It seems that nowadays the focus is on the horsepower number. Yeah, they’re getting bigger and bigger, but the downside to that, as many detractors will point out, is that properly unloading all of the fury of an engine like a Hellcat Hemi or the Shelby GT350’s 526 horsepower requires skill that, put bluntly, most buyers simply don’t have. These cars are purchased more as status symbols than the weapons-grade fun that they are. Just because you don’t have the biggest dyno chart with your new car doesn’t mean that the fun isn’t there. The 5.7 Hemi powered Dodge Challenger R/T will still shove you into the seat, the Coyote-powered Mustang GT is still capable of hanging the tail out as long as you dare, and the base Corvette Stingray’s 460 horsepower LT-1 V8 isn’t a slouch.

But let’s say that you want something to shut up that loudmouth whose C6 ZR1 is so untouchable that he’s grown an ego the size of a flyover state about it. You not only want to flat out destroy his car, but just to add a little icing on the cake, you want to do it with less power. That’s the premise behind the 2017 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport: All of the good parts from the Z06 with the LT-1 providing the power. We promise, there is plenty of grunt in that mill to do damage: when we first rode in the then-new C7 Stingray around NCM Motorsports Park, we ended up needing a neck adjustment…between the acceleration, braking, and lateral g’s being pulled, it’s so, so good. But the big-daddy C6 ZR1 is the point to beat, and the Grand Sport stays hot on the heels of the Blue Devil around GM’s Milford test track…not bad for being 178 horsepower down.

The suspension is where the Grand Sport starts to come into it’s own. The standard Grand Sport is able to create 1.05g of cornering load, but if you spring for the Z07 Handling Package, the Michelin Sport Cup 2 tires, the carbon fiber aero bits and carbon ceramic brakes the size of a pizza serving tray will boost that figure up to 1.2g. The unbelievable MagnaRide system and an electronic limited-slip diff out back. Add in the benefits of a naturally-aspirated V8, which should be less temperamental than the Z06’s LT-4 supercharged V8 has been, and it all comes together in a tasty package. If we were ‘Vette shopping, we might skip the monster C7 and take a look at this beast instead.