The business of remaking an automotive legend is a daunting challenge for any manufacturer and especially for General Motors when it came time to design the C7 for 2014. Add Corvette owner’s fierce loyalty and somewhat stubborn ideas about what “heritage” means and a tricky situation becomes even more complicated.
Styling wise, the C7 mixed it up with rear, side quarter-windows (last seen on 1962 models,) that eliminated the old school rear “hoop” B-pillar. This paved the way for C6-R inspired cooling inlets vents on top of the rear fenders, and extraction vents in the rear bumper cover. To top it all off, the taillights were NOT round and were morphed into Camaro-esque squared off units.
Folks went crazy. Chat rooms exploded. Some people said the car looked like a Camaro from the rear and they would NEVER buy a Corvette again. Really? Detractors glommed onto this issue too, probably because they were knocked out by how good the C7 was right out of the box.
That’s all back in the mist now. The C7 is a grand slam hit, the Z06 intro added more excitement and it seemed like the “The Great Taillight Incident” was long forgotten. Well, time flies and believe it or not, the C7 is nearly due for a mid-cycle refresh and we think it’s time to speculate whether Chevrolet will revisit this once prickly issue. Check out these rear end proposals for the C7 that might quell the only beef people have with the new car. They come to us via The Corvette International Facebook Community Facebook page.
Finally, what would you like to see when the Corvette gets a styling tweak in the coming years? Would you like the round taillights to return? How much would you pay for a replacement cover? Or would custom taillight assemblies with round LED’s do the trick? Should Chevrolet offer them as OEM? Let us know below.