MT GARAGE
Arrival: 2021 Chevrolet Corvette Z51
EPA City/Hwy/Comb Fuel Econ
15/27/19 mpg
“Seven years ago, I helped break the mid-engine Corvette story. Now I get to live with the real thing.”
Scott Evans
Base Price $75,585 As Tested $80,420
As you probably know, the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette was our 2020 Car of the Year. As with every Of The Year winner, Chevrolet agreed to provide us with a car on a one-year loan to evaluate how the winner holds up under heavy use. Why, then, more than a year after we crowned the Corvette, are we just now introducing our 2021 Corvette Z51? It’s a long story.
Unsurprisingly, we weren’t the only ones smitten by the mid-engine Corvette. All y’all wanted one, too. And that’s where things went sideways. First, a United Auto Workers strike pushed the launch back from December 2019 to February 2020. Fair enough; collective bargaining is important. Chevy finally restarted the plant in late February, only to shut it down again in March when COVID-19 reached pandemic status. Two months passed before production resumed, and Chevrolet was pressed to get cars into customer hands as quickly as possible. That’s fair, too. So we waited.
And waited. Chevy had to extend the 2020 model year just to make good on all the dealers’ preorders. Then it was fall, and our car was finally built and on its way. There’s a bad picture on my phone of it the day after it arrived in early October; I didn’t even get to drive it that day because I was in the middle of reviewing an Airstream trailer, and the ’Vette don’t tow. I’d barely saved the seat position before I had to ignore the C8 again to go judge Best Driver’s Car. Then there was the launch of the Bronco Sport, and on, and on.
Finally, in late October, I got to put in some solid miles. I couldn’t believe my luck, getting a year with the mid-engine Corvette MotorTrend had been begging for since the ’60s.
A reckless cab driver put an end to that on November 11. I actually missed the call because I’m lame and was in bed by 10 p.m. Associate online editor Nick Yekikian was going for a late-night cruise up Highway 1 in Santa Monica when a cabbie in a Prius decided to make an illegal U-turn from the right shoulder without looking.
Quick reflexes, both Nick’s and the Corvette’s, turned a potential T-bone accident into a glancing blow. The Corvette struck the Prius right on the ’Vette’s front corner, just below the passenger-side headlight, leaving a trail of damage down the side of the car. The Corvette won the fight, though; it took the front off
