Looking at the porsche 918 and bmw i8, its pretty clear phevs are a better way to add more perfomrance than more cubic inches. The question really is what will it cost to make a corvette version of the voltec drivetrain. PHEV not only boost the acceleration, but allow more options for ballanced handling. The penalty is weight and cost. The payoff is better acceleration and better fuel economy as well as likely lower maintenance costs. A corvette's battery pack is likely smaller and lighter. 4wd is likely as it does not add much to cost, but can get more power to the wheels.
The successful tradesman's sports car? I don't think a hybrid will go over well for the current Corvette crowd. The Mustang maybe, but only because the non-GT's are primarily driven by college girls and the word hybrid = status symbol. A plug-in GT40 would be even better.
Why? A hybrid option would aid performance A hybrid Corvette Stingray? 'Don't laugh,' says GM president Mark Reuss - latimes.com Adding a plug-in hybrid awd system to a corvette could add as little as $10,000, but could significantly reduce 0-60 times, improve handling, and improve fuel economy. How would that kill the car? The only place it would hurt the performance would be high speed long acceleration, which likely would only be impacted at the track. An AWD hybrid system would be able to come out of turns faster, meaning even on the track lap times would be improved. Why would corvette be better off ignoring this performance technology?
