Rick Ross

It’s the wave of the future. It’s a car with a heritage. It was bound to happen, and we think, in the end, it’s right. Corvettes, of course, mean V8s. It’s hard to imagine the American standard-bearer with anything less. But gas is expensive, engineers have figured out how to get a lot of power from a smaller engine, and cross-town rival Ford has proven that it’s possible to get V8 performance from a V6, using turbochargers and magic. Ford calls it EcoBoost. Chevy hasn’t put a name to it yet, but word is, they’re going to follow Ford with their own turbo’d six, set to take the place of big V8s in many cars, starting with the icon. Autoweek reports that Chevrolet is working to get out its own twin-turbo V6, set to debut in the next-generation Corvette. Chevy hopes to get it ready in time for the car’s 60th edition, in 2013…so we can celebrate the heritage by getting used to the idea that we don’t need a V8 to post a zero-to-sixty time that makes us laugh out loud with joy. And by then, gas prices may have us all welcoming the smaller engine. -via dubdaily