Corvette Trivia
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94 free Corvette trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Chevrolet Corvette has been America's Sports Car since 300 hand-built white roadsters left Flint in 1953. This quiz runs through all eight generations: the Blue Flame six and the first V8, Harley Earl and Zora Arkus-Duntov, the split-window Sting Ray, the Mako Shark-inspired C3, the skipped 1983, the Lotus-designed ZR-1, the LS1 C5, the C7 Stingray revival and the mid-engine C8, E-Ray and ZR1X. It also covers Bowling Green and the National Corvette Museum sinkhole, Corvette Racing at Le Mans, the astronauts' Corvettes and Route 66. About a third of the questions are easy for any car fan, a third are medium and the rest are for people who know what a 4+3 is. Every answer is checked against the Corvette's reference pages.
30 of 94 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Corvette is named after what?
A small, maneuverable warship
A corvette is a small, maneuverable warship, a type used for convoy escort in World War II; GM adopted the naval name for its new sports car in 1953.
Q 02In what year did the first Corvette go into production?
1953
The Corvette debuted as a show car at GM's Motorama in New York in January 1953, and production began on June 30, 1953.
Q 03What was unusual about the original Corvette's bodywork?
It was made of fiberglass
The 1953 Corvette's body was made of fiberglass rather than steel; its hand-laid panels were bonded together, and every later generation kept a composite body.
Q 04How many Corvettes were built for the 1953 model year, and in what color?
300, all Polo White
Every one was a hand-built convertible; four colors became available in 1954.
Q 05What engine powered the 1953-55 Corvettes before a V8 arrived?
The Blue Flame inline-six
The Blue Flame inline-six, a 235 cu in engine with three Carter side-draft carburetors, made 150 hp in the 1953 Corvette; Chevrolet's 265 cu in V8 became optional in 1955.
Q 06Which competing two-seater debuted in 1955, the same year GM cut Corvette production to 700 cars?
Ford Thunderbird
The Ford Thunderbird arrived for the 1955 model year and outsold the Corvette many times over; a glut of unsold 1954 Corvettes held 1955 production to just 700 cars.
Q 07Who designed the original 1953 Corvette prototype and is credited as its inventor?
Harley Earl
Harley Earl, GM's head of styling, conceived the Corvette; his EX-122 concept was unveiled at the Motorama in New York on January 17, 1953.
Q 08Which engineer, born in Brussels to a Russian family, is known as the "Father of the Corvette"?
Zora Arkus-Duntov
Zora Arkus-Duntov, born in Brussels in 1909, joined Chevrolet in 1953 and pushed the Corvette toward V8 power and racing; he also won his class at Le Mans for Porsche in 1954 and 1955.
Q 09What new name did the second-generation Corvette introduce in 1963?
Sting Ray
The 1963 C2 introduced the Sting Ray name, written as two words on its fender badges; the Sting Ray name ran through the 1967 model year.
Q 10Which one-year-only feature makes the 1963 Corvette coupe especially collectible?
A split rear window
Only the 1963 coupe had the split rear window; Zora Arkus-Duntov complained it blocked rear vision, and a single pane replaced it for 1964 over designer Bill Mitchell's objections.
Q 11The Z06 designation first appeared as what on the 1963 Corvette?
A competition package option
On the 1963 Sting Ray, Z06 was a competition package option, RPO Z06 Special Performance Equipment, with stiffer suspension and bigger finned drum brakes; only 199 cars received it.
Q 12The third-generation Corvette of 1968 was patterned after which concept car?
Mako Shark II
The 1968 C3 was patterned after the Mako Shark II show car of 1965, keeping its swooping fenders; the generation ran through the 1982 model year.
Q 13The Corvette first served as the Indianapolis 500 pace car in which year?
1978
A Corvette first paced the Indianapolis 500 in 1978, the car's 25th anniversary year; Chevrolet sold a black-over-silver pace car replica edition that year.
Q 21What fundamental change did the C8 Corvette make in 2020?
A rear mid-engine layout
The 2020 C8 moved to a rear mid-engine layout, placing its 6.2-liter LT2 V8 behind the seats; every previous Corvette generation had been front-engined.
Q 22What is the E-Ray, introduced as a 2024 model?
A hybrid all-wheel-drive Corvette
The E-Ray is a hybrid all-wheel-drive Corvette: its 6.2-liter LT2 V8 drives the rear wheels and a 160-hp electric motor drives the fronts, for 655 hp combined.
Q 23The 2026 ZR1X set a lap record for an American production car at which track?
The Nürburgring
Q 14Corvette production moved in 1981 from St. Louis to which city?
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Bowling Green, Kentucky has built every Corvette since 1981, and the National Corvette Museum stands in the same city.
Q 15Which model year was skipped entirely, with the C4 launched early as a 1984?
1983
Only one 1983 prototype survives, now displayed at the National Corvette Museum.
Q 16The C4 ZR-1's LT5 engine was designed by which British sports-car maker?
Lotus
Lotus, then owned by GM, designed the ZR-1's 32-valve LT5 V8; Mercury Marine built it in Stillwater, Oklahoma from 1990 to 1995.
Q 17What was the "4+3" transmission offered on 1984-88 Corvettes?
A four-speed manual with automatic overdrive on the top three gears
Doug Nash designed it, bringing back a manual option after 1981.
Q 18What all-new engine family debuted in the 1997 C5 Corvette?
LS1
The LS1, an all-aluminum 5.7-liter small-block V8 with an individual ignition coil for each cylinder, debuted in the 1997 C5 Corvette rated at 345 hp.
Q 19The C6 Corvette shared some components with which Cadillac?
XLR
The XLR hard-top convertible had arrived two years earlier, in 2003.
Q 20How much horsepower did the 2019 C7 Corvette ZR1's supercharged LT5 V8 produce?
755
The 2019 Corvette ZR1's supercharged 6.2-liter LT5 V8 was rated at 755 horsepower and 715 lb-ft of torque, the most powerful engine fitted to a production Corvette up to that point.
The ZR1X lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6:49.275 in 2025, the fastest time for an American production car at that point, ahead of the Ford Mustang GTD.
Q 24Which early-1960s TV show made the Corvette "synonymous with freedom and adventure"?
Route 66
In Route 66, which ran on CBS from 1960 to 1964, Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock drove a Corvette convertible across America each week.
Q 25Which Indy 500 winner and Florida Chevy dealer set up the program giving astronauts new Corvettes?
Jim Rathmann
Jim Rathmann, the 1960 Indianapolis 500 winner, ran a Chevrolet dealership in Melbourne, Florida and, with GM president Ed Cole's approval, arranged Corvette leases for the astronauts; Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom raced theirs on Florida roads.
Q 26What disaster struck the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, early on February 12, 2014?
A sinkhole swallowed eight cars
A sinkhole swallowed eight cars when dissolving limestone opened a hole under the Skydome floor at about 5:44 AM; five of the eight were pulled out within weeks.
Q 27In what year did the National Corvette Museum open?
1994
The National Corvette Museum opened on September 2, 1994, near the Bowling Green assembly plant that had built Corvettes since 1981.
Q 28Corvette Racing, founded in 1999 with Pratt Miller, is known for its cars' what color?
Yellow
The team has nine class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Q 29How many times had Corvette Racing won its class at Le Mans by the end of 2025?
Nine
Corvette Racing scored nine Le Mans class wins: 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2023, the last in GTE Am with the number 33 C8.R.
Q 30Motor Trend named the Corvette Car of the Year in 1984, 1998 and which other year?
2020
Motor Trend named the mid-engine C8 its 2020 Car of the Year, after honoring the C4 in 1984 and the C5 in 1998.