The World Would Be A Better Place If Detroit Had Built These Concept Cars

Photo: Bradley Brownell

If General Motors had wanted to make the Corvette an internationally-respected nameplate in the early 1990s, it could have just pushed the mid-engine, 650-horsepower, all-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, active suspension CERV III concept into production. This was a proper exotic that could completely demolish Porsche’s 959 from just a few years earlier. It was maybe the most advanced supercar of its day, but sadly never made production.

The Lotus-engineered 32-valve 5.7-liter DOHC engine, which was pushed into production with the ZR-1, wasn’t enough for the CERV III. This car tacked on a pair of Garret turbochargers to that engine and made 650 ponies. With all-wheel traction and active suspension, the car managed a 0-60 time of 3.9 seconds, and could pull 1.1 lateral G on the skidpad.

At the time it was produced, GM expected it to run around $300,000. Considering a standard Corvette was $32,000, and a ZR-1 just shy of double that, it was decided that the car wouldn’t be made. This kind of thing just proves that General Motors always could build stuff like this, but didn’t. If they wanted to, they would.