Don't take this as anti-Corvette but...

Except for the back end...which looks like the bas***d child of a stillborn Trans Am. Hideous styling detail for a Corvette. The rest of the car looks great however! All IMHO of course!

I have owned a half dozen Vettes...and since moved on. For the right use case, I might consider another, but currently have substituted an Aston for the purpose.

They represent great value as a knock about Sports/GT car though -and do come with a manual transmission that shifts smooth as butter. As one other poster on this thread put it "you can just enjoy one and not worry about it"

 

Who cares about Pebble Beach...as long as I can have one that looks and sounds like this!!!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYaxTd5Wkfc[/ame]

 

So well put. We (the populace) need to wake up as consumers. Tell car makers it's about the joy of the experience. What do I care about some time a pro driver went around some track thousands of miles away from where I live? It's as tantamount to buying a Steph Curry jersey and trying to brag it makes you shoot threes as good as him. No, it doesn't. Just like you wouldn't drive the N'ring is 6:57 if you bought a 918.

 

Actually, I think it's the other way around...performance car makers figured out it's all about the buyers ego.

The "experience" is about pride of ownership more than driving. (For the vast majority of Ferrari owners anyways based on the miles these cars accrue)

(Fwiw, I complexity agree with your sentiment.)

 

Yup it's called "marketing".

Had a colleague whose wife worked for QVC. Smart guy, really knew marketing well - he would always tell me how QVC didn't care if a product "worked" or was "great", or even had a compelling value prop.

All they cared about was if the product sold. That's why they test products by requiring a certain number sell per hour.

QVC knew most people bought the product and maybe used it once before it gets mothballed. Brilliant!

I digress...the performance numbers play to one's ego, it's a great tool for selling product.

 

A friend of mine in California bought a 911 Turbo Cab through the Costco service. He lives in CA, bought the car from a dealer in Alabama, and took delivery in Germany...so...lots of ways to skin a cat, so they say.

 

Corvettes are awesome. They offer supercar performance and are so utterly reliable it ,ales the ownership experience all about driving. Say what you will about whatever negative bull you can come up with...I've got a 104k miles on my 190 mph top speed, zero to sixty in four flat as well as one lateral g in cornering ls3 z51 manual with lift off targa top....19/20 inch rims with Michelin non runflats...and a few dsv interior mods like a nice thick d shaped leather wheel...

Add in an easy tune, an air intake a mg w short throw shifter...this car is basically oil changes every 7k miles, spark plugs and wires every50k miles, brakes and shocks at around 50k miles just because I thought it was time....

These cars are built to be used by Americans who don't believe in having to spend a fortune on maintance...

Just runs like a raped ape...and looks good many years on...lots of compliments to this day...

I drove a new jaguar f type and a Porsche Boxster s and while nice....these cars really don't compare in driving experience...

I was thinking jaguar f type v8 but in my opinion it's a BMW m5 with the sexiest coupe or convertible body...and the Porsche was way too slow and way too expensive....who prices out those options and says sounds about right? WTF....

Next up when the time comes is a tesla model 3 with awd and both ludicrious mode and autonomous mode for the wife and then I'll roll a c7 z06 or a mid engined c8 probably be introduced in 2019 calendar year...

I love a reliable supercar performance sports car that's inexpensive to buy and maintain....

I don't understand the reason for paying ridiculous maintance and repair costs for inferior performance of many other brands

 

You can't say the vette objectively looks better than anything because looks are subjective by definition. The F12 design is. Completely different than the vette. I. Recently picked up a 17 Grand Sport convertible at a big discount. While I love the car and it s amazing handling, I think the rear of the car, with back lights, looks hideous. I much prefer the C6 and C5 rear end.

 

Having always been a corvette fan and owner have owned the c1,c2,c3,c4,c5,c6
But not yet the c7 they're a great car for the money. I think the c2 has been and always will be the car that was styling perfection And you will and do see these on the concourses.
The C5 in my option was the first world class sports car they made a great all around track day car in that z06 the c6 is ok brought lot of hp but nothing to get excited about .
The c7 I just have not had the desire to own but I think it is the best built never really warmed up to the looks then I'll see one that looks great.
It does not have ferraris temperament or build quality yet it does not get sticky and I love thAt everyone can afford it.
As a kid I never dreamed of getting ferraris because they were to far out of reach yet I owned a corvette before turning 21.
The corvette is the greatest for what it is

 

+1 Now that I have the means, I'm just not excited by the C7 or the NSX.

 

I had a C7 Zr1 manual convertible for a year. Got rid of it. I hated the 7 speed gearbox. The paint quality and leather quality (I had the 3LT "top of the line" version) were not acceptable for a Camry. In the sunlight parts of the leather looked like it was from an elephant. In fact it was a bit "gross" looking.

The C7 styling is already looking past it's prime. It's a cartoon version of previous models. They need to go back to curves. It looks like someone at Cadillac designed it or was lusting over a Lambo all their lives and this is as close as they could get.

Dear Car Makers: Touch screens in cars are a BAD idea! It was always showing fingerprints and looked dirty.

Everyone can have their own opinion but mine was disappointment. I can't drive a car that disappoints me.

 

I was about to say....

My ZO6 weighs 2980 (with me in the car)

Kinda gutless at 570/502 though...

 

Very good explanation of how cars rotate for turns. Very good, indeed.
One thing GM will have to address with a mid eng design is " crash worthiness" .
Something F needs to learn.

 

Mayor - are you sure about a C7 Zr1 convertible? I think you meant Z06. Otherwise, I understand what your saying about the leather quality. I have the same issue in my 2012 ZR1 Centennial edition. Should have been better for a car marking the 100th anniversary of Chevrolet.

 

I think Mayor had a Z51, the suspension option.
There are no C7Zr1's and Mayors car was before the C7 z06

 

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2017/03/bob-lutz-thinks-corvette-brand/

 

Interesting story.
T

 

They have been saying this since the C4 days. Over the years they have been removing all association with Chevy on the car and putting Corvette all over it. Look at one now and you will not find a bowtie on it anywhere (except in the cross flags). The car today is world class and if they want to get to the next level then I agree it should be moved out and made its own and not be a Cadillac either. Then they can put a little more into it and charge the price that they are wanting to get to. Going to a Chevy dealer to look at one drives me nuts. I hate getting jumped by a sales guy (who knows nothing about Corvettes) as soon as I get out of my car. That does not happen to me at exotic dealers. They let me look for awhile before asking if I have any questions.

 

Dealership experience has always kept me away from Vettes. It doesn't have to be luxury at that price point, but it shouldn't be balloons/hotdogs/clowns either.

 

Well seems like they will be building a mid engined and a front engined vette at the same time for 2 or more years. I personaly think they would be crazy to abandon a pushrod sbc front engined car entirely. That would be like harley dropping an aircooled v twin(i know they make some liquid motors now)

Somehting like over 60% of vettes are base models with auto. The core buyer is an older dude who loves the dream of having a vette, likes the practicality, ac that works ability to take two pairs of golf clubs and wife. They are used on the street to go here and there. Its crazy to abandon that.

Then we have people who put premium on performance, they tend towards a Gs and some zo6's although there is overlap with base car buyers. To certain extent the front engined vette is being asked to excel in two arenas. The c5-C7 has done this remarkably well. But time and expectations march on. Plus there is clearly a premium vette market above 100k, which its hard to stretch beyond with a car that still bases at 50K.

So it makes perfect sense to have a mid engined more "exotic" vette with traditional vette arttributes of value performance and reliability(in a higher price plane), plus a more classic front engined vette. If you look at the underside of a C7 you can see that mid engined car could share many suspension and driveline componants with a front engined one. Plus undoubtably they will also share a lot of expensive bits to develop like HVAC etc.

Seems like pricewise the front engined car sits well at 55-90K and the mid engined car will take up between 100-150k, which also solves the problem of how to stretch one platform and nameplate over a huge price range.

That the vette team can devlop a world class and performance class leadign car, there is no doubt. Whether GMs corporate ways will mess it up remains to be seen. Lets not forget that this is a corporation still focussed on policy and selling transport modules, run by finance people. The vette operating in an arena where performnce, image and dreams are paramount.

The development danger to me is also in misreading the market above 100k and going too tech as acura did with the nsx.

Still given what the vete guys have done with the C7 and camaro, this is potentialy the most interesting new performance car to come along. Hopefully they also read the tea leaves at porche and give us a stick option, even if its only 20% takeup, its the halo performance buyer upon which cred is built. Sticks like great steering with feedback are also just far more fun on road, which in theory is a big reason we buy a sportscar..

Looks like a two car range, lets see where Gm takes it.