Autoblog

The Corvette Z07/SS/Blue Devil is fast becoming one of the worst kept secrets in Detroit. It's not for GM's lack of trying to keep the lid on it, but rather on account of the zealous nature of the Corvette Nation. They're an impatient bunch and are having a hard time waiting for next year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, where many suspect the super Corvette will bow.

Here we have a set of new pics taken god knows where that show one of the Corvette Z07's most closely hidden secrets. We all assumed that camo on the hoods of development mules was hiding an air intake. Guess what. It wasn't. If these blurry camera phone shots are the real deal, then the ultimate Vette ever will be sporting a clear polycarbonate window in its hood to show off the goods underneath. Say whu? Yeah, a plexiglass window, not unlike the totally transparent hood on the car in which John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John liberated themselves from terra firma at the end of the 1978 film musical Grease. Anyway...

The shaky shots also show some serious braking hardware and what appears to be more extreme air extractor vents behind the front wheels. Aside from that, it appears the Z07 may look much like the Z06. Again, we have to qualify all this with the disclaimer that the car in these pics is most likely not a final production model and may be nothing like what we eventually see on stage in January. Still, a polycarbonate window? We admit, didn't see that one coming.

[Source: Digital Corvettes via GMInsideNews]

That's right, we're still calling the upcoming Corvette SS the "Blue Devil", and it appears from these spy shots that Rick Wagoner feels the same way. Taken by veteran spy photog Jim Dunne for Popular Mechanics, the spyshots include one of the car's rear where a sticker on the bumper is visible. PM asks whether it could be the "Blue Devil" logo of Duke University, Wagoner's alma mater. It's impossible to tell what the sticker shows on the shots provided, but we assume PM and Dunne had larger shots to inspect, and will therefore take their word for it.

PM also claims the Corvette SS may be one of the seven world premiers General Motors is planning for the New York Auto Show in April. There are still at least two debuts that we can't account for, so it's possible the production Blue Devil could debut at the last auto show of the season. It would certainly leave a big impression on the buying public going into the summer sales doldrums. There's nothing like news of a 650-hp Vette costing in the six-figure range to perk up some ears.

[Source: Popular Mechanics]