Not ignorant at all -- comparing the Corvette with the classic "muscle car" is like comparing the cutting power of a sword with a broadaxe. Both cut, but the lighter faster sword (i.e., the Corvette) has a level of finesse; the broadaxe cuts with sheer power.
The engines in the muscle cars are throatier, louder and far more powerful in a head-to-head competition than the lighter Corvette (and other similar cars).
I used to have a friend from Tokyo who went to college in Chicago. When he moved here (mid 80's), he bought a Buick Grand National (one of GM's last true muscle cars). When his mother (a quiet, reserved woman) came to visit, all she saw was a Buick Regal. She had no clue. That is until people challenged her to race more than once at stop lights...
This brings back some happy memories. Fifteen years ago my late father-in-law gave up driving and gave me his 1979 Olds Cutlass. It was faded and didn't look like anything but an old man's car. So when some yuppie scum driving a BMW would pull up to a stoplight next to me, all he saw was a pretty suburban mommy in an old, uncool car, with a backseat full of groceries. What the yuppies never knew was that someone had dropped a 454 V-8 into that old car and had taken off the emissions equipment. I did so enjoy dragging away from the light and making the bimmers and Porsches eat my tailpipe. They could not hope to accelerate as fast or keep up to me. It was so childish on my part, and so satisfying.