The Awesome, Blazing Fast 2009 Chevy Corvette

The awesome, blazing fast 2009 Chevy Corvette, also known as the C6 Corvette, still stands alone atop the American sports car performance scene. With a body composed of fiberglass and not metal of some sort, this two-seat high performance machine pays homage to a time in the nation's history when open roads, smooth highways and high speeds were the norm.

The sixth generation Corvette, true to form, continues to build on its promise, and Chevy has seen to it that its diehard - and quite often fanatic - supporters out in the market get exactly what they want in packages that have become increasingly sophisticated in all facets, including power and gas mileage, which is quite a feat, given how truly high performance various models can be.

Starting in 2005, when the C6 made its debut, the Corvette has been continually tweaked by program engineers, and the car - fully rigged-out in various iterations when it comes off the line at its Bowling Green, Kentucky plant - is nothing if not technologically innovative and a joy to drive.

The Corvette has always been used as a kind of expensive test bed for new innovations in engine, sound, body and other characteristics, and the things that the engineers have learned from the 2009 Corvette will make their way all the way down the Chevy lineup, eventually arriving at the subcompact, pedestrian driver level.

Never shy about its engines, the Corvette can offer customers several different V8 powerplants, including an awesome 7 liter that can kick out well over 435 horsepower, a level of performance that allows it to go up against some of the finest exotic sports cars on the planet, and all at a price significantly less than those same cars would cost.

As an example, the newest beast in the stable is the ZR1, which uses supercharging to pull the 6. 2 liter V8 engine to over 635 horsepower and 205 miles per hour through a high-tech 6-speed transmission. Even with all that, it's 105, 000 dollar pricetag comes in far below what other cars offering such performance would cost.

The 2009 Chevy Corvette is nothing short of stupendous, no matter the version offered for consideration. Even base models - if one can call anything sporting the Corvette nameplate "base" - deliver a level of performance at a price that's just as attractive as the fiberglass-bodied dream machine looks to the human eye. At the top, the ZR1 (at just over 105 thousand dollars) seems sure to inspire lust in the hearts of many a Corvette enthusiast.