road test Archives - Page 6 of 6 - C6Performance Journal

Patrick Herrmann, Technical Manager Communications at Chevrolet Europe, tested out 0-100km/h acceleration and top speed of the new Stingray.

By leveraging technology, the new Corvette is not only faster than ever, but it will be the most fuel-efficient 450 horsepower car on the market.

Visit CorvetteVideos.TV for the best selection of hand-picked Corvette videos.

October 11, 2013

[VIDEO] The 2014 Corvette Stingray vs The World

Photo Credit: Edmunds.com

The 2014 Corvette Stingray takes on the world in the latest video from Edmunds.com and comes out second only to a car that has nearly 200 more horsepower.

Edmunds took a day to test the new C7 against six worthy competitors at Willow Springs International Raceway.

“The idea is that we give every car the same driver who’s gonna drive the cars in a similar way with a similar level of competence,” Edmunds says, “and at the end of the day we’ll see how it comes out.”

First up is the Viper, “the hardest car to drive” that “requires the most of the driver,” Edmunds says. “It was the quickest car there (1:23.9), unsurprisingly, you know it’s got the most power. Still the most demanding â€“ it’s not an easy car to drive. It’s feels like it’s gonna bite, and history has proven that Vipers will bite.”

Just 6/10ths of a second behind the Viper at 1:24.6 is the new Stingray.

“The Vette’s chassis is just easier for the driver,” Edmunds says. “As the limits approach, you can sense them. The car is more tolerant to be slid around a little bit, and more enjoyable to slide around a little bit. It was only 6/10ths of a second off the Viper’s lap time despite being down 180 horsepower, which tells you something about the character of the two cars. In the ‘Vette, I feel I can jump in and just drive right to those limits on a familiar track in the first couple of laps so that speaks worlds for that car’s capability.”

Next was the Nissan GT-R at 1:25.2. “To use a clichÃ©, it feels a little synthetic in this crowd,” Edmunds says. It’s “very, very fast and very, very capable, but you get a feeling there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. It’s still a lot of fun, just a different experience. In this company, it doesn’t feel as pure.”

The two Porsches were next, with the 911 at 1:25.6 and the Cayman S at 1:27.0. Edmunds says the 911 is “just magnificent” at the track, calling it a “really good driver’s car” with “hands-down the best brakes,” worth the extra $8,500 to get them. Balance was the word to describe the Cayman S.

Edmunds says the Shelby GT500, which ran a 1:27.3, is “a little out of sorts in this company â€¦ but for my money, probably the most fun car in this group. If you like driving sideways and have a tire budget, it’s your car.”

Finishing last around the track was the BMW M3, some 1.7 seconds behind the Shelby at 1:29. Edmunds says it’s still a “great driver’s car” and “feels rewarding” despite being down on power.

Overall, the C7 finished second around the track at Willow Springs and “is as capable as we thought it was going to be,” Edmunds concludes.

Source:
Edmunds.com

September 13, 2013

Consumer Reports Drives the 2014 Corvette Stingray

The early reviews continue to glow about the new 2014 Corvette Stingray, and added to the list this week is an important one â€“ Consumer Reports.

If you can live up to the standards set by this product-ranking giant, then you know you’re doing something right.

And Consumer Reports’ first time behind the wheel of a Stingray was favorable, according to a story just released on their website.

“The new Corvette has come a long way on all counts, with sophisticated styling, a driving experience that should satisfy many preferences, and a broad skill set that make this bold sports car as at home cruising the boulevard as it is taking on a race track,” the magazine gushes.

They found nothing they didn’t really like about the car, with the new engine and handling capabilities especially drawing praise. “No longer just a brute-force machine, the new Corvette has been reborn as a tight, high-tech sports car,” they said. “Performance can be civilized or wild depending on your mood. Acceleration is ferocious, handling is precise, and braking superb.”‘

They especially liked the forward thrust provided by the huge amounts of torque available, saying the C7 “shoots forward like a fighter jet catapulted off an aircraft carrier, with never-ending torque and a throaty bark from the four beautiful exhaust tips.”

The styling is “reminiscent of an exotic Italian super car,” Consumer Reports staffer said. “More crucially, the new Corvette is about much more than rapid transit. It’s a trimmer, sharper, altogether more sophisticated machine. Everywhere I went over the last weekend, this icon proved a magnet for approving gazes and cell-phone snapshots.”

And in case you’re wondering, Consumer Reports likes the new improved interior, saying it is a “major upgrade” over previous models “but it’s still not up to competing models.”

The magazine says it will be buying a Corvette to test the Stingray’s capabilities more in-depth in the coming weeks.

Check out the video of Consumer Reports driving the 2014 Corvette Stingray.

Source:
Consumer Reports

September 6, 2013

[VIDEO] Justin Bell Drives the 2014 Corvette Stingray at Laguna Seca

Count Justin Bell of “The Worldâ€™s Fastest Car Show” on EBAY Motors among the biggest fans of the new Corvette Stingray.

After taking a red 2014 model for “quite a few” laps around the famous Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca race track in California, Bell makes no bones about his opinion of the car.

“If I sound a bit overenthusiastic, I make no apologies because this truly is an outstanding performance car,” Bell says afterwards.

He is particularly impressed with the way Chevy has carried over the aerodynamic lessons learned on the race track to the production Stingray, especially the rear air diffusers that give the car good mid-corner and high-speed balance, “which you can feel,” he says.

Overall, while past Corvettes have been somewhat polarizing, if not iconic, according to Bell, heâ€™s always felt the car was a great value proposition.

The C7 takes it to an entirely new level, though.

“For the money, I just donâ€™t think you can beat” the 2014 Corvette, Bell says.

“Performance, looks, sexiness,” he says. “This is definitely a car that will be a hit.”

While the C7 wasn’t available for Motor Trend’s Best Driver’s Car contest this year, based on Bell’s opinion, the Stingray will give Porsche a definite run for its money next year on the same track where the Germans have won two years running.

Source:
YouTube.com via GMAuthority.com

August 26, 2013

Fortune Magazine: Corvette Stingray â€“ A Harbinger of GMâ€™s Turnaround?

Fortune Magazine: Corvette Stingray - A Harbinger of GM's Turnaround?

The seventh-generation Corvette continues to earn positive reviews from the media.

The latest to jump aboard the Stingray bandwagon is Fortune Magazine.

One of its writers came away mightily impressed after testing the car earlier this month in Monterey, Calif., just as our own Keith Cornett did.

Fortune also got a professional driver, Jorge Koechlin von Stein, to come along and see what he thought about Chevrolet’s 2014 Chevrolet Stingray. Add Von Stein, a former racer-turned-journalist who competed in the British Formula One Series, to the growing list of C7 fans. Fortune says von Stein was “unreservedly ecstatic” about the car’s performance over 150 miles of winding roads, not all of them in the best of condition, either.

Fortune admits it’s too early to tell if the rest of General Motors will respond favorably and come along for the Stingray ride but did point out that Chevy’s new sports car competes very favorably with competition that costs twice as much or more, including Porsches and Ferraris.

“Watch out” was the warning that von Stein offered up to Stingray competitors since the car’s 455 horsepower engine is capable of 0 to 60 times of 3.8 seconds while offering a very rewarding driving experience at a base price of just $51,995.

Another man who apparently believes GM is on the way back up, thanks to new cars like the Stingray and the 2014 Impala, is Warren Buffett, who makes a habit of buying undervalued companies in anticipation of their stock rising.

Buffett says his company, Berkshire Hathaway, recently upped its shares of GM stock by 60 percent, or 15 million shares, to a total of 40 million shares.

Fortune says the 2014 Stingray is reminiscent of the first batch of Lexus cars back in the early 1990s, which ultimately proved that Toyota’s new luxury brand was capable of running with the big boys like Mercedes-Benz.

Source:
Fortune Magazine

August 16, 2013

CorvetteBlogger Drives the 2014 Corvette Stingray

On the morning of August 13th, seven months to the day of its introduction in Detroit, CorvetteBlogger gathered with 20-some other automotive writers at an airport hangar outside Monterey, California to drive the 2014 Corvette Stingray. This was the defining moment. The end all/be all moment of truth. Just how good is the seventh generation Corvette Stingray? Better than you can possibly imagine.

Shrouded in a light fog, the airport hanger had a large C7 Crossflags logo on the doors. In front were the six white examples from each generation of Corvette while two rows of C7 Corvette Stingrays flanked each of the sides of the parking lot. The red car covers hid the different colors and configurations available to us and we had the distinct feeling that it was Christmas in August. Then the doors parted and inside under brilliant spot lights sat a Torch Red C7 Corvette Coupe.

Inside the airport hanger, Chevrolet had a fantastic display set up showing many of the individual components and parts that can be found on the Corvette. A Laguna Blue Stingray was bolted to a rotisserie and turned on its side showing off the chassis and underbody’s aero package. A video screen showed both recent and vintage photos and videos including Zora and other Corvette notables through the years.

Chevrolet’s Chris Perry welcomed us and gave an overview of the automaker’s growth since 2010. Corvette’s Chief engineer Tadge Juechter ran through the finer points of the new Corvette Stingray’s engineering and content, from the construction of the new lighter but 60% stronger frame to talking about how reimagining the interior was the group’s upmost priority. Tadge rolled through the performance stats: 0-60 mph in 3.8 seconds, 12.0 second quarter mile at 119 mph, a stopping distance at 107 feet and cornering at 1.03 Gs. These details only served to get us even more amped up before turning us loose in the parking lot.

Chevrolet split everyone up into pairs and so for the three hour ride my driving partner was Jim Campisano, the editor of Super Chevy Magazine. The media drive was divided into three legs with approximately 75 miles for each of the first two legs and then 35 for the final drive back to the airport hanger. All sorts of roads were on the agenda, from four lane highways to winding 2 lane roads through the California countryside. We headed out and Jim took the first driving shift. Our first Corvette was a Laguna Blue Z51 Automatic Coupe.

Getting behind the wheel and closing the door, you are enveloped into the cockpit. Our Laguna Blue Z51 auto was outfitted with the Kalahari 3LT interior and the attention to detail still impresses us. Brushed aluminum, fine leather and carbon fiber trim are abundant and the attention to detail is amazing. On the NAV, instead of an arrow showing your location on the map, you’ll see a tiny Stingray, complete with the black hood air extractor pointing the way. Both the drivers and passenger windows are indexing and will go up or down with a single toggle of the switch.

Pressing the start button immediately awakens the 460 hp LT1 V8 (455 hp without the performance exhaust package) and that deep V8 rumble filling the morning air is exactly how you would expect the Corvette to sound.

Driving the automatic gave us time to play with the Driver Select Mode knob, toggling between the five different modes. When you start up the Corvette Stingray, the default mode is Tour, but we quickly turned between Sport and Track. You can immediately feel the difference in the steering wheel’s resistance as it stiffens for Race Mode or relaxes in the Tour Mode. There are actually three different steering modes, Comfort, Sport and Track. You also can hear the difference in the exhaust note as you toggle through the different modes as well.

The configurable display is stunning. There are three themes available for the five Drive select modes. The Tour Theme is displayed in Weather, Eco or Tour Mode. The Sport Theme shows the big tachometer while the Race Theme is a replica of Corvette Racing’s C6.R display. Pressing the center button brings up the different submenus for customizing the mode you’ve selected.

Once we hit California’s 101 highway back north towards Monterey, we put the Corvette into Eco Mode. There was no noticeable change from the engine as the V4 indicator was shown on the display and we were doing around 75 MPH when the fuel saving mode was engaged. One of the driving teams claimed they were able to keep their Stingray in Eco Mode while hitting 100 MPH! Tour and Weather Modes will also allow the LT1 to go to its V4 configuration but any slight throttle and the V4 switches immediately back to V8 power. Pushing one of the submenus allowed us to see our instant MPG which was mostly north of 30 MPG while in Eco Mode.

As far as the seats go, the debate is over. Anybody who claims differently will be labeled “Seat Deniers” and will be taken out back and flogged. We only had the standard Touring seat to test and they were incredibly comfortable for the three hour drive. The bolsters are firm and had no problem keeping me in place, especially when we hit the autocross track later in the day. As the afternoon began to heat up, we turned on the seat’s cooling vents which had the immediate effect of cooling you right down. No more sweaty shirts and pants after a long drive.

And speaking of keeping cool. Another improvement Corvette owners will appreciate is that center tunnel through the cockpit is coated with Aerogel. Chevrolet uses a super thin coating to help cut down on the heat generated in the torque tube from transferring into the cockpit. Not once during our three hour ride did the center tube feel hot like in previous generations.

Cruising through the rolling mountains and two lane roads, the Corvette Stingray makes you a more confident driver at every turn. Michelin’s Pilot Super Sport ZP tires were engineered specially for the 2014 Corvette Stingray and had no problem keeping us glued to the roads. There was a bit of tire noise but that was more due to the condition of the roads than the tires. We also liked that they didn’t seem to attract the same level of debris when you went offline like the Pilot Sport Cup PS2s on the 427 Convertible we drove last year.

The brakes were very solid. We did a quick brake test and the car stopped very confidently. I wish I could have braked before hitting that squirrel but I just didn’t see it in time. Unfortunately, we caught that one on video too.

During the road test, we made several high speed pulls where the road was relatively flat, straight and clear of any traffic not bearing Stingray logos. The Corvette was very strong in acceleration and the 465 lb-ft torque reminds of the Z06. At speed, the car was very stable and the wind noise wasn’t bad considering the two GoPros mounted on the exterior. The Stingray felt like it could just keep going faster and faster.

We didn’t really play too much with the MyLink entertainment center. The sound emanating from the NPP Performance Exhaust System ($1,195 option) was the soundtrack for our drive. But I did fire up the XM radio as we hit one of the highway portions and the sound from the new Bose System was excellent. On the steering wheel, there’s a set of paddles under the airbag that allow you to toggle a list of favorite stations. Depending on the Mode and Theme, the stations are displayed inside the configurable screen.

And of course we had to play with the secret stash area. Hitting the button to the left of the infotainment center screen reveals a USB charger and a slot for an SD card as the screen lowers into the dash. Push the button again and the screen returns to its place, safely concealing your phone or whatever else you want to hide away.

When we had another opportunity to switch cars at a winery called Wrath in Soledad, CA, we got a Torch Red Z51 Coupe with the 7-speed manual. The shifter was very firm and sure. I did miss a couple of shifts early in the drive, going from 2nd to 5th instead of 3rd, but only needed a few miles to become acclimated to how it feels and then it was smooth shifting from there on out.

On the 7-Speed’s steering wheel are the Active Rev Matching paddles. Toggle them on and the gear indicator on the display changes from white to orange. The Rev Matching anticipates your upshift or downshift and puts the engine into the best RPMs for that shift. Driving down the road at roughly 50 miles an hour, I pushed the clutch in and then began toying with the Active Rev Matching by playing with the shifter. The engine revs would jump to a specific RPM depending on which way it thought I was going to go. Tadge says you play it like an instrument and that’s absolutely true.

The Z51 Package is really what buyers should be selecting when ordering a new Corvette Stingray. The Z51 package adds $2,800 to the base price of $51,995 and comes with the dry-sump oiler, electronic limited-slip and differential cooling. Larger brakes and tires round out the package.

But that doesn’t mean the non-Z51 is a slouch. The Crystal Red Metallic Coupe we drove was also a blast to drive and provided ample performance in base Stingray form. You still get all the Driver Select Modes with the configurable displays, the beautiful interior and fuel saving technologies.

So was there anything we didn’t like? I think some will be concerned about the rear visibility looking backward through the hatch. The Stingray does come with a backup camera which has an extremely wide view. However, during our drive we came up on a stop sign where our road intersected at a 45 degree angle. Turning left, it took a few looks by leaning way forward or straining backward in the seat to confirm there wasn’t any oncoming traffic headed our way and out of caution, asking the passenger if it’s okay to go. Despite the rear quarter windows, it will take some time to get use to the fact that there is less glass to look out of.

Bottom line? The Corvette Stingray is by far the most advanced Corvette ever. Our expectations were clearly met in this extended drive. The owner that gets to put one of these in their garage will be very happy indeed as the Corvette Stingray is a gift that keeps on giving.

But buyer beware, the 2014 Corvette Stingray is a four wheeled rock star and subject to much attention while on the streets!