Of all the places we hear about crazy contraptions, our absolute favorite and unquestionably least likely source is a subscription-only newspaper-style printed publication called Farm Show. It's a fantastic collection of the most clever, ridiculous, scary and cool creations to come out of farmer's garages. We picked up a copy back home on the farm while recovering from taking down unnatural amounts of turkey and stuffing and all the Thanksgiving trimmings, and guess what we found. Amidst the loader scoops made from cut-in-half LP tanks, home brew automatic silage choppers, and articulated tractors made out of two junked Chevy pickups welded together, a 1968 Corvette powered by a 12 valve Cummins. The post-meal nap was immediately postponed.

The car is the creation of Ryan Lusk, a diesel mechanic in Iowa with a side business called Low Budget Diesel Performance where he converts vehicles by installing diesel engines for better fuel economy and performance. This Corvette came to him as a rear end smash up. Instead of replacing everything with factory parts, Ryan decided to make a drag racer out of it. We'll let him explain:

When I purchased the car it was wrecked in the rear pretty severly. Instead of rebuilding the car with over priced Corvette parts, I opted to back half the rear of the frame and tub it. It now has a 4-link coil over rear suspension with a ford 9". I had a 396 BBC with a tunnel ram and dual quads in it that made over 550hp in the beginning. I also had some sweet chrome side pipe headers as well. It was coming along well

Amongst the progress of the diesel conversions we were completing, the Vette sat for a long time. One day my Dad made the comment that I should just ditch the gas guzzling BBC and throw a Cummins in it. I was like heck no, I'm not going to ruin the Vette! Well the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do this. I started the project in March of 2008. We will be at Beechbend Racetrack in Bowling Green Kentucky for the NHRDA Diesel Nationals. Weight of car with driver: 3620

Rear End
Moser 35 Spline Axles, 35 spline Moser spool, Moser HRW Nodular case, Daytona Pinion Support, Pro Gear 3.25 gears, Billet Yoke, 1410/1350 Severe Duty U-joints, Heavy Duty 30 spline output yoke, Art Morrison Coil Over Shocks, 4-Link Suspension, Corvette 4 Piston Disc Brakes, Wheelie Bars.

Front Suspension
1968 Corvette independent front with brand new Moroso BBC HD coil springs, polyurethane bushings and heavy duty steering components. Corvette 4 Piston Disc Brakes

Transmission
1995 47RH Dodge Lock Up Overdrive with Goerend Triple Billet Torque Convertor, Sonnex Input shaft, Sonnex Billet Drum, Goerend Valve Body, Billet flexplate, Assembled by Gilmore Performance in Kingdom City, Mo. Hurst V-matic 2 shifter, Lokar throttle pressure cable, Lokar flexible dipstick, LBDP SFI Flex plate shield, LBDP SFI drum safety shield

Engine
1998 12V CTD Bored .030 over, Mahle Pistons, Balanced and Blue Printed, Viscous dampener, 60lb valve springs, ARP Head Studs, 64/65 S300 Turbo, LBDP Exhaust manifold, 215HP cam, 180HP P7100 480cc's with .022 DV's and 550 with Full Cut DV's, 4k gsk, Mack Rack Plug, AFC mods, multiple fuel plates, Custom Revolution Diesel 370 Marine Injectors, IP Tuned by Smokem at Revolution Diesel in Hornick, Ia. IP assembled by Des Moines Diesel in Des moines, Ia. Aluminum Radiator, Huge Trans cooler, electric fans with electronic thermo coupling control.

Body
1968 corvette with 1973 rear quarter panels, 1972 Front clip converted to one piece tilt by LBDP. 12pt roll cage, with door swing outs, summit racing seats with 5pt. harness, aluminum floors, firewall, trans tunnel, wheel tubs, dash, and door panels. Auto meter gauges, aftermarket wiring harness, S&W Race Cars steering column with quick connect hub.

Fuel System
16 gallon TCI Fuel Cell, Air Dog 150 feeding a Raptor 150 Provided by Pure Flow Technologies.

Wheels and Tires
Weld Pro Star 15x4's in the front, Weld Pro Star 15x14's in the rear with 31x18.5x15 Hoosier Quick Time DOT's

We think it safe to say this is the best possible thing you could ever do with a previously-crashed plastic fantastic. There's so much awesome piled into this car it's practically incomprehensible. Actually, hold that thought, you haven't seen the car running. Check out the three videos below.

Here's what a Corvette with a glorious diesel engine never intended to live in the bay sounds like when running:

Here's what a dyno run looks like with a soot-spewing, turbo-whining Corvette:

And just in case you were curious, this is what this beast looks like when it hits the strip (careful about the momentary, trackside NSFW language here):

We're going to parrot the words of the drag racing announcer.... "Oh my GOD!?" If we may humbly make one suggestion to Mr. Lusk, we think it needs a constant stream of the Nuge piped to exterior speakers to properly serenade that majestic turbodiesel note. Nothing else so uncontrollable and unpredictably violent could possibly do the job.
[Low Budget Diesel Performance]

Ahh, Thanksgiving — turkey, family, angst, and burnouts. (Your holiday doesn't have burnouts? What are you, a commie?)

Also lists. We make lists every day, and on holidays, we sit around and stuff our faces full of food and make more lists. What are we thankful for this week? Turkey, that's what. We're also thankful for these ten cars — even though we can't afford some of them, we're happy that they exist. Dig in.

Bugatti Veyron

Because it's proof that one man can still go stark raving mad and build a world-beating car that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Makes the idea of a focus group seem like a fate worse than death. One set of its tires likely costs more than your first car did. It is yin and yang, Jalop (engineering masterwork) and anti-Jalop (heavy, unattainable). Do not try to understand it. It just is.

Photo Credit: Jason Thorgalsen / Flickr

Chevrolet Corvette

It is an American car made by American men and women. It is like walking down the street wearing a T-shirt that says, "I'm with Penis." It is remarkably modern and wonderfully crude all at once. And for a short, glorious while, it went to Le Mans and reminded the world that Yankees could kick ass. All hail the LS7. All hail the LS9. All hail Detroit.

Photo Credit: Sam Smith

Lotus Elise/Exige

Because someone, somewhere, forgot to tell the boys in Hethel to make it fat, ugly, and boring. Because it is a real car that happens to be built out of gossamer and fiberglass. And because I once flung one sideways through Road Atlanta's Turn Twelve — not entirely on purpose, mind — at triple-digit speeds and lived to tell the tale. It made me look less than stupid. I am eternally grateful.

Photo Credit: Horgakx / Flickr

Nissan GT-R

It is heavy, clublike, and run by a million computers. It is surprisingly sterile and undoubtedly better at driving itself than you are. (You get the feeling that no matter how you treat it, it is toying with you, watching you from afar.) It is on this list because it is unique. Because it is everything wrong with Japan's car industry. Because it is also everything right.

Photo Credit: Jason Thorgalsen / Flickr

Volkswagen GTI

Volkswagen's GTI is the ultimate automotive success story, a model that lost its way only to find it again years later. Sure, it's not the most durable thing on the planet, but that's part of its charm — it's cheap, cheerful, and faster than it seems. If you haven't embarrassed a supercar on some winding back road in one of these things, then you haven't lived. Hot hatches don't get much better.

BMW 335i

It is very nearly the perfect automobile, but this is no surprise. The 3 Series has been exceptional for decades, and save the odd dose of corporate German hubris, it just keeps getting better. Build a better sport sedan than this 300-horse, velvet-glove monster, and the world will beat a path to your door.

Photo Credit: Fabio Aro / Flickr

Mazda RX-8

Quirk, and for little reason other than satisfying a decades-old obsession on the part of its maker. Painfully slow around town. Those once-trick doors are now almost too much work, and the RX-8's Renesis rotary sucks dino juice like it's on OPEC's payroll. But the chassis is flat-out magic, the kind of magic you only discover at nine-and-a-half tenths when you're trying to eke out that last little bit of speed and you think nothing is left. It reminds you of a Spec Miata with more weight in the tail. It is the attainable sports car for people who truly understand what that phrase means.

Photo Credit: Michael Banovsky / Flickr

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution

Now that both Subaru and Mitsubishi have left the international rally stage, the WRX STI and the Lancer Evolution seem a bit lost. (Homologation specials need something to be homologated for, no?) Were we forced to choose between the two, we'd probably pick the Evo, but it's a tough call. It depends on the roads you're on, on how you feel that day, and on whether you have be someplace very quickly and with little drama (STI) or absolutely nowhere at all (Evo).

The STI is an amazingly talented car and arguably the better all-rounder. The Evo is the dirty, rough-edged monster that everyone thinks rally cars are supposed to be. We like them both — a lot — but only one of them feels as mean as it looks. Mitsu by a hair.

Ford Mustang

The Mustang is a rolling contradiction, equal parts modern muscle and hopeless anachronism. It is an argument for and against everything we stand for, a piece of yesterday bound up in a slightly cheesy modern wrapper. It is both much better and much worse than you expect it to be, but somehow, that's part of its charm. It is very, very difficult not to like.

Exhaust rumble. A rompy V-8. A stick axle so well-controlled, it makes the concept almost seem relevant again. These things are not the future, but we love them all the same. Were we to wake up tomorrow and drive off into the soul of America, we would do it in a Mustang.

Photo Credit: Sausyn / Flickr

Caterham Seven

One long-dead man's ridiculous dream turned reality turned company-bill-payer turned neglected relic turned reality again. Impossibly small. Sillier than almost anything else on wheels. Older than dirt. And still fantastic.

Happy turkey!

Photo Credit: Exfordy / Flickr

Commenter YankBoffin was cruising through rural Indiana when he spotted this unbelievable headstone, featuring a the visage of the 2007 Corvette Indy 500 Pace Car replica. Of course, he had to stop, even doing that in a particularly Jalop way:

I spotted this near Brookville, Indiana over the weekend, scaring the wife half to death when I pointed and yelled "CORVETTOMBSTONE!!" as we passed a small monument business.

This is in Indiana, so I guess it isn't too surprising that the car etched in granite (yes, it is definitely etched, wished I'd taken a close-up) is an Indy 500 Pace Car C6 convertible.

In case Indiana is too far a schlep for you to pick up your copy of the Corvette headstone, we've hunted down the press image they used, so you can get your own made.

What was it? Ferrari 360 Modena
How Fast? 130 MPH
What happened? The moron driver was showing off for his girlfriend in France when he lost control and hit power posts, splitting the car in two. Amazingly, both survived the accident.

What was it? BMW 528i
How Fast? 135 MPH
What happened? This is what happens when a tire blows at high speeds. The car rolled, eventually coming to a stop by way of a concrete pillar.

What was it? Mercedes Benz SLK
How Fast?135 MPH
What happened? There's not much left of an open-topped SLK after it hit a tree in Germany at speed.

What was it? Chevrolet Corvette C5
How Fast? 140 MPH
What happened? Despite being a high performance car, taking a Corvette up to 140 MPH on a Texas highway is a recipe for disaster, as evidenced here.

What was it? TVR T350C
How Fast? 140 MPH
What happened? This South African crash is pretty brutal. The driver lost control at 140 MPH, hit a concrete barrier, and smashed into an overpass. You know a crash is violent when even the wheels are shattered.

What was it? Lamborghini Murcielago
How Fast? 150 MPH
What happened? After owning the car for six days, this Egyptian driver decided to take it out to the desert and go for broke. Broke is what he got when a truck cut him off and he rolled the car, though he did make it out alive.

What was it? Ferrari Enzo
How Fast? 160 MPH
What happened? The driver in this crash wasn't so lucky and died after crashing at 160 MPH, spreading the car out over a huge debris field in Italy.

What was it? Mercedes McLaren SLR
How Fast? 165 MPH
What happened? The SLR's 22 year old Qatari driver was showing off for his passenger when he lost control, rolling the car into the desert. This one was also fatal.

Head over to Wrecked Exotics for the two fastest supercar accidents on the list. One you've probably not seen and another you're definitely familiar with. [Wrecked Exotics]

While I've been lucky and opportunistic enough to get my hands on a lot of interesting machinery in my day, somehow the Corvette experience has always eluded me. A shame, because there's always been something essential about it, something vital and visceral and deeply masculine, although it seemed I could never figure out the exact image the Corvette represented.

It goes deep; when I was a kid in small-town Midwestern America, it seemed every man had one, or wanted one, or was looking for ways to get one. Many disapproved, and if someone was brash enough to take theirs out in public, "decent people" would loudly voice their disapproval and shield their kids from the sight. Often the police were called. Nice ladies were assumed to dislike them, and tolerated them only to please their husbands' baser animal urges. Later on, when I went to college, I learned some women liked them, and some women even had them. This at first seemed like an affront to the natural order, but I've become more accepting since.

However, I haven't come any closer to defining exactly what the Corvette really is, and I hadn't when I went to pick up mine on a rainy day last month. There's no doubt it's a striking unit, and as it sat there, dewy with moisture, throbbing from root to tip, something about its quivering presence told me that as much fun as it could be it was also a lot of trouble. Flaunt it in front of people and I'd go to jail. Let it think for me and it could ruin my life and perhaps even endanger others. And if I damaged or broke it, it would hurt in a way that would be impossible to describe. Yet it was already affecting my thinking, altering my judgment, and I hadn't even done anything yet. I hadn't felt this way since my early teens…but that couldn't possibly be related to the Corvette in any way. Could it?

Oh, well. Back then I wouldn't have known what to do with one of these, but now I am a full-grown man. Surely I could control it now, right? Well. Ha. I've heard older men than me make that claim, men whose lives were in shambles and whose families had cast them out after they'd let their own Corvettes led them to younger, faster women. Or something.

Mine wasn't a particularly threatening specimen. A base-model convertible, it was supposedly less sensitive and a bit floppier than the uncut models, although some find it more aesthetically appealing. I didn't miss the extra stiffness; enough's enough, I guess once you're a certain age, and it's not like I could complain about the performance. The 6.2-liter LS3 has so much oomph that every surge forward is like the first time all over again. The power seems to come from the base of your spine, and it's easy to lose yourself in the swelling surge; you can see why so many young men lose it every year when the sudden rush of sensory overload clouds their heads and they wind up splattered all over the landscape. Luckily, it's a responsive unit as well; if you're mature enough to resist the temptation to be a 0-60-in-4.7-seconds man, the control and responsiveness running through every inch of it will let you last as long as your back holds up. Refined? No, not really. But somehow you don't want that.

But that's a lot of sports cars, not just the Corvette. What's so special about it? What's it's aura, and what's the allure in its tapered yet swelling shape? It looks bigger than it actually is, which pleases the hindbrain in ways that are difficult to describe. It comes in many varieties-the Z06 with more potency and a larger opening at the tip, the ZR1 with a supercharger for the ultimate rush of oxygenated fluids where it really counts-there's a vas deferens between them all. And even the older models have their appeal. But I just can't, for the life of me, figure out exactly what it is about this car in particular.

Oh, well. Maybe decent guys just don't think that way. But I really wish I could at least find a way to describe what I think it looks like.

Topping the silvette dollar from Palau will certainly be a challenge. Not only is it available for a mere 20 bucks, it’s colored yellow, has working headlights and is legal tender on the island nation more famous for its scuba diving and its pledge to settle a number of Uighur prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.

But your task is not impossible. Car currency comes in all shapes and sizes, like this £2 coin from the Isle of Man which features a Ferrari 250 GTO. So dig around and post your best finds below. Coins which incorporate puns based on the interplay between sterling silver and Stirling Moss are worth extra credit.

Put them in the comments below and we'll make sure they rise to the top o' the heap.

Photo Credit: National Collector’s Mint

A few hours after we published our in-depth interview with Stile Bertone’s new design director Jason Castriota, I was standing by Lake Como with him showing me the secrets of his first Bertone design, the Mantide.

The front fenders melt into wings behind the front wheels then draw up into a single taut bunch—reminiscent of a calf muscle—which in turn passes under an archway similar to Castriota’s famous C-pillar for the Ferrari 599 GTB. The confluence of curves and LED’s in the back is, when viewed from a step back, a classic Kamm tail. While retaining the tried-and-true shape of the fastback, the Mantide is boldly futuristic.

But will anyone be able to drive it? There are plans to make two more examples, Castriota says, in white and green, to create an Italian flag with the addition of the first car. Then, in an email to the New York Times, he said: “We would not rule out producing as many as 10.” A price has also been quoted: €1,500,000

That's close to two million US dollars at the current exchange rate—almost two Veyrons worth of cold, hard cash. Not insignificant for a car built on a Corvette ZR1, which retails for 5% of the Mantide’s asking price. Let’s examine what you get for that kind of money, apart from the warm feeling of contributing to a company’s survival which has given us the Miura, the Countach and the Lancia Stratos.

Interior

While Jeremy Clarkson has named the Corvette ZR1 his car of the year for 2008 and our own road test editor Wes Siler called it “the best car ever made,” the fact remains: on the inside, it's all Corvette.

To whit, from our first drive:

In fact, the only thing detracting from the ZR1’s grand touring credentials is the interior. The only options on the $103,300 car are an awful set of chrome wheels and the 3ZR upgraded interior package, which succeeds in moving the interior from cheap and nasty into luxurious bass boat territory with more embroidered ZR1 and Corvette logos than my fragile mind could comprehend. We have a hard time accepting the “value” excuse; for this kind of money we’d no longer like to feel like a Jeff Foxworthy punchline. An automatic transmission is, thankfully, not an option.

Let’s see what the Mantide has to offer:

As you can see, it’s a modern European alcantara-carbon-fiber-leather affair, with the car’s hexagonal theme continuing as cutouts on the racing seats, themselves thin carbon shells. The instrument screen is the one used in the Ferrari FXX, the gearshift is a nice aluminum knob and it’s certainly got a snug racer feel to it. But it’s perhaps not as remarkable as the car’s exterior.

Certainly a major upgrade on the Corvette, though, but then that’s not saying much when you’re considering this is a two million dollar Italian super car.

Exterior

Here in Europe, the current Corvette is not liked much. It’s a big, brash American design, a brute amongst small European cars, but while it’s unarguably alien to these shores, I rather fancy its low, wide, flowing looks. In ZR1 trim, it’s a proper menace, with all the right vents, wings and scoops.

The Mantide gets rid of that all. Aside from the front-engined layout and the fastback silhouette, you would be hard pressed to tell there’s a Corvette underneath. And there is: the Mantide is not like the Italian-American cars from the 60s like the Iso Grifo or the De Tomaso Mangusta which paired an Italian chassis with an American V8. Beneath the red carbon fiber is a Corvette ZR1: LS9 engine, aluminum chassis, the works.

But what carbon fiber! It’s all sharp Bertone creases which turn into subtle arcs as you examine them up close, dihedral Enzo doors, smatterings of hexagons everywhere. The angular rear wheelarches—straight off the M577A armoured personnel carrier which transported the space marines into the doomed reactor core in Aliens—frame black Transformer wheels.

It’s dramatically new, so shockingly new that it’s actively disconcerting to take a few steps back and see its classic berlinetta profile. In person, it creates the sort of time warp the iPhone did when it first went on sale in the summer of 2007. You felt as though you were holding a sliver of 2011 in your hands.

The Mantide? I’d say it’s from 2017. Similar vehicles are on their way to leave the inner Solar System.

But then is it worth the price of 20 ZR1’s? There is, of course, no rational answer to such a question, as even the ZR1 is not an entirely rational purchase, being, as Dan Neil put it in his article The rapture of the hypercar, a big needle to deliver the combustible heroin of petroleum.

If you have space-faring ambitions on the public road, set to the soundtrack of a pushrod V8 with titanium bits, then by all means get in touch with Stile Bertone and put down whatever deposit they ask. The car geeks of the world need you to enable them to carry on the traditions of coachbuilding.

And then I saved the best part for the end. If you open the gigantic hood and peer inside, what you’ll see is exactly what you'll see when you open the hood of the ZR1 — a grinning, black Corvette Racing skull named Jake.

So even though this is not a race car, your Le Mans ass-kicking heritage is right there. And who could ask for more.

Photo Credit: Alex Conley (Corvette ZR1), Natalie Polgar and the author (Stile Bertone Mantide)

To be fair, it's not the first ZR1 to take a dive. But it's the first we've heard of that wasn't at a media event being driven by our former boss-man, Mike Spinelli. The good news, like Spinelli's dented ZR1, is it appears most of the goodies are in perfect condition. Everything that isn't the driver's side rear fender, rear fascia and driver's side rear suspension is still in working order. The car only has 1,227 miles on it and it's got the premo package, so there's a lot there for your salvage-buying dollar. We're just a little weepy over the crackup... give us a second here... phew, okay, we teared up for a moment but we're back.

Anyway, the starting bid is sitting at $75,000 and if you want to "Buy-It-Now" the price is set at $97,500. You have two options here; You can either work with your local stealership and repair the car to its former glory or use its guts as the single greatest kit car or Se7en starting point ever. Hey, whatever you do, it's bound to be be better looking than the Mantide. Paging Doctor Groner, Doctor Matt Groner. [Corvette Blogger]

The Corvette GT1 Championship Edition is almost entirely a commemorative paint package designed to move some more C6 Vettes and celebrate the success of Corvette Racing. Available in basic coupe, convertible and Z06 trim, the addition of all the graphics, wheels, spoilers and 'Jake' logos only costs $2,350. For a limited-edition run with only 600 set to be produced it's actually quite a bargain — especially considering non-Z06 models get the Z51 performance package thrown in as part of the package deal.

GM does have a lot to celebrate in its class-dominating race program and the C6 is a pretty fabulous car despite what Corvette detractors might say. The Z06? Even more so. But painting one up in black and yellow and calling it a special edition still feels a might bit silly even with what the Corvette team views as added value componentry. But, since inception Corvette has utterly dominated it's GTS class (due in part to class emptiness) and this edition is designed to pay homage to those rip-snorting race cars.

Season-Opening Sebring Race Marks Corvette Racing's 10th Anniversary GT1 Championship Edition Corvettes Commemorate Corvette Racing's Decade of Success

SEBRING, Fla. – The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the season-opening race of the 2009 American Le Mans Series to be held on March 21, will mark the start of Corvette Racing's 10th anniversary in international road racing. The team made its competition debut in February 1999 at Daytona, and competed in its first Sebring 12-hour race the following month, finishing fourth in the GTS class. Since that modest beginning, Corvette Racing has become one of the world's premier production sports car teams, winning eight consecutive ALMS GT1 manufacturers and team championships, seven straight drivers' titles, and five class victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Chevrolet is commemorating Corvette Racing's decade of success with the introduction of the GT1 Championship Edition Corvette. These limited edition vehicles (designated Regular Production Option GT1) will be available in coupe, convertible, and Z06 models in yellow or black livery. With graphics packages inspired by the championship-winning Corvette C6.R, the GT1 Championship Edition Corvettes will make their public debut at Sebring International Raceway. Production is scheduled for spring.

"There have always been strong ties between production and racing Corvettes," said GM Racing manager Mark Kent. "Technology developed by Corvette Racing is applied to improve the efficiency, performance, handling, aerodynamics and safety of production vehicles. Now with the introduction of the GT1 Championship Edition Corvettes, the link between the race and street versions is apparent at a glance. Corvette enthusiasts will be able to purchase cars that celebrate the remarkable history of Corvette Racing. The GT1 Championship Edition program is another example of how racing helps Chevy sell cars and trucks and provides a solid return on investment."

The ALMS season-opener also will mark the final appearance of the Corvette C6.Rs in the GT1 class in the Sebring 12-hour endurance classic. The twin Corvette C6.R race cars (chassis Nos. 5 and 6) are beginning their third season, and are scheduled to be retired in preparation for new global GT class rules that will take effect in 2010. These two cars have accounted for 23 of the team's 74 wins.

Corvette Racing has scored six class victories in Sebring, and Johnny O'Connell, driver of the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R, notched his record-setting seventh Sebring win in last year's event. O'Connell and Jan Magnussen, the reigning GT1 champions, will be joined by Antonio Garcia at Sebring, while three-time GT1 champions Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta will be teamed with Marcel Fassler in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R. The addition of Garcia and Fassler for long-distance races will bring the total number of Corvette Racing drivers to 19 since the team's inception.

Corvette Racing will be powered by cellulosic E85R ethanol fuel at Sebring for the first time. The team adopted the renewable fuel made from wood waste after last year's Sebring race, and used E85R throughout the remainder of the 2008 ALMS season. Cellulosic ethanol was one of the key ingredients in the team's overall victory in the inaugural ALMS Green Challenge in the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans held at Road Atlanta in October 2008. The winning No. 3 Corvette C6.R achieved the best overall score based on performance, fuel efficiency and environmental impact under criteria developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, and SAE International. Corvette Racing's use of an alternative fuel on the race track reflects GM's commitment to producing fuel-efficient vehicles for customers – there are 3.5 million E85-capable GM FlexFuel vehicles on the road today.

The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 21. The race will be televised live on SPEED from 10 a.m. to noon and from 2 to 11 p.m. ET.

So let's take a trip back into the heart of the Malaise Era and check out this '79 Corvette. Horsepower was up a bit from the year before, with the L82 350 engine making 195 horsepower- yes, that's only 20 more than the base engine in the new Dodge Caravan- compared to 185 in 1978.


This one lives just around the corner from the 1969 Volvo P1800 and just a block from the '79 Ford Ranchero. It seems to be in pretty good, if dusty, condition, and I've seen it moving under its own power often enough that it may well be a daily driver.

The limited edition package is based on the Corvette Coupe 4LT, Convertible 4LT or Z06 3LZ, carrying a $7,840 $2,350 premium (For a $2,350 premium, it's not too shabby of a deal). Non-Z06 models get the Z51 performance package and all of them get the coveted Corvette Racing "Jake" graphic. The full list of features is below:

• C6.R livery inspired graphics feature Corvette Racing ‘Jake', Championships, and driver flags
• ZR1 style body color full width spoiler and chrome wheels
• Custom Leather Wrapped Ebony Interior with exclusive Yellow accent stitching
• GT1 embroidery on the leather seats, instrument panel, and center console armrest
• Special Engine Cover with carbon pattern and yellow Corvette lettering
• Windshield banner – owner installed
• Available in 45U Velocity Yellow (with black headlamps) or 41U Black
• Specific VIN sequence 300001 series for 45U Velocity Yellow representing the #3 C6.R
• Specific VIN sequence 400001 series for 41U Black representing the #4 C6.R
• Limited production to 100 per each color and body style combination and 600 total in Spring ‘09
• Coupe and Convertible versions also include:
Z51 Performance Package, NPP Performance Exhaust

The Corvette GT1 will be unveiled at the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 21. If you plan on getting one of the convertibles, make sure it's black or you'll look like this guy.

Both the Z06 and Coupe 1LT Vettes ordered with the Competition Sport package will get a track focus, which includes competition stripes, wheels and headlamps, an ebony interior, Corvette racing pedals and a special engine cover. As a special treat, the vehicle will also get the Corvette Racing "Jake" and CSR logos.

Any Coupe 1LT ordered with the package will also get the Z51 performance package, performance exhaust, differential cooler, HUD, Z06 spoiler and other goodies, bringing the power to 436 HP and actually increasing the performance. The Z06 will maintain the same mechanicals, including the same 505 HP LS7 V8, making this primarily an aesthetic package.

Given the bad economy, offering these kinds of special packages is probably a decent way
to get customers to pay a premium on cars they're already interested in buying. Of course, just looking like you're ready for the track doesn't mean a 2009 Corvette ZR1 won't still smoke you on the track.

2009 Competition Sport Corvette (RPO CSC)
Chevrolet introduces a new Corvette package available for a limited time

The Competition Sport package is for the Corvette purist and driving enthusiast
Perfect Corvette for the enthusiast who attends driving schools and track events
Focus on lightweight and performance driving
Serious track influenced design features
Excellent value pricing - Limited build scheduled for Spring '09 only

Included in the package:
Competition Gray Exterior Stripes, Wheels, and Headlamps
Corvette Racing ‘Jake’ and CSR logos on b-pillar, headrest, and center armrest
-Ebony Interior with titanium embroidery
-Corvette Racing Pedals from GCA
-Special engine cover
-Racing style numbers with number based on build sequence to be installed by customer

Available in either Coupe 1LT with 436 hp or Z06 1LZ with 505 hp versions
-Z06 version available in 17U Blade Silver or 41U Black
Coupe version available in 17U Blade Silver or 10U Arctic White
Coupe version also includes in package:
Z51 Performance Package, NPP Performance Exhaust, Differential Cooler
Head Up Display
Red Painted Brake Calipers
Z06 tall spoiler

Don’t miss this special opportunity - Order the Coupe 1LT and Z06 1LZ with CSC

So it's an all-new Vette, with nothing from the factory, sporting hi-po parts and custom bodywork. What's not to love? Well, nothing really, it just makes us feel icky. Call us traditionalists, but a 'Vette should look like a Vette (we still have nightmares about Corvette Summer, so don't get us started) and this business of mixing peanut butter into one's chocolate makes it feel like we're seeing something... unnatural. And then there's the problem of a fully functional trunk in the back — heresy! Now, if the question goes from "do you like the design?" to "would you drive the hell out of it?" the question becomes an emphatic yes, but these fiberglass Frankensteins are still freaking us out. [Street Rods Only, via Corvette Blogger]