Excluding the past year, the Chevy Corvette hasn’t dominated car conversations in a really long time. But the old-timers might attest that it used to be so popular in the old days that Corvette powerboats became a thing.
Yes, boats named after a sports car. We can’t imagine what it was like when the first Corvette came out. It probably felt like a really bad idea to buy the first American sports car. It was too small, made out of a newfangled material, and defied convention. Buyers must have felt like pioneers… or early Tesla adopters, who now have access to flamethrowers and ATVs.
Corvette-related cigar boat projects still pop up from time to time, especially in Florida. But this thing resides on land and looks like it’s floating. No, it’s not an amphibian, but a controversial rendering from artist Brad Builds.
Getting an interesting rendering is all about combining unusual ingredients or adding more of what’s already there. In the case of a Corvette, you already have many custom projects that try to bring the car closer to the ground. In fact, you can almost hear Chip Foose saying “what I’d like to do is bring the body a couple of inches lower.”
Most designers want an extreme stance, but their impulses have to be dialed down. Otherwise, speed humps would turn into launching pads. The Corvette rendering not only has lowered suspension but also negative camber, which we can only presume is coming from the Japanese tuning scene, just like the placement of the mirrors.
We’re not quite sure how you could get the wheels that high or avoid scraping the quad exhaust on the asphalt. But it is an interesting look. If you think about it, Corvettes and water go together perfectly, since the sports cars are named after a compact yet potently equipped type of warship.