Nuts and Bolts Under the 3,179-pound 2005 Chevrolet Corvette’s long, luscious hood thumps a cast aluminum, six-liter, eight cylinder engine dubbed the LS2, making 400 horsepower and 400 lb.-ft. of torque good for 0-60 mph in four seconds and a top speed of 186 mph.

Under the 2005 Chevrolet Corvette’s long, luscious hood thumps a cast aluminum, six-liter, eight-cylinder engine dubbed the LS2. Perhaps not the most sophisticated motor on the planet, the LS2 employs old-school pushrod valve actuation rather than modern overhead cams and breathes through two valves per cylinder instead of a more contemporary four-valve design. But with 400 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 400 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,400 rpm, you’re not gonna care about yester-tech engineering that limits redline to 6,500 rpm – a spot on the rev band where allegedly sophisticated Japanese sports cars are just getting the party started. Nobody can argue with zero to sixty acceleration measuring close to four seconds by Chevrolet’s stopwatch, quarter-mile times in the mid-12s at 114 mph, or a top speed of 186 mph. Add EPA fuel economy ratings of 18 city and 25 highway with the automatic transmission and 19/28 with the manual, and the 3,179-pound Corvette starts to resemble some kind of automotive miracle.

With six cogs to stir, the standard manual transmission features shorter throws and a new shifter to make changing gears more enjoyable. The optional four-speed automatic is a strengthened version of the old Corvette’s set-it-and-forget-it gearbox, updated with Performance Algorithm Shifting (PAS) software designed to ensure that the Corvette can predict exactly which gear is desirable for a given driving situation and get the transmission into that gear right when the driver wants it. Both transmissions are mounted at the rear axle, next to the drive wheels rather than right behind the engine, to keep the Corvette’s weight distribution at a nearly ideal 51/49 split front to rear.

Equal weight distribution helps handling, but chassis dynamics are also critical. The redesigned 2005 Chevrolet Corvette rides on a stiff, lightweight frame made of a hydroformed steel backbone fortified with composite floors filled with balsa wood, an aluminum and magnesium cabin architecture, and a boxed center driveshaft tunnel that helps to erase structural flex.

Suspension is double wishbones with aluminum upper and lower control arms front and rear, with monotube shock absorbers controlling wheel movement and transverse-mounted composite leaf springs filtering road shock from the body. An optional Magnetic Selective Ride Control suspension employs electrically-charged dampers that continually read road surface conditions and adjust the suspension for the optimum blend of ride and handling, and an aggressively-tuned Z51 Performance suspension is available including stiffer shocks and springs, thicker stabilizer bars, and cross-drilled 13.4-inch front and 13-inch rear brake rotors for handling performance that Chevrolet claims is close to the previous-generation Z06.

Normally, the rotors measure 12.8-inches up front and 12 inches in the rear, charged with hauling Z-rated Goodyear Eagle F1 Extended Mobility Technology (EMT) tires down from speed. Mounted to 18 x 8.5-inch alloy wheels up front and 19 x 10-inch rims in the rear, the EMT run-flat rubber is sized 245/40 at the Corvette’s nose and 285/35 at its tail, and features an asymmetric tread design with the Z51 Performance suspension option. Speed-sensitive magnetic rack-and-pinion steering guides the way on all 2005 Chevy Corvettes. Antilock brakes, traction control, and an Active Handling stability control system are also standard equipment.