The new Corvette LS6 V8 has picked up its first major trophy. GM announced on October 28 that TopGear.com’s US Car Awards named the 6.7-liter small-block its Engine of the Year. The same awards went two more ways for Chevrolet: the 2027 Corvette Grand Sport won Sports Car of the Year, and the ZR1X took Supercar of the Year.
Three wins for one nameplate in a single awards cycle is a strong showing. It also says something about where the Corvette sits right now. In fact, the base engine, the middle model and the flagship each earned a prize of its own.
GM’s own announcement carries the details, including quotes from Top Gear’s editors. Here is what won, what each car brings, and why the least dramatic of the three awards might matter most to buyers.
Why the Corvette LS6 won Engine of the Year
First, the award-winning engine is new for 2027. According to GM’s release on the awards, the LS6 displaces 6.7 liters and makes 535 horsepower and 520 lb-ft of torque. GM calls it the most powerful base engine ever offered in a Corvette. Better still, the Corvette LS6 comes standard in the 2027 Stingray and the Grand Sport.
Top Gear’s judges seemed to like it because it isn’t the headline act. “This is by no means the wildest engine in the Corvette lineup,” deputy editor Ollie Kew said, as quoted by GM. That is fair, since the ZR1X sits above it with a 1,064-hp twin-turbo V8. Still, the base engine is the one most Corvette buyers will live with every day.
The numbers also back that up. GM says a Stingray with the LS6 can reach 200 mph on a track. That claim applies to a 1LT car without the Z51 package. In other words, it’s about as plain as a new Corvette gets.
The Grand Sport returns as Sports Car of the Year
Chevrolet brought back the Grand Sport name for 2027, and Top Gear made it the Sports Car of the Year. The Drive’s first look in March explained the idea. Grand Sports have traditionally slotted between the standard Corvette and the range-topping models, a pattern that goes back to the C2 generation.
As a result, the 2027 Grand Sport sits between the Stingray and the Z06, ZR1 and ZR1X. It uses the same 535-hp Corvette LS6 as the Stingray. However, The Drive reported that buyers can order it with the center-exit exhaust once reserved for the Z06 and ZR1. It also offers carbon-ceramic brakes and aero upgrades, and its suspension tuning is similar to, but not the same as, the Stingray’s Z51 setup.
Corvette chief engineer Josh Holder described the Grand Sport as a “sweet spot” in the lineup. “It’s been a winning formula for us,” he said in GM’s release. There’s also a Grand Sport X, which adds an electric motor on the front axle for 721 hp total. The Drive reported that the Grand Sport X takes over from the E-Ray, which Chevrolet discontinued.
ZR1X takes Supercar of the Year
Meanwhile, the third award went to the top of the range. The 2027 ZR1X pairs a twin-turbo 5.5-liter LT7 V8 rated at 1,064 hp with an electrified all-wheel-drive system. GM puts the total at 1,250 hp. It also cites an 8.675-second quarter-mile at 159 mph, run on a closed course.
Top Gear contributing editor Jethro Bovingdon didn’t hold back. He called the car “a game-changer, a force of nature, and it could take years for its rivals to truly catch up,” according to GM. That is about as strong as praise from a car magazine gets.
The ZR1X also brings a detail that rarely shows up in supercar stories. Specifically, GM lists a 5-year/60,000-mile limited powertrain warranty. For a car with four-figure horsepower, that kind of coverage stands out, and it makes the ZR1X easier to justify as a car you actually drive.
What three trophies say about the 2027 Corvette
Awards are marketing, of course, and GM is the one announcing these. Even so, the spread of the wins is interesting. Top Gear didn’t just reward the fastest car. Instead, it rewarded the entry engine, the balanced middle model and the flagship, which suggests the whole lineup is sound.
That spread matters to anyone shopping for a new Corvette. After all, most buyers will never touch 1,250 hp. By contrast, a 535-hp Stingray or Grand Sport is the car you’ll see at a cars-and-coffee meet. If the base engine is good enough to win on its own, the cheaper Corvettes look like better buys than ever. For a broader look at how Chevy got here, our list of Corvettes that showed what Chevrolet could really build covers earlier high points.
Our take: the LS6 award is the one we’d frame. It goes to the engine that most owners will actually use, and it shows the car’s foundation is strong. GM says it assembles every one of these Corvettes in Bowling Green, Kentucky, using U.S. and globally sourced parts.
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