As the C8 Ups the Ante, the 2014–19 C7 Corvette Remains a Great Bet

The Corvette team wanted to take the car from front- to mid-engine for decades before they got the budget to develop the 2020 Stingray. Those decades of delay must have been frustrating at times, even if the reasons were impossible to dispute (hello, 2008 financial crisis). In hindsight, the delayed mid-engine Corvette was the gift that kept on giving: The team couldn’t reinvent the car, so they had to refine it—again and again. The result of all that fussing is the 2014–19 Corvette Stingray.

The seventh-generation (C7) model was the last front-engine Vette and the apex of the breed. The collector-car market reflects its place in the hierarchy: Even as new models in the C8 family up the ante, with unprecedented power and speed, they’re depreciating faster than the front-engine cars that immediately preceded it. Values of C7s haven’t budged over the last four years, and the higher-performance models have even ticked up. Depreciation? So far, not a big problem for the C7.

In a recent sit-down interview with Hagerty, Tadge Juechter, chief engineer of the Corvette from 2006 to 2024, revealed that he and his team had begun to develop the C7 as the long-awaited mid-engine Corvette, in 2009 … until the rug was pulled out from under their feet. The accounting team finally understood, however, that the Corvette was a money-maker, so they allocated enough money for an all-new platform. 

Tadge and his team put the money to good use. The chassis of the outgoing model (the C6) was made of hydroformed steel, and only the Z06 and ZR1 got the full aluminum treatment. With the C7, the base Corvette finally went to all-aluminum chassis construction. The team even designed the spaceframe to be shared by coupe and convertible. The new structure was 57 percent stiffer and 100 pounds lighter than that of the C6. The team leveraged their budget on expensive materials to scrounge even more pounds: They used carbon fiber for the T-top roof panels and the hood and built the seat frames out of magnesium. Thankfully, they had money left over to build a whole new engine.

The new LT1 engine shared only five parts with the outgoing LS3, despite displacing the same amount (6.2 liters). The LT1 was more fuel efficient than its predecessor, more powerful, and torquier, especially low down. The improvements were mainly due to more refined tech, like continuously variable valve timing, a dynamic fuel injection that could run the engine on as few as two cylinders, and, for the first time, direct injection. The LT1 also got an entirely new intake manifold and a dual-stage oil pump. These improvements would bear even more fruit when GM did finally develop the mid-engine Corvette, evolving the LT architecture to create the LT2. 

Since the debut of MagneRide on the 50th-anniversary model in 2003, each generation of Corvette has introduced a new generation of MagneRide (MR, for short). Using electrically charged fluid to change damping characteristics on the fly, MR enabled engineers to up the Corvette’s performance capabilities without penalty to its ride. The third iteration of MagneRide, which debuted in the C7, was able to respond much faster than the second thanks to two coils fitted within the damper, rather than one. (This allowed current to flow quicker into and out of the shock.) When tuning MR for the C7, the Corvette team focused on expanding the bandwidth of the car, making tour mode more refined and comfortable while pushing track performance to an even higher level.

The C7 team knew that customers complained about the interior of the C6, and with the new car, they wanted to silence those complaints once and for all. The Corvette team had never developed more than one kind of seat for the Corvette, but the C7 got one seat for touring, and another, more heavily bolstered one for track use. It also got two 8-inch digital displays, a configurable one below the binnacle in between the speedometer and tachometer, and another to the right of the instrument cluster. The 2014 Corvette was maturing as a grand tourer: The infotainment system could recognize hand gestures and voice commands as well as stream music. The interior, which could be ordered in one of four color schemes, boasted new, upmarket materials (depending on how you ordered your car): Carbon-fiber, hand-selected leather, and sueded microfiber. The brochure takes pains to point out that the aluminum trim is actually aluminum. 

Part of the beauty of this Corvette generation is the wide variety of configurations. Barebone but trackable daily driver, luxe open-top cruiser, or supercharged thoroughbred—there’s a C7 for every taste. The track-tuned Z06 debuted the year after the base coupe, in 2015, with 650 supercharged horsepower hidden beneath a widebody kit. The Grand Sport split the difference between the base and the Z06, wearing the latter’s widebody but keeping things naturally aspirated. (Many enthusiasts consider this the most discerning choice.) The apex-predator ZR1 arrived in the final year of the C7. This muscular monster wore a massive fixed wing and an even larger supercharger, for a total output of 755 hp. In between was a smattering of special editions, including but not limited to the 2016 Z06 C7.R Edition, the 2017 Grand Sport Collectors Edition, and the 2018 Carbon 65 Edition. 

The most desirable option for the base car is the Z51 performance package, which carries a five percent premium. It’s well worth the spend if you plan to do any track days. The upgrades are thorough and start with a dry-sump oil system, an electronic limited-slip diff, an aero package, and extra cooling for the brakes, rear differential, and transmission. The suspension gets an overhaul: different shocks, springs, and stabilizer bars. Buyers could go a step further and add Magnetic Ride Control. The decision also added Performance Traction Management, GM’s track-tuned traction and stability control system. All Z51 cars got front brake rotors that were an inch larger than the base car’s, and a set of larger diameter wheels (19- and 20-inches, front/rear, versus 18 and 19 inches) clad in run-flat summer-only tires from Michelin (Pilot Super Sport ZP).

Beyond the Z51 package, the only other options that change the value of the base car are the transmission and a convertible top. (All C7s came with a seven-speed manual and the option of an automatic: a six-speed for the first year, and an eight-speed for the rest of the run.) All automatic cars carry a 10 percent discount, with the exception of the ZR1: This, the first generation of the top-trim to offer an automatic is now worth 20 percent less with that transmission. Across all years and variants, a droptop C7 is worth three percent more than a hardtop one. 

Get any Corvette fan talking about the C7 generation, and you might think their excitement about the high-performance variants would equate to dramatically different trajectories in the market. In fact, over the past four years, the entire C7 breed has been quite stable. Appreciation of Grand Sports, Z06s, and ZR1s have only slightly outpaced the base Stingray, which as of January 2025 is within one percent of its 2021 values. The GS is up three percent since 2021, while Z06 and ZR1 are up six percent. You will, of course, pay handsomely for the more fettled variants. The premium is proportional to the changes made from the base car: a Grand Sports is worth 27 percent more than the base car, a Z06 36 percent, and a ZR1 74 percent. Budget $48,000 for a base coupe in squeaky clean condition (#2, or Excellent). A Grand Sport in the same condition will run in the mid-$60Ks, and a Z06 in the mid-$70Ks. An Excellent-condition ZR1, a six-figure car when new, is now $187,000. The convertible version is knocking on the door of $200K. 

Boomers are by far the biggest fans of these cars, representing 32 percent of the collector car market but nearly half of C7 quotes. Gen X is the next-largest group, with 29 percent of quotes, but this figure is slightly below their 31 percent share of the market. (According to our quote data, they’re more interested in the C8.) Gen Z is the least interested in these cars, judging by our quote data. Preboomers and millennials also seem cool to the C7, with 6 and 13 percent of C7 quotes, respectively. 

The pinnacle of front-engined Corvettes is holding its value remarkably well. Even better, the C7 is all things to all sports-car fans—grand tourer to track rat and everything in between. As the C8 continues to reinvent the Corvette recipe with ever more iterations, the last example of the original formula is proving timeless.