GM delivers affordable luxury with Corvette Stingray

“It’s combining supercars with more attainability,” Harlan Charles, product manager of Chevrolet Corvette, told The Associated Press. “Not that it’s inexpensive, but it’s to the point where anybody who works can save up and it is attainable someday.

“Only we can do a car like this because Corvette, being an attainable car, we’ve applied that to the mid-engine concept and we’ve made a unique sports car that’s never existed. We’ve taken the portability, the everyday drivability, and we’ve added those exotic mid-engine attributes that are previously only available in these triple-the-price type cars.”

The 2020 Corvette was the first with a mid-engine in the 67-year history of the car and it gave GM an affordable rival to everything in its class from the Audi R8 to the Lamborghini Aventador. The special edition available next year pays homage to the 2020 racing season when Corvette Racing swept IMSA’s sports car manufacturers, drivers and team titles.

GM will make only 1,000 of the special edition Stingrays — all in its Bowling Green, Kentucky, assembly plant — partly because it wants the car to be a hot ticket item. The luxury sports car market isn’t flooded with volume but is highly competitive with the most entries of nearly any category.

“You’re getting everybody’s best shot in the luxury sports car market, the Europeans are in, everybody gives this market their best shot,” Charles said.