The 50th anniversary edition distinguishes itself from the base Corvette with special interior and exterior badges, Anniversary red exterior, padded door armrest and grips, and ‘champagne’ colored wheels. The golden year car – offered in convertible or coupe – looks nearly identical to standard Corvette, but it is priced $5,000 more than the base model. After 500 driving miles, the anniversary coupe just didn’t prove itself ‘extra’ special. Sure it’s loaded with features, but the 350 horsepower 5.7-liter V8 is standard on Corvette. So from a power perspective, there’s no difference. While a 4-speed automatic is the standard transmission, a 6-speed manual is available for $915. The tested Corvette was fitted with the manual transmission. As for the manual gearbox: it’s horrid. To be fair, the clutch is set too deep in the pocket to find a comfortable seated position for a short stature person of 5-foot-4. That means shifting gears is a tiresome, cumbersome task, especially going from first to second gear. (All too often, the shift is inadvertently 1st-to-4th gear.) On the flip side, the car barely moves above 1,500 rpm when traveling 80 mph in 6th gear, underscoring that driving a Corvette is all about high speed. Fuel economy estimates are 19 city/28 highway with 6-speed transmission. MSRP is $43,635 without anniversary edition extras.