C6 Corvette a dream come true
By DAVID GRAINGER
Thursday, August 11, 2005 Updated at 12:20 PM EDT
The new C6 Corvette is a car whose time has come.
The finest sports car that General Motors has ever produced, it fulfills the promise made by its introduction 52 years ago, when designers Harley Earl and Zora Duntov dreamed of creating a sports car to compete with the E Type Jaguars and up and coming companies like Ferrari and Porsche.
Like many other GM cars, the Corvette suffered under the accountant's knife.
While the first cars were certainly fascinating from a design standpoint, their Chevrolet Blue Flame Six engine was incapable of realizing enough horsepower, despite double or triple carburetors, to take a serious swipe at European sports cars.
The Corvette program was rarely unleashed by GM executives and, in fact, they forbade Duntov to have a racing team, a move that certainly compromised the Corvette's credibility as a sports car. So the Corvette had to maintain a niche all of its own: neither true sports car nor true muscle car but with elements of both.
The 1950s and '60s saw the Corvette undergo dramatic changes in power and handling but these were cut short by the gas crisis in the '70s. Indeed, the worst Corvettes of all time were built in the middle of that decade.
But despite poor performance, low horsepower and nagging mechanical problems for their owners, Corvettes sold so strongly that General Motors -- which had been considering cancelling the cars -- kept producing them with small cosmetic changes virtually unchanged until the early 1980s, when they got their first major facelift and mechanical changes in over a decade.
The arrival of the Dodge Viper must have been a powerful wakeup call for Corvette designers and engineers. In one swoop. Dodge stole Corvette's crown and became North America's performance darling.
Through the 1990s, the Viper's continued success on race tracks around the world assured it front-page headlines in the automotive media. Corvette answered with the C5, a completely remade car that appeared just as the factory Viper teams began to retire from competition.
The C5 was clearly an outstanding car and took the Viper's place in the winner's circle. But it was a big car and, while undoubtedly the best vehicle the Corvette division had ever produced, it was still more muscle than sport.
The new C6 has made that jump to sports car.
It is quite capable of raising one's eyebrows at full throttle. But it's even more adept at quick responsive handling, with or without the traction control being used.
I was very surprised to find that I could handle corners in the C6 at the same speeds that I do them in my Lotus Turbo Esprit.
I have driven many examples of every generation of Corvette -- and owned some myself -- and I have never expected them to corner like the C6 does. It can be thrown about with some abandon but the traction control can lead to a driver believing that he's a better pilot than he is. If in doubt, leave it on.
My strongest realization that GM had finally produced the sports car it had been promising for more than 50 years came when a Porsche Carrera parked next to the Corvette.
I was stunned to see that the Porsche was actually longer, although the Corvette appeared considerably wider. Short wheelbase with a wide track has always seemed to me to be the perfect combination for a true sports car. It can be challenging but then that is the point, isn't it?
My only trepidation with the new Corvette comes with the amount of electronics it has on board.
No one told me how to start it, for instance, and it took a good five minutes to figure out that the key was for the glove box, not the ignition, which detects the fob.
As a restorer, I always imagine how a car is going to age, especially cars like the C6 that deserve to be collected. I worry that the complex systems for such things as the roof, ignition and handling may become problematic in 20 years. If a car is to be immortal, designers should factor in longevity.
All in all, the C6's performance is exceptional and equals that of many exotics, its handling is certainly better than many Ferraris I've driven and the design is, especially from the back, aggressive enough to demand attention.
Aside from the heavy load of high-tech electronics, my only criticisms are that the interior is bland -- an exterior-matched centre cluster and console would do worlds to improve it -- and the tail panel needs a little stiffening so the fascia doesn't pucker in and out when you dust or wash it.
These are small things and mean little when considering that you can have exotic looks and performance for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars less than other cars that the Corvette now finds itself in the same class as. Bravo.
David Grainger owns an automotive restoration company.
SOURCE - The Globe and Mail, Canada's National Newspaper
By DAVID GRAINGER
Thursday, August 11, 2005 Updated at 12:20 PM EDT
The new C6 Corvette is a car whose time has come.
The finest sports car that General Motors has ever produced, it fulfills the promise made by its introduction 52 years ago, when designers Harley Earl and Zora Duntov dreamed of creating a sports car to compete with the E Type Jaguars and up and coming companies like Ferrari and Porsche.
Like many other GM cars, the Corvette suffered under the accountant's knife.
While the first cars were certainly fascinating from a design standpoint, their Chevrolet Blue Flame Six engine was incapable of realizing enough horsepower, despite double or triple carburetors, to take a serious swipe at European sports cars.
The Corvette program was rarely unleashed by GM executives and, in fact, they forbade Duntov to have a racing team, a move that certainly compromised the Corvette's credibility as a sports car. So the Corvette had to maintain a niche all of its own: neither true sports car nor true muscle car but with elements of both.
The 1950s and '60s saw the Corvette undergo dramatic changes in power and handling but these were cut short by the gas crisis in the '70s. Indeed, the worst Corvettes of all time were built in the middle of that decade.
But despite poor performance, low horsepower and nagging mechanical problems for their owners, Corvettes sold so strongly that General Motors -- which had been considering cancelling the cars -- kept producing them with small cosmetic changes virtually unchanged until the early 1980s, when they got their first major facelift and mechanical changes in over a decade.
The arrival of the Dodge Viper must have been a powerful wakeup call for Corvette designers and engineers. In one swoop. Dodge stole Corvette's crown and became North America's performance darling.
Through the 1990s, the Viper's continued success on race tracks around the world assured it front-page headlines in the automotive media. Corvette answered with the C5, a completely remade car that appeared just as the factory Viper teams began to retire from competition.
The C5 was clearly an outstanding car and took the Viper's place in the winner's circle. But it was a big car and, while undoubtedly the best vehicle the Corvette division had ever produced, it was still more muscle than sport.
The new C6 has made that jump to sports car.
It is quite capable of raising one's eyebrows at full throttle. But it's even more adept at quick responsive handling, with or without the traction control being used.
I was very surprised to find that I could handle corners in the C6 at the same speeds that I do them in my Lotus Turbo Esprit.
I have driven many examples of every generation of Corvette -- and owned some myself -- and I have never expected them to corner like the C6 does. It can be thrown about with some abandon but the traction control can lead to a driver believing that he's a better pilot than he is. If in doubt, leave it on.
My strongest realization that GM had finally produced the sports car it had been promising for more than 50 years came when a Porsche Carrera parked next to the Corvette.
I was stunned to see that the Porsche was actually longer, although the Corvette appeared considerably wider. Short wheelbase with a wide track has always seemed to me to be the perfect combination for a true sports car. It can be challenging but then that is the point, isn't it?
My only trepidation with the new Corvette comes with the amount of electronics it has on board.
No one told me how to start it, for instance, and it took a good five minutes to figure out that the key was for the glove box, not the ignition, which detects the fob.
As a restorer, I always imagine how a car is going to age, especially cars like the C6 that deserve to be collected. I worry that the complex systems for such things as the roof, ignition and handling may become problematic in 20 years. If a car is to be immortal, designers should factor in longevity.
All in all, the C6's performance is exceptional and equals that of many exotics, its handling is certainly better than many Ferraris I've driven and the design is, especially from the back, aggressive enough to demand attention.
Aside from the heavy load of high-tech electronics, my only criticisms are that the interior is bland -- an exterior-matched centre cluster and console would do worlds to improve it -- and the tail panel needs a little stiffening so the fascia doesn't pucker in and out when you dust or wash it.
These are small things and mean little when considering that you can have exotic looks and performance for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars less than other cars that the Corvette now finds itself in the same class as. Bravo.
David Grainger owns an automotive restoration company.
SOURCE - The Globe and Mail, Canada's National Newspaper
