How about 2020? Half a century of waiting for the mid-engine Corvette has certainly provided lots of grist for the automotive press all that time. It remains uncertain if the the new rear-engine version will be introduced in 1971 or 1972”. Here’s the best line in the whole article: “The present Corvette will doubtlessly be the last front-engine model. Well, except of course the even faster L-88 version.
![69 corvete rodstar 427 gmc 69 corvete rodstar 427 gmc](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EBWpz2T_Lmw/maxresdefault.jpg)
Those are only just slightly faster than a Camry V6, and about comparable to a Subaru Forester XT I tested some years back. The Corvette’s performance, with a 0-60 time of 5.3 seconds, and the quarter mile dispatched in 13.8 seconds 106.8 mph was very impressive at the time, but obviously times have changed. The Corvette’s image issues have been around for a long time, and may never go away. I would have loved to give it a whirls, but my interest was clearly turning more to import sports cars. The Corvette was quite affordable at a time when wages were swelling, whereas in the C2’s era, it was undoubtedly a more exclusive car. Also, the changing demographics were clearly impacting its image, and I was already aware of that at the time. But I also saw that it was a bit overwrought, and it felt somewhat less the international competitor than the C2. I had been a huge fan of the C2, as well as the ’56-’57, and obviously the ’68 Corvette’s Mako Shark styling made a big impact on me. This Corvette was a challenge for me at the time. A 2018 Corvette starts at $55k, but the top performance version, the ZR-1, goes for well over $120k. And even this top-performance version 435hp Corvette had an as-tested price of $6,573, which is $44,672 adjusted, or the price of pickup today. In case you’re wondering how “under-25 blue-collar types” could afford a Corvette, 1969 was just a couple of years shy of the all-time peak of men’s hourly earnings. One is tempted to say that these to main demographic segments haven’t changed all that much over the decades. Curiously, the next largest segment of buyers is over-50, white-collar men who earn over $15,000 ($102k adjusted) per year.
![69 corvete rodstar 427 gmc 69 corvete rodstar 427 gmc](https://corvettetraderclassifieds.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/995766-777x583.jpg)
![69 corvete rodstar 427 gmc 69 corvete rodstar 427 gmc](https://images.ctfassets.net/buxxk7taiwc2/mB0C0ruuOdukGjSNn7Ion/b08ceb92be696e14024e5c7c0788d41d/Thrilling_Tri-Power_Third-Gen__1969_Chevrolet_Corvette_L68_427_400_ConvertibleHERO.jpg)
One of the more revealing statistics about the demographics of Corvette buyers at the time is that “a growing majority of Corvette buyers are under-25 blue-collar types making less than $10,000 ($67k adjusted) per year. And that includes some prognosticating about its inevitable mid-engine replacement. And its a good one, as it spends a lot more time analyzing what a Corvette is, and means, beyond the visceral impact of driving just about the fastest production car in the land. Here’s an article that caught my sixteen year-old eyes in 1969: an in-depth review of the 435 hp 427 Corvette.