ChevroletCorvette

Cadillac and Corvette Will Soon Be Available Again in Europe

2009 Cadillac CTS Coupe – Click above for high-res image gallery

It's been nearly a year since a large number of Europeans have been able to drive home in a brand new Cadillac or Corvette. Up until March of 2009, a Dutch-based third-party company called Kroymans Import Europe was employed by General Motors to distribute Caddys and Corvettes in nearly half of the 25 European markets (not including the U.K. or Russia). After that distribution company went bankrupt, GM was forced to pull its wares out of these important markets.

In order to rectify that nasty little situation, GM has reportedly been in talks with 30 different dealerships all over Europe with the goal of bringing the Cadillac and Corvette lines back to the market. All variants of the Corvette will be made available, while the Cadillac lineup will consist of the CTS (sedan, coupe and wagon), CTS-V, Escalade and SRX. No details as of yet on what the cars will cost in Europe or when they'll officially be available for purchase.

Gallery: 2009 LA Auto Show: Cadillac CTS Coupe

[Source: Autohaus (translated) via The Truth About Cars]

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SV 9 Competizione Blends Corvette Muscle With Italian Style

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Bummed out by our recent report on the high price and scarcity of the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione? Well here's another chance, and it's decidedly more accessible yet still exclusive enough to avoid seeing another every day on your drive to the office. It's called the SV 9 Competizione, and it's about to hit the market. Based on a modern Corvette, the SV 9 Competizione revives the old tradition of re-bodying Corvettes with Italian coachwork. This design borrows heavily from the aforementioned Alfa, but instead of the $300,000 sticker price, the SV comes in at less than $100k. For that you get a Corvette with a custom carbon fiber body, a revised intake and exhaust to boost power up to 450 horses and a more upscale interior. The improved mechanicals translate to a 4-second sprint to 60, a 12-second quarter-mile, a 60-0 braking distance of just 107 feet and 1.03g of lateral acceleration...in other words, at least as fast as the Italian machinery it emulates. And with a maximum of only 1000 units to be produced and a catalog with 25 exterior colors, four wheel choices and five interior trim options, SV promises no two will be alike.

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Tags: chevrolet corvette, ChevroletCorvette, competizione, corvette, italian corvette, ItalianCorvette, sv, sv 9 competizione, Sv9Competizione

Legendary Designer's Unique '63 Corvette Stingray Up for Auction

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Auctions

Automobile auctions happen all the time. Sometimes they've got something interesting, sometimes they're all rather ordinary. But once in a while a sportscar rolls across the auction block oozing with heritage in equal measure to motor oil. This is one of those cars. It once belonged to Harley Earl, widely renowned and fondly remembered as the dean of automobile design. General Motors made this 1963 Corvette Stingray convertible specially for Earl, packed with all manner of special features, from the special paint scheme to the unique side-mounted exhaust. He drove the car for two years, even drove it as the Grand Marshal of the Daytona 500, before selling it and the car disappeared into obscurity. Four and a half decades later, the unique Corvette has been fully restored to original condition, and is being auctioned off to the highest bidder at the Mecum Bloomington Gold Corvette Auction in St. Charles, Illinois, later this month, where it is likely to fetch the highest price ever paid for a Corvette.

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Tags: auction, chevrolet corvette, ChevroletCorvette, chevy corvette, ChevyCorvette, corvette, corvette stingray, CorvetteStingray, earl, harley earl, harley early chevrolet corvette, harley early covette, HarleyEarl, HarleyEarlyChevroletCorvette, HarleyEarlyCovette, mecum, mecum auction, mecum bloomington gold corvette auction, mecum corvette, MecumAuction, MecumBloomingtonGoldCorvetteAuction, MecumCorvette, stingray, vette

Corvette Z07 To Take On The Exotics... Again

by Erin Mays (RSS feed) —

The Chevrolet Corvette has always been at the top of the stack in terms of American sports cars, but as Chevrolet sets the bar higher and higher with each new 'Vette, the world is starting to take notice of the car as one of the best... period. No "American" qualifier about it.

Still, eyebrows rose when KGP Photography caught a Chevrolet Z07 (the next all-new, top-of-the-line 'Vette slated for production) testing against a Ferrari 599 -- Chevrolet can't be looking at the Ferrari 599 as the Corvette's competition for real, can it? Maybe, maybe not, but the real juice to this story is the fact that the current standard Corvette (not the high-powered Z06) shares Ferrari's magnetic suspension system, developed by Delphi.

This development is very fitting, particularly since critics occasionally hint that the last big hurdle for the Corvette to clear in dropping the "American" qualifier is the vehicle's handling. Can Chevy/Delphi tune the suspension system to handle the 500+ horsepower the Z07 will offer up? Time will tell, but we're sure many folks out there are looking forward to Ferrari performance in a $100,000 package.

[via Autoblog]

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Tags: 500 horsepower, 500Horsepower, chevrolet corvette, ChevroletCorvette, corvette, delphi, ferrari 599, Ferrari599, suspension

What Your Car Says About You

by Erin Mays (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Why would someone buy a Bentley Arnage instead of a Rolls Royce Phantom? How about a Chevrolet Corvette vs. a Ferrari F430? Or a Lexus LS 460 over a BMW 7-series? As we do with our clothes, hobbies and careers, we define ourselves through our vehicles in some way or another -- yes, even the Honda Accord owner -- and it never ceases to fascinate. That's why a recent article in Forbes outlining what our cars say about us caught our attention.

Forbes went out and interviewed loads of PR guys from various automakers, poured through studies about typical owners of a particular brand and model, and stirred in a little stereotyping to come up with gems like these:

-Bentley Arnage owners are likely self-made, more interested in rewarding themselves and staying anonymous, unlike owners of the Rolls Royce Phantom, who want to stand out in a crowd.

-Aston Martin owners are also self-made and discreet. According to a company spokesperson, Aston Martin owners are "the sort of people who would prefer to wear the designer brand on the inside rather than the outside."

-Unlike owners of other SUVs, Jeep Wrangler drivers actually go off-road.

-96 percent of Dodge Viper owners are men, they enjoy to drive, and they want to beat every other car out on the road.

Check out the link to see what your car says about you.

[Source: Forbes]

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Tags: arnage, aston martin, AstonMartin, bentley, chevrolet corvette, ChevroletCorvette, dodge viper, DodgeViper, jeep wrangler, JeepWrangler, lexus ls, LexusLs, rolls royce, RollsRoyce