13 of the Very Best Corvettes Ever Made

13 of the Very Best Corvettes Ever Made

It's been a classic since the day the first Corvette rolled off the production line. Let’s take a look at 13 of the very best Corvettes ever made.

Keyword(s): best corvettes

The Corvette is more than a car. It’s an American icon, and it has been for more than 60 years.

One of the reasons Corvette maintains its reputation as one of the premier sports cars decade after decade is Chevrolet's commitment to constantly raising the bar. These cars don't just get cooler looking… they get more powerful and more fun to drive!

But which Corvettes are the cream of the crop? That's what we've come here to answer, and we've collected 13 of the best Corvettes throughout history for you to drool over.

60+ Years of the Best Corvettes

It's fairly well-known that despite the car's debut in 1953, the Corvette didn't reach what any of us might call perfection until a couple years into its run. But from there, Chevy kept redefining what perfection meant to us, and here are the Corvettes we see as perfect, each in its own way.

1. 1955 Corvette V8

This first-generation Vette saved the C1 line from being discontinued, despite debuting a mere two years earlier. That's because this car's 4.3-liter V8 engine gave it the power to compete with the Ford Thunderbird, which had just made its own debut ,as well.

Thanks to this small-block engine, the 1955 Corvette's 0 to 60 sprint dipped 2.5 seconds, from 11 to 8.5. The addition of the V8 was the suggestion of Zora Arkus-Duntov, who became Chevrolet's director of high-performance vehicle design and development in 1956.

2. 1957 Fuel-Injected Corvette

This model is also known as one of the popular "Fuelie" Corvettes. Duntov introduced fuel injection into the Corvette's engine in 1957, and this piece of tech was revolutionary at the time.

The Fuelie displayed a flashy style that nonetheless brought the car to the people as an everyday driving option rather than just an expensive toy. The sales Chevy generated with the Fuelies kept Corvettes selling strong until the introduction of the Stingray. We won't forget to talk about the Stingray, but we'll save it until a little later in the list.

3. 1961 Corvette Mako Shark

The Mako Shark was just a concept car. And, although it never went into production, it was an essential step in the Corvette's evolution.

The Mako Shark took its name from the shortfin mako shark, which is the fastest-swimming shark in the world. The sleek design allowed the car to take on the look of the aquatic creature, which ratcheted up interested in what Chevy would produce in the Corvette line next.

That next Corvette? It was a C2, the second generation of Corvettes, and it also took its name from a dangerous animal from the deep (see below).

4. 1963 Stingray "Split-Window"

This was the first Stingray, and it brought the second generation Corvettes into modernity. The Stingray showed off the work of engineer Duntov and designers Pete Brock, Larry Shinoda, and Bill Mitchell (some of the brightest design minds to work in the automotive industry).

There are many beautiful C2 Corvettes, but the 1963 split-window coupe takes the (aesthetic) cake.

5. 1969 Corvette ZL1

Now, skip ahead to the third generation. At this point, muscle cars were becoming bigger and more powerful, and the one-year-only 1969 ZL1 competed with the best of them. It cut an exotic figure with a sleek and aggressive design.

The car's all-aluminum, 7.0-liter big-block racing engine made the car the fastest that ever went into production as of the year it debuted. It could run the quarter mile in 12.1 seconds. Unfortunately, the car was a bit pricey for the average consumer, which kept it from being more popular.

6. 1970 Corvette Stingray LT-1

This curvy car was built upon the foundation laid by the Mako Shark. While not quite as fast as the ZL1, it ran the quarter mile in 14.36 seconds, cruising at over 100 miles per hour.

However, the car's Achilles heel was its monstrous engine. When the 1972 oil crisis forced automakers to downsize their engines to save fuel, the LT-1 became a victim of the times.

7. 1984 Chevrolet Corvette

You'll see a large gap in time between the LT-1 and this 1984 model. That's because the Corvette fell into a period of irrelevance for many years, dropping to an all time low in the early 1980’s.

The fourth generation 1984 model changed that. When the C4 started beating Porsches in races, the Corvette made its triumphant return to the national imagination.

8. 1988 Corvette Callaway Sledgehammer

Few car lines have cooler names than Corvettes. Case in point: the Sledgehammer. (And, that's not even close to the coolest thing about this beast of a car.)

The best part about the Sledgehammer is that its top speed was almost 255 miles per hour!

Some may quibble with our inclusion of the Sledgehammer on this list since it was technically a Corvette modification from Callaway. If that's your take, fair enough, but you're missing out on the excitement.

As is clear from that top speed, Callaway didn't just soup up the outside of the car. The company created a Corvette with almost 900 horsepower, thanks to a NASCAR-spec engine block with Mahle pistons, a Brodix aluminum head, and two turbochargers from Turbonetics.

The car's other numbers — 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds and a quarter-mile in 10.6 seconds — are still impressive today. And thanks to its top speed, it was the fastest road-legal car in the world until the 2010 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport snatched that crown with a 267.8 miles per hour speed.

It's hard to argue with those numbers.

9. 1990-1995 ZR-1

Speaking of speed, the 1990 ZR-1 shocked the world by competing with the speeds of the Ferrari Testarossa and Porsche 911 Turbo.

The car's Lotus-designed LT5 engine made the ZR-1 the first and only twin-cam Corvette in history. Its power output? Try 380 horsepower.

And as with our next Corvette on the list, we include a range of years because Chevrolet kept building on its innovations with each successive year.

10. 1999-2004 C5-R

The Corvette had long been a favorite sports car of the average Joe by the late 90’s. But when Chevy made the C5-R its first official competition Corvette, the car line regained its icon status.

The C5-R achieved success in sports car racing both in the U.S. and at Le Mans, and with those wins, the car-buying public started taking Corvettes seriously again.

11. 2001 Corvette Z06

This track-oriented C5 Corvette contains a higher-output LS6 engine compared to the ZR-1's LS1. Even though the engine's 385 horsepower was actually lower than the C4 car's engine, it’s light weight jacked up the power-to-weight ratio significantly.

The Z06 was also more affordable than the ZR-1, which effectively sealed its entry into the mainstream.

12. The Blue Devil: 2009 Corvette ZR-1

Before our last Corvette on the list surpassed it, this ZR-1 was the fastest Corvette in the world. The 6.2-liter V8 came supercharged by the factory. It produced 638 horsepower and went from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds.

GM dubbed this car the "Blue Devil" for its speed, which makes it another sweetly named Vette in a long lineage of them.

The car corporation cares so much about the Blue Devil that GM actually went to the trouble of restoring one that fell into a sinkhole! (Yes, you read that right.)

The small natural disaster that swallowed a Blue Devil took place at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. A 30-foot sinkhole engulfed a Blue Devil on loan from GM and damaged eight other cars at the museum.

It took 10 workers about six weeks to restore that loaned Blue Devil to its original condition. Isn’t there's something kind of beautiful about that level of devotion?

13. 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1

Sure, we know it’s new, but we can't stop ourselves from drooling over this latest Corvette model. It features extreme exteriors that make it the most aerodynamic road car Chevy has ever put together. That includes a couple of distinctive rear wings that are as functional as they are attractive.

Under the hood, this Vette is just as impressive. It features 755 horsepower and runs from 0 to 60 in under three seconds. Its top speed breaks 210 miles per hour, which is a record for Chevy-produced, unmodified Corvettes.

Classic Cars for Classy Drivers

There's no denying the power and beauty of a Corvette. And the best Corvettes bring even more to the table in the form of technological innovations, record-breaking speed, and artistic finishes that belong in museums.

We hope you enjoyed this rundown of more than a dozen of our personal favorite Corvettes. If you're interested in building your own Corvette from bumper to bumper or simply want to shop for C7 replacement parts, we can help.