AUTOS: Chevy with a Heavy Sticker

Detroit's automakers have been trying lately to break into the market for $50,000-plus prestige cars -- a lucrative slice of the business completely dominated by the Europeans. General Motors' first entry was last year's $56,533 Cadillac Allante, which is designed and partly assembled in Italy. The Allante has flopped in the marketplace, but GM does not give up easily. Early next year the company will introduce a souped-up version of the Corvette, called the ZR1.

When it rolls off the assembly line in Bowling Green, Ky., the ZR1 will become the first $50,000 production car built entirely in the U.S. GM is not saying much about its new roadster, but Car and Driver magazine claims the ZR1 will hit 190 m.p.h., which would put it in a class with the best European performers. The current top-of-the-line Corvette reaches only 159 m.p.h. and costs $34,820.