To the degree that Porsche and Ferrari are still regarded as superior to anyone, and all indications are that that perception is starting to change in core enthusiast circles which in turn influence all else, the biggest reason was and still is ignorance. For the Corvette, this ignorance was put on notice with the advent of the groundbreaking C5.

So strong was the component set and design parameters of the fifth generation Corvette that Ferrari asked to use its transmission in their 456 GTA. Ferrari would later also ask for and receive permission to use the Corvette’s award winning magnetic suspension system on their current 599 GTB flagship. The runflat tires on the C5, an OEM industry first application for a series production car, was again requested by Ferrari and is now an option on the F430. You would be astonished at how few people know the preceding facts. The hydroforming technique which gave the Corvette its singular strength was investigated by no less than Boeing which journeyed to the Corvette plant to witness it themselves and inquire as to how they could adapt the technique as used in the C6 Z06 for the assembly of aircraft. Fewer still are aware of this.

The return of the Corvette to international competition has been so successful that today the Corvette runs literally unopposed in the American Lemans Series (ALMS). The Works Corvette team has simply cowed the likes of Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Saleen. In the last seven years the Works team has won its class at Lemans five times. Desperate would be competitors such as Aston Martin with their V12 engines took to asking race series organizers to saddle the V8 Corvette with 200 lbs of weight so they could stand a chance at catching it. When even that failed they slunk away. As an aside, those who tout the race heritage of Porsche’s 911 are routinely shocked to learn that the decade older Corvette had been winning its class at Lemans three years before the 911 was even born.

But it was not enough for the Corvette to do in their complacent opponents on the track, the road cars would see to it that no refuge was left on the previously safe road. The C5 was so good that it was routinely seriously matched up against the best from Porsche and Ferrari. But speed cost money and as close as the base Corvette was coming to the F355 and 911 Turbo of the day it was only seriously wounding them. A solution was formed to kill them outright.

The C5 Z06 debuted as a 2001 model. In a landmark Motor Trend test of standing mile acceleration times the C5 Z06 put a staggering 19 car length lead on the seminal Ferrari 360 Modena. Base 911s were rendered simply irrelevant. That was the 385 hp version. A 405 hp version would debut a year later. Porsche sent multiple Lemans winner Hurley Haywood and a factory prepped Turbo to a Car and Driver test. Before the Turbo broke (complete ABS failure) the car’s performance was tied at the track by GM’s John Heinricy who saw a chance to beat the Turbo evaporate when a stray car wandered on to the track for his final run. Because of its higher cost, the C5 Z06 was only supposed to be 5% of sales. It went on to 25%. Emboldened, GM readied a version of the Z06 that would be one for the history books.

The performance merits of the C6 Z06 could fill a book. Suffice it to say Porsche’s flagship Turbo and Ferrari’s F430 have proven no contest in either straight line acceleration or track work. This despite more advantageous tires for the European marques. The Corvette’s dominance extends to non-performance engineering attributes such as its class leading cargo room, fuel mileage and safety features such as side-impact airbags which are not offered on the F430 despite the technology’s proven value and the nearly 10,000 people killed every year in side impacts. The one straw the European marques could cling to, interior finery, has now been addressed for 2008 by the inclusion of the 4LT leather wrapped interior offering. GM enlisted Dräxlmaier, the interior shop commissioned for Mercedes’ Maybach no less, to put together the new Corvette interior offering. Combined with Corvette’s well documented reliability and assembly quality statistics from JD Power and Strategic Vision there are now no more places for Ferrari and Porsche to hide though they still try. Car and Driver recently noted that Ferrari declined to provide a test F340 to them when it learned that its opponent would be a Z06.

With a 650 hp+ Corvette flagship now being readied GM has indicated that the performance envelope of U.S. road cars will now be almost totally circumscribed by a car bearing the Corvette name. Expect a class leading interior and the continued technological superiority that has been a key Corvette hallmark for the last decade. Those who cling to the perception of European superiority are in for another bracing wake up call.