GM Considering Hybrid Corvette

What's that I hear? Do I hear the gnashing of teeth from places like Bowling Green and Bloomington? I just might, cause if the rumors turn out to be true that GM is considering a hybrid version of the much-loved Corvette, I bet the wailing from those not favorable to things environmental won't stop for months, if not years.

Car guys are a funny lot sometimes. There seems to be this built in aversion to anything even approaching making cars more environmentally freindly. It's as if the idea is so aborhant to them, that if they were to give just an inch, they fear that by this time next year the government mandated vegan-lesbians will be knocking down their doors to take their children to tree-hugger camps just after pressing the keys of the now-mandatory electric Trabants into their shaking hands (It's a slippery slope people!!!!).

I've never understood this mindset. I like performance cars as much as any other gearhead out there, but I also don;t like spending any more on gas than I have to, and screwing up the planet any more than we already have seems like a pretty bad idea. So what's the big fear if Corvette goes hybrid?

According to Tom Stephens, GM's vice chairman of global product development, The General is really considering a hybrid Corvette. Although at this stage, he says tht nothing is definet and that a hybrid Corvette would only be considered if the future of the sportscar depended on it. But if you consider that that CAFE standards are going to be 35.5 mpg by 2016 though, a hybrid might be inevitable.

That is unless GM gets past their dread and repugnance of the gas guzzler tax. They've been making the Vette do all sorts of tricks since the Gen 4s had that goofy "skip shift" deal that would force you to go from first to fourth inder certain conditions (i.e. at anything less than tromping on it).

For the time being, The General thinks the Vette will be good enough in the MPG arena so that a hybrid won't be seen in showrooms any time soon. For now, Corvettes will be made lighter, and equipped with low rolling resistance tires, direct injection, variable valve timing, and cylinder deactivation to keep the mileage on the up-and-up. GM says that going with electric power steering can boost mileage by half a gallon.

So consider this a bit of a distant early warning ... sometime in years hence, a Corvette might be a hybrid, but not for now.

Source: AutoBlogGreen. Photos from Flickr users dok1, stephenhanafin, Flyinace2000 and Marshall Astor.