How serious are the problems facing the Detroit Three?

This serious: General Motors' Chevrolet Division has put the next-generation Corvette, the C7, on indefinite hold.

GM Inside News reports, "Well-placed sources have confirmed GM has put the next-generation C7 Corvette program on hold, pending a review of the impact of the 35-mpg CAFE laws due to come into effect in 2020.

"The problem for GM is that, while 35 mpg is the target for 2020, automakers have no idea what the transitional fuel-consumption targets are in the interim. In other words, they have no idea how they should be planning to get from today's CAFE number to 2020's. Transitional fuel-consumption targets are not expected to be finalized until the end of 2009."

It's not like the current Corvette, the C6 edition (the sixth generation car since its introduction in 1953, which used a straight-six cylinder truck engine called Blue Flame and a two-speed automatic transmission) is lacking for horsepower or excitement.

The current base C6 uses the 6.0 Liter LS2 engine. The V8 produces 400-horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 400 ft-lb of torque at 4,400 rpm. Its redline is set at 6, 500 rpm.

The upgraded C6 Z06 model has a 7.0 Liter V8. Officially certified output is 505-horsepower, much more than Mustang and comparable to Dodge's Viper. I've had the pleasure of driving both models on city streets, wide-open highways and race tracks, and "kick in the pants" doesn't do either Corvette justice.

Finally, the biggest, baddest Corvette available is the 2009 ZR1 (a similarly-named Corvette saw life from 1990 through '95 as a ferociously-upgraded C4 Corvette). GM's announced target of 100-horsepower-per-liter has been reached by a new engine, LS9. That's a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 producing a confirmed 638-horsepower and 604 foot-pounds of torque. The sticker price is $100,000, and its top speed is 205 miles per hour. The engine is the most powerful ever in an American production car.

The C6.R racing version of the Corvette has acquitted itself very well in races ranging from the 24 Hours of LeMans to the 12 Hours of Sebring. Development driving for the Z06 and ZR1 models was done at Germany's Nurburgring, a 3.2-mile 16-turn race track built in the 1920s and which was once nearly 18-miles in length.

About 40,000 Corvettes are sold in a good year.

It's not these kinds of cars which hurt the Detroit Three (and other car-makers) when it comes to their mpg ratings; it's the hundreds of thousands of full-size trucks and SUVs and large sedans, with V8s or large V6 engines, that do the real damage

SOURCE: Huffington Post