event held in May was the first time the C8 took the track in this series, and it appears to be a stock Z51 package.
