The Supercar title is hard to
The Supercar title is hard to define, and get agreement. Years ago, the titles of Supercar and European exotic car were interchangable. But a Supercar was first defined by it's performance, being in a league of it's own. Then it's rarity and style. The Stingray C7 Corvette is hardly rare, but from time to time I will spot a C7 Corvette on the road, and the split-second before I identify it, my mind sees it's bold, exotic car styling, especially from the front. The Z06 offers legitimate supercar performance, and the ZR1 is a Monster. But the hard part for the Z06 and even the new ZR1 is that unless you are an American performance car fan, you are not going to be able to instantly know the difference between different levels of Corvette. Porsche has the same problem with the 911, where nobody but a fan is going to spot a GT3RS as anything special compared to the regular 911s. And the story is worse for cars like the Shelby GT350/500, and the Camaro ZL1. The Camaro ZL1 1LE lapped the Ring at 7:16, which was faster than an earlier Porsche GT2RS and the Ferrari 488!, but good luck in getting someone other than a Chevy fan in acknowledging it as ever being a supercar. I own a Dodge Viper, and for many years the Viper's performance, styling and rarity qualified it as a Supercar, but the only concession that you might get by exotic fans would be "American" Supercar despite the fact that the ACR Viper held more track records than most other production cars for years. The GTR also suffered from it's Nissan connections despite offering supercar-beating performance. Even though you might not like the fact that the new Ford GT has a V6 engine, it would be genuinely hard to NOT say that it is both a supercar and exotic car by virtue of it's rocketship styling, rarity, and amazing performance. But part of that qualification unfortunately also comes from it's $450K price tag. I loved the Corvette that I owned years ago, even though nobody would have called it a supercar, despite performance modifications that made it faster. I think that the decision to build the C8 Corvette as a mid-engined car was as much a point of status (being compared to Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren) as it was expecting to see any notable performance gains over the Z06 and ZR1. One good side about NOT getting universal acceptance of the Corvette as a "Supercar" is that the price doesn't get jacked up by speculators and collectors, and we can buy them used for a great deal. Getting all that great performance and style without the "Supercar tax" of inflated prices is worth it.