I’ve Owned Every Generation Of Corvette Since The First One
You know the archetype — the retired guy in the jorts and dad-cap pulling up to cars and coffee in his low-mileage Corvette. He’s the type of person who’s had Corvettes forever, only taken them out on dry and sunny days, and uses his pride and joy primarily for parking lot shows and date nights. Corvette coddler is a fan of having all the bells and whistles, so let’s kick things off with the $122,245 3LZ Convertible. After all, the first Corvette was a drop-top, so why stop now? For this type of guy, Corvettes are a dish best served red, so we’re going with Red Mist Metallic Tintcoat paint as it’s a bit more complex than the standard Torch Red. Plus, it matches nicely with available Edge Red brake calipers. Speaking of matching, how about a red interior? He’d likely avoid the dipped red interior as a little contrast helps, but there’s definitely rockstar appeal in red leather seats. As for add-ons, Corvette coddler would likely go for a raft of things reminiscent of past Vettes. While there’s no transparent roof panel available on the convertibles, the bright polished wheels will remind him of the mags of his youth, while available chrome emblems (sadly not pictured) will add a little gleam. The pattern on the standard all-season tires is more similar to his C4’s Goodyear Gatorbacks than what’s on the available Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires, and this guy’s looking for comfort over outright speed anyway. Expect this to be one of the best-kept Corvettes on the market in 20 years. Sadly, the expanded E-Ray visualizer went offline before I could finish this configuration, but fingers crossed it’s back up soon.
I Just Wanna Go Fast
Next, we get to a completely different sort of Corvette owner. While the coddler goes to great lengths protecting his pride and joy, the trackday junkie wants all of the go-fast bits with none of the extra fripperies. This owner may not have been able to get an allocation for a Z06 but is still excited to see what all-wheel-drive hybrid power can do on corner exit. The right trim for this sort of person is the base 1LZ Coupe as the E-Ray is already a porky beast. Chevrolet claims a dry weight of 3,774 pounds, but when was the last time you weighed yourself without any blood in your body? Seeking to cleave weight from the Corvette E-Ray, our trackday junkie would go for the painted carbon fiber wheels as unsprung weight reduction is worth whatever the set may cost, especially if the dealer’s tire and wheel protection package is underpriced. Oh, and you bet that this person will tick the box for the ZER Performance Package, even if the stock tires are getting thrown in the bin for the latest semi-slick hotness. For the sake of slapping on cheap vinyl numbers and the odd series decal, Ceramic Matrix Grey paint should provide great contrast against a variety of logos. Paired with a black interior and Competition seats, this performance-focused spec should allow for maximum fun on a reasonable budget. Well, reasonable as far as six-figure toys go.
Weird Spec But Okay
Time to do things my way. While I’ve usually leaned towards European sports cars for one reason or another, I hold a degree of reverence towards the Corvette. It’s a performance bargain, and even the cheap ones are way better than you’d expect. Case in point, a post-1984 C4 with three pedals and the Z51 package is still an engaging, zesty drive in 2022. For my ideal Corvette E-Ray, I’m starting with the 3LZ Coupe. It carries a $10,950 premium over the base model, but it includes a whole bunch of nice stuff including leather-wrapped interior panels, heated and ventilated GT2 seats, and some tasty carbon fiber bits. Hey, if you’re spending six figures anyway, why not get six-figure car toys? Right off the bat, I’m going with Cacti as it’s the weirdest color on the list. Although the E-Ray visualizer does a pretty bad job at accurately displaying colors, Cacti is shared with the upcoming 2024 Chevrolet Trax, so here’s what it looks like on sheetmetal.
Handsome, right? While Mk2 Prius-esque pale green definitely isn’t to everyone’s taste, I dig it. While it was tempting to pair the Cacti paint with the one-year-only Artemis dark green interior, I decided that green-on-green is a bit much and went with something cool and reasonably analogous – the Two-Tone Blue interior. It’s a little outrageous, but it feels like a vibe.
Of course, I had to throw on a few extras, which is why I added the Visible Carbon Fiber roof panel for a bit of contrast, the Level 1 Carbon Fiber Package to add a bit more texture to the interior, and the bright polished wheels to really pop against the paintwork. While extremely shiny wheels get a bit of a bad rap, I’m a huge fan of bringing back a bit of bling. Mind you, this spec isn’t all show and no go. I’ve ticked the box for the ZER Performance Package because proper summer tires sound like a no-brainer, plus Chevrolet promises other chassis tuning tweaks to go with the stickier rubber. So there we are, three very different ways to spec a 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray. While the expanded visualizer isn’t up for good yet, feel free to hop this link and spec your own Corvette E-Ray. Whether you hate the Cacti paint, desire Riptide Blue, or have a strong opinion on carbon fiber wheels, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Photo credits: Chevrolet
Chevy Corvette E-Ray: How Hybrid AWD Makes The Quickest Corvette Ever Look At The Beautiful Engineering Images Of The New Corvette E-Ray Hybrid 2024 Chevy Corvette E-Ray Leaks On GM Website And As A Result, The Whole Internet Watch The Hybrid 2024 Corvette E-Ray Get Sideways In The Snow And Pretend You’re There Why The 1960s Hit ‘Dead Man’s Curve’ Says The Corvette Has Six Taillights Instead Of Four Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage. Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member. And I was amused how even the infotainment screen is angled toward the driver. I could just imagine my passenger trying to take a peek at the GPS map and the driver snapping at them: “No! That’s MY infotainment! You can’t look at it!” Also, it’s the correct answer. Me, I got confused and built something that can actually be purchased. https://www.chevrolet.com/performance/camaro/build-and-price/summary?styleId=427720&rpo=LTG,MN6,GW6,RTJ,R29,GKK,AQJ,H0Y,IOS,PCR,WRS,J55,J6F,SL2,SNQ,D80,SB2,STI,&ss=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&postalCode=60601 https://visualizer.chevrolet.com/ui/2024corvette-eray/0012d15d Fun fact: Rivian will also let you order a yellow car with a green interior I ended up with the natural interior, riptide blue metallic paint, and the exposed weave carbon fiber wheels. The visualizer shows riptide blue way too light though and according to a quick google search, it’s actually much darker IRL https://visualizer.chevrolet.com/ui/2024corvette-eray/00d252af If the engine was deleted and the space used for more batteries, it might be a decent FWD daily driver. At ~160HP, that’s more than enough for any legal speed. Not sure what kind of range you’d get, but I’m sure it’d be more than enough to get to work and back. https://visualizer.chevrolet.com/ui/2024corvette-eray/820003e0 That Atremis interior isn’t quite green enough, too gray, so I chose the blue interior My choice would be Orange exterior, blue interior 🙂
