We attempt to answer existential questions about both the new Corvette and Route 66 on a road trip across the famous highway’s longest remaining stretch.
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Route 66 isn’t a road. Not really, anymore. Scraps of it still exist in all eight states it ran through, but most of it has been built over, replaced by the Interstate Highway System. On the eve of its upcoming 100th anniversary in November, we’ve traveled to 66’s longest remaining continuous stretch, located in western Arizona, with a car that’s just as much an American icon and facing its own existential questions, the 2027 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport .
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Where Do We Go From Here?
Both the road and the Corvette face an uncertain future. Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985, and the people and businesses along its path adapted to attract travelers who want to drive it rather than those in the past who had no other choice. Preservation societies have sprung up in all eight states—beginning in Arizona—to popularize the road and the communities it connects and to encourage tourism. They all got a big boost from the Pixar movie Cars 20 years ago, and now from the Centennial celebration, but still, you wonder how much longer it will last.
The Corvette faces a similar quandary. It is America’s sports car, a symbol of both U.S. automaking and pop culture. It’s built for fun in a world that increasingly sees cars as appliances. How long can a car made to be driven by people who love the act of driving last in an apparently inevitable future of electric and autonomous cars?
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