The Fastest Corvette Ever Will Roar Into the Los Angeles Auto Show
Exciting SUV debuts from BMW, Jaguar, and Land Rover will join such sports cars as the new Aston Martin Vantage and Corvette ZR1.
By Hannah Elliott | November 27, 2017, 9:50 AM PST
Chevrolet says the ZRI will reach 210 mph. Source: Chevrolet
Last week Aston Martin introduced photos of the $149,995 2018 Vantage, a four-liter AMG twin-turbo V8 coupe that gets 503-horsepower and 505 pound-feet of torque.
Its bold, bare grill is the face of a new Aston Martin, one pointed toward younger buyers, those who want flashy colors (the Vantage in the debut photos came in a radioactive green) and more-aggressive angles along its two-door body.
Aston Martin typically doesn’t introduce cars at the Los Angeles Auto Show each November—but it will show the new Vantage on its stand Nov. 29 through Dec. 10 for the annual event.
In a time when major supercar makers—Lamborghini, Ferrari, Pagani, and McLaren, not to mention Bentley and Rolls-Royce—skip most auto shows altogether (their high-net-worth customers tend not to frequent auto shows to make actual purchasing decisions), the Vantage will be a rare bid to get mass attention for a car with elite-level performance and craftsmanship .
But Aston won’t be alone.
More than 60 global and North American debuts will happen during the show in L.A. this week, with many focused on—you guessed it—electrification and high-end SUVs. We’ll get to the latter in a moment.
It’s worth noting that, in Aston’s elite tier, Mercedes-Benz will bring its $2.5 million Project One supercar to the U.S. for the first time, and Corvette will introduce its fastest model to date, the new 2019 ZR1. The car has a supercharged, 755-horsepower V8 engine and a chevron-patterned carbon-fiber hood for extra lightweight performance, plus improved interior accents such as Alcantara trim throughout and heated seats. According to Chevrolet, it will reach 210 mph.
BMW will also show an 8 Series Concept, a cutting-edge performance car that will mark the return of its highest-end line and will hint at the look of the aggressive BMW 8 Series Coupe scheduled for launch in 2018. The dramatic-looking coupe has BMW’s kidney grille—oversize and made more angular—plus a long sloping roofline and wide, sporty stance that is lower and more aggressive in appearance than other recent BMW two-doors so far.
