Corvette's new droptop demon

The “big nasty” has just got naughty, with Chevrolet ripping the top off its halo sports car – the Corvette Z06 – at the New York motor show.

It’s a car that Chevy says offers all the performance and speed of the hardtop Z06, with none of the usual convertible drawbacks.

Clever engineering (thanks to the new Vette’s aluminium underpinnings) means the drop-top Z06 weighs the same as the coupe and is 20 percent more rigid than the old C6 Z06 it replaces.

It also cops the same 6.2-litre 466kW/861Nm supercharged LT4 V8 as its hardtop sibling, the same track-honed suspension and the same 0-100km/h charge of around 3.0sec.

Transmissions are identical to the coupe, too, meaning a choice of a seven-speed manual or eight-speed automatic.

Buyers can even tick an optional Z07 track package, should the standard car not sound fast enough.

Who said convertibles are for hairdressers?