Yeah, but all in good fun. I'm sure you can imagine a few of the GM designers chuckling about people that don't like the rear-end and that is all they get to look at on the track. P-car driver (okay base Cayman, happy now? ), "Gawd, I hate the back-end of the C7, I wish I could get past him, but I can't....man, I hate looking at that rear-end. It's so ugly. Make it stop!!!" (Cayman driver then swerves into the tire wall to stop the eye-searing pain)



Hey Dez, I watched your video at VIR. OUTSTANDING! Great driving and a very nicely set-up RWD 996 Turbo!

 

The C5 Z06 was a game changer... Corvette finally had a car that could be taken directly to the track and stand up to that usage,

That said, the C5 Z06 was really a modified C5, upgraded engine, stiffer chassis, and tighter geared transmission.

The C6 Z06 was unique from the ground up. The only hold over from the stock C6 was the interior. Chassis, Engine, Brakes were all unique to the C6 Z06.

I anticipate the same engineering will be in the C7 Z06... time will tell.

 

 

Looks promising. I like what I see besides the rear.
Only one thing .... WHO STITCHED THAT DASHBOARD IS COMPLETELY BLIND !

 

what's wrong with it? I don't see it.

 

That white with black wheels looks great. Bet that combo on a C7 ZR1 is going to look incredible.

 

460 bhp/ 465 lbs. torque and if one were to pass on all the disco and cowbells a base Z51 is, well, a deal. Build your own.

 

For those of you old enough you may remember the song by the punk bad The Monks called "Nice legs shame about her face!..." this car is sort of like "Nice face shame about her a*s..."

I hope that I did not offend anyone!

 

That's a very good review.

Surely Edmunds, C&D, MT, et al, must look at this review and say "oh yeah ... so if we took time to assemble out thoughts, consider the Corvette for its history and it's place in time, here and now, then just go drive it and speak with candour and passion ..."

I just watched each of the other reviews; they all had me convinced I should pass on the Stingray and see what the Z06 brings. While I don't think it's the role, purpose or overt intent of the magazines to "sell" a car, I think it's their job to excite enthusiasm when a car deserves the attention (in their opinion) and to foment revolt when circumstances demand car enthusiasts take a stand. Car magazines have done neither job for a long time. In the first case, the Stingray deserves the attention of prejudiced Porschephiles like myself to concede, "excellence was expected" is correctly written in the past tense and there are alternatives, if not substitutes. BMW bigots should accept there is always higher ground than the "ultimate" car they're driving, especially if it's any M Series in the last decade or so. And Mercedes AMG drivers, well, those poor bastards are beyond rehabilitation, let's leave them to their wonderfully engineered exhaust notes. The Vette makes its noise by opening the pipes. Raw and simple.

But these video reviews were a strange lot. I guess that comes from a force fed diet of press kits and "job's worth" journalism. While I enjoyed the "travelogue, let's show you what a press day at GM is like" from Edmunds, and I won't waste time mocking the feeble verbatim regurgitation of press kit talking points, each of the US auto rags just doesn't seem to have their own heartbeat.

So I give quiet applause to Edmunds again for doing a good, clean job of it, putting in production effort and delivering an entertaining – if flawed and limited – first contact with the Stingray. They'll get their gizmo's going and they'll publish all the lurid details in due course. Someone said 1.11G's and others said 1.08 G's lateral. I wonder if that was a transient peak or a sustained average sample? In any case, if a human can out-do the launch control, someone needs to hit the laptop and tidy up their algorithms. What's that about tire temperatures going into e-diff programming? Wow. That sounds like totally bogus "I read it off this dash display so it must be real." But they all had me convinced I should ignore the car and wait for the Z06 version. GM needs to rethink its press programs.

In stark, white contrast, full credit Automobile -- they have done GM a great service. Just the insight to position the Stingray as a "Sports car muscle car." I think that's insightful and inarguable. The creative thought to say "can we borrow that old white one and the new one in white?" and the simple clarity of thought in editing the video to realize "What do people want first?" They want the engine at full throttle to the redline and they want a raucous burn-out. And it makes sense to show those animated "fly through" graphics rather than have a talking heat point and say "in there is a diff" ... good grief.

Was it Car and Driver that opened with 30 seconds of "first time on public roads" and an old Vette guy in sensible pants proving the cliched stereotype of the 'merican muscle car driver, and then proceeded to dawdle around in top gear at 1000 rpm in near silence? Their opening sequence was a low speed fly-by with the throttle closed as the car passed the camera. That's what they choose to begin their first drive video? Seriously?

The most shocking thing about all these first drive videos today -- aside from none of the cars having the big ceramic rotors -- was to see the Stingray looks very good in white. That's impossible. Only well designed cars with great body lines look good in white. I find that a little shocking. I think the 991 looks bloated and flubbery in white. Of course the biggest weakness of the C7 is its portly 3400lb+ curb weight. That's a heffer! But I think the Stingray looks like a GTR that's gone to the gym and put on lean, ripped muscle and gotten down to fighting weight. That's a shocker.

Imagine this car with say 550hp (as suggested for the Z06 version, up from the current 505hp) and a fixed roof. Take the weight out of it, strip the cabin, shell seats, half cage, pull out everything that adds needless weight, see what GM offers in the way of carbon or composite panels, hood, hatch, forged wheels, carbon rotors, swap out the suspension for coil-overs. Maybe get to 3000lb track ready, 10 gallons in the tank? Budget under $150K to build such a thing? Looking at what GM allowed the Camaro team to build in the Z/28, I could imagine a Vette coming along factory prepped to this sort of spec. Three pedals, no electronics, rear drive, rear weight bias, all analog car with 50 years of racing history. Porsche should catch up to Corvette and do that, too.

 

What happened to the big carbon brakes?

 

Carbon Ceramics were an option on the Z06 (Z07 pkg) and standard on the limited edition Z06 Carbon and the ZR1. They did not migrate to the base/GS Corvettes. No expectation they would be on the base/Z51 C7.

Ceramics were not on the the majority of C6 Z06s and l'd expect a similar take on the C7 Z06 (if such a car is built - there is discussion on the vette forums it may not be)

 

After market mod number 1. Brakes.

After market mod number 2? Katech or Lingenfelter for 550 bhp... probably for less than 10k.

 

wait a minute. are all the roof choices targas?

 

Standard Corvette coupes are all targas.

 

here are my mods