After the initial buzz surrounding the radical fourth generation redesign of the Corvette started to fade buyers started to realize that underneath the long hood of the C4 things were less than impressive. For 1985 Chevy sought to solve this problem by introducing Tuned Port Injection to 'Vette which bumped the horsepower to a then impressive 230.
It might not sound like much now, but according to this vintage advertisement it was enough to take on the "European Exotic Sports Cars" and beat them. Doing the shameful walk of defeat at the hands of the Corvette were the Lotus Espirit Turbo, Ferrari 308 GTSi, Porsche 928s and 944. Although it beat these cars in maximum lateral acceleration, in the slalom and on the road course, this vintage ad reveals something the Corvette clearly wasn't capable of doing—winning gracefully.
After presenting all the ways Corvette beat the other cars, Chevrolet congratulates themselves on building the "new world-class champion". According to Chevy it took superior performance to earn that title, but we'd say extremely self congratulatory advertising was equally to thank.