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The Corvette Grand Sport is a Z06 without the power

Buyers look for something more extreme will be able to equip the auto with a Z07 performance package.

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Both coupe and convertible versions will be offered. For the C6, the Grand Sport package included large sway bars, uniquely tuned dampers, stiffer springs, the Z06 rear spoiler, a transmission cooler, a dry sump engine oil system, brake cooling ducts for the Z06 brakes, flared front and rear wheel openings and lightweight wheels wrapped in high performance rubber. Interestingly, the 2010 Grand Sport supplanted the Z51 option when it came out, but we’re not ready to make any claims of that nature yet.

The 2017 Corvette Grand Sport will be most easily identified by its trademark twin hash marks on the fender. If you want, you can also get it with an eight-speed paddle-shift automatic with specific performance calibration and/or the available Z07 package, which adds carbon ceramic-matrix brakes and Michelin Pilot Sport 2 Cup tires.

The C7 generation’s body lines continue to age well, and the new Grand Sport certainly doesn’t break that trend.

Track-focused aero elements, specific front fender inserts, a Z06 grille and wider rear fenders will set the Grand Sport apart visually from the regular Stingray. The new GS’s share the Stingray’s exterior color palate, but offer unique hash-mark fender graphics as part of a “Heritage” styling package. Essentially, it’s a Z06 without the supercharged engine.

Chevrolet brought its Collector Edition model of the Grand Sport to Geneva to show off its Watkins Glen Gray Metallic paint finish and Tension Blue accents.

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The Tension Blue color is a bold, modern take on the hue historically associated with the Grand Sport. Revealed today at Geneva, the GS goes on sale this summer in the States, and Europe a couple of months later. It has colossal six-piston Brembos (335mm at the front, 340 at the rear), an electronic limited-slip differential and a seven-speed manual gearbox as standard. We can see from the Instagram post that at 10:50am on March 1st, Oliver Gavin will introduce the new Corvette Grand Sport with a video before Corvette lead engineer Tadge Juechter drives the newest C7 out for the world to see.

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