C6 Corvette at the Dragstrip!

[Rob]

TopGear on C6 Corvette



Comments anyone? :L

 

[Rob]

I'm trying to be as objective as possible, however, after watching the video, I have the following comments regarding Top Gear and their assessment of the C6,

1. What a bunch of pansy-assed princesses.

2. Leaf springs. Christ folks....if it ain't broke - don't fix it. So leaf spring technology may be old, but it works and considering the base model C6 can achieve almost 1.00g on a slalom AND the 2004 Z06 can and sometimes does exceed 1.00g, I'd say, that old junky technology is holding up pretty well over the years.

3. Plastic body panels. Shall we take a look at how many other automobiles are built with plastic body panels and bumpers?

4. The manual transmission. Although I haven't had a chance to drive a manual transmission C6, I have yet to hear anyone complain about it. If you think the clutch and transmission in a C6 sucks, try test driving a 1990 ZR-1 with the ZF6. Last but not least, be a man, put some muscle on your arms and stop whimpering and exaggerating the shifting effort on the C6. The grunting and facial expressions were almost worthy of an Oscar.

Top Gear magazine is so biased towards European cars, it makes me want to barf.:eyerole Since they think British cars are the pinnacle of God's creations on earth, lets take a look at what English sports cars there are that can compete.

Lotus: Esprit? :L 2004 Elise? Possibly due to incredibly small size and weight, however, let's compare the C6's "plasticy" interior to the lack of an interior in the Elise...enough said...

Jaguar: cough...cough...cough

TVR: Price? Production numbers? Performance? Sold in the US?

Enough said...

Note to Corvette Engineers: Once and for all, please give us the C6 Z06 that will permanently leave the Brits (along with all the other benchside critics) suffocating in their own tea and crumpets.

...I'll step off my soapbox now and put my professional demeanor back on.....ahem...

 

[JonM]

....

 

[grapeknutz]

I'm trying to be as objective as possible, however, after watching the video, I have the following comments regarding Top Gear and their assessment of the C6,

1. What a bunch of pansy-assed princesses.

2. Leaf springs. Christ folks....if it ain't broke - don't fix it. So leaf spring technology may be old, but it works and considering the base model C6 can achieve almost 1.00g on a slalom AND the 2004 Z06 can and sometimes does exceed 1.00g, I'd say, that old junky technology is holding up pretty well over the years.

3. Plastic body panels. Shall we take a look at how many other automobiles are built with plastic body panels and bumpers?

4. The manual transmission. Although I haven't had a chance to drive a manual transmission C6, I have yet to hear anyone complain about it. If you think the clutch and transmission in a C6 sucks, try test driving a 1990 ZR-1 with the ZF6. Last but not least, be a man, put some muscle on your arms and stop whimpering and exaggerating the shifting effort on the C6. The grunting and facial expressions were almost worthy of an Oscar.

Top Gear magazine is so biased towards European cars, it makes me want to barf.:eyerole Since they think British cars are the pinnacle of God's creations on earth, lets take a look at what English sports cars there are that can compete.

Lotus: Esprit? :L 2004 Elise? Possibly due to incredibly small size and weight, however, let's compare the C6's "plasticy" interior to the lack of an interior in the Elise...enough said...

Jaguar: cough...cough...cough

TVR: Price? Production numbers? Performance? Sold in the US?

Enough said...

Note to Corvette Engineers: Once and for all, please give us the C6 Z06 that will permanently leave the Brits (along with all the other benchside critics) suffocating in their own tea and crumpets.

...I'll step off my soapbox now and put my professional demeanor back on.....ahem...

You said it better than I could!

 

[froggy47]

Of course it's a TV show & you expect the good cop/bad cop banter, I laugh whenever I hear us referred to as the colonies. I'd say, for a base c6 Vette it was pretty near the top of their fastest lap chart! Leaf springs my a*r*s*e. I would love to see that whole chart. Anyone got a link to it? I think it's ahead of the GT3. They probably do have a point on the interior finish as I am reminded every time another piece of Dulso flakes off my Lt4's center console.

Thanks for a great post!

 

[invinceablevett]

3rd in the drag race?......any one of the other cars worth less than the vette?.....didn't think so......Another thing why don't they reveal the whole list of the cars that were tested on the whole track?.....Bring on the C6 Z06.......I wonder what they will pick on THEN ????

 

[Ken]

Here I come from left field... Did ya notice the author's name? Luca Brazzi - SleepyFish Productions :L

 

[Rob]

Here's the entire Top Gear list, per their website. The C6 is 10th which is pretty damn good considering the competition.


1 Porsche Carrera GT - 1:19.8
2 Mercedes-Mclaren SLR - 1.20.9
3 Ferrari 360 CS - 1.22.3
4 Porsche 911 GT3 RS - 1.22.3
5 Lamborghini Murcielago - 1.23.7
6 Pagani Zonda - 1.23.8
7 Koenigsegg - 1.23.9
8 Noble M12 GTO-3 - 1.25.0
9 Lamborghini Gallardo - 1.25.8
10 Corvette C6 - 1.26
11 Lotus Exige - 1.26.4
12 Porsche 911 GT3 - 1.27.2
13 TVR T350c - 1.27.5
14 BMW M3 CSL - 1.28.0
15 MG SV - 1.28.6
16 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII - 1.28.9
17 Alpina Roadster (Z8) - 1.29.0
18 Subaru Impreza STi - 1.30.1
19 Aston Martin DB7 GT - 1.30.4
20 Audi S4 - 1.30.9
21 Porsche 911 Turbo - 1.31.0
22 Vauxhall VX220 Turbo - 1.31.3
23 Honda NSX Type R - 1.31.6
24 BMW M3 - 1.31.8
25 Nissan 350Z - 1.31.8
26 Mazda RX-8 - 1.31.8
27 Ford Focus RS - 1.32.2
28 Lotus Esprit V8 - 1.32.5
29 Audi TT V6 - 1.32.7
30 Noble M12 - 1.33.1
31 Mercedes SL55 AMG - 1.33.2
32 VW Golf R32 - 1.33.2
33 Volvo S60R - 1.35.0
34 Ferrari 575 - 1.35.2
35 Alfa Romeo 147 GTA - 1.35.6
36 Lotus Elise - 1.35.6
37 Aston Martin Vanquish - 1.36.2
38 Renault Clio V6 - 1.36.2
39 Honda Civic Type R - 1.36.5
40 Saab 9-5 HOT Aero - 1.37.9
41 Maserati Coupe - 1.38.0
42 Bowler Wildcat - 1.39.4
43 Bentley Arnarge - 1.40.8
44 Range Rover overfinch - 1.44.0

 

[Mako]

TopGear on C6 Corvette



Comments anyone? :L

I thought it was the funniest thing I'd seen since Monty Python knocked a couple of coconut shells together

The driver has No clue how to handle a bit torque engine. Powerslides look great on TV but dismal on the timeslips....

Rob: You should mirror that clip, they tend to vanish off the site when bandwidth peaks.

CYa!
Mako

 

[Brett]

What a bunch of biased crap.

The Corvette C6 is only three seconds behind the Pagani Zonda which is a $400,000 car with 550 horsepower out of a Mercedes V-12 which has very limited production and has no functionality at all as a automobile other than performance---not bad at all!

 

[UB2 SLOW]

What a bunch of biased crap.

The Corvette C6 is only three seconds behind the Pagani Zonda which is a $400,000 car with 550 horsepower out of a Mercedes V-12 which has very limited production and has no functionality at all as a automobile other than performance---not bad at all!

I agree. If you really watch the video you can see that it was either edited or staged. The guy said all with roughly the same power. :eyerole The TVR has 50 less and the NSX has what? 290 or 300? :eyerole Watch what happens at around the 35 second mark the TVR just takes off and starts pulling away like it is on Spray!:eyerole Yea right, with about 50 less hp its going to do that. At the 40 second mark, The Vette is clearly in second by more than a couple of cars and just behind the TVR. Then at the 43 second mark, the NSX comes out of nowhere and blows by the Vette. :eyerole Then you got that dumb@@@ who is constantly running his suck while he is driving, looking around. Yea, he sure is giving it his best effort. Then he is all happy about the Brits winning in the end. Like I said this was staged or edited.

 

[WhalePirot]

"Top Gear list... The C6 is 10th."

Ummm, NO cars from the motherland above the Vette, a mass produced base model. The rest seem to be quite limited production vehicles.

Seems my DSL is waaaaay faster than whatever their queen allows them to upload. I gave up waiting for it.

Tea, anyone?

 

[invinceablevett]

!st place on that list.......Porsche 911 Carrera GT 2004 is worth $ 513 090.00 in the Kelly New Car Blue Book (* with availability issues*).... ....ALL that cash to knock off 6.2 seconds ??????? ......Bring on the c5 version of the Z06!

 

[JHL]

What you should know is that Mr Clarkson, big guy in the pink shirt, hates Corvettes and once blew up a C4 with a helicopter gunship on one of his videos. In some ways towards the end of the tape the small guy was reasonably complimentary although he did maybe overstate it`s shortcomings a little. Maybe you should also take account of European buyers expectations when it comes to what they want from a sports car. It is not all about a few tenths or the odd mile an hour here and there, the whole package has to be considered. With a UK price of £40k (nearly $75,000 !!!) there is a lot of choice out there for buyers especially if you have a look at something from say Porsche of Ferrarri that is a couple of years old.

Corvettes have never sold well in Europe, there is a small but loyal following but they have never really been all that popular here. It`s true that the TVR is most probably it`s direct "rival" in the UK and probably around the same price but streets ahead in the technology stakes in both the engine and suspension department. The fact that they don`t sell them in America has nothing to do with it.

J.

 

[Da Hawaiian Punch]

The taller "Brit" gentlemen was the same one who bashed the C-4 all to hell..............literally actully when he got up in a helicoptor aquiped with machine guns, and shot the C-4 to pieces after distroying it with his bad comments about the car.

 

[MsSchroder]

I watched that vid. It almost seemed to be a self-parody. But I suppose they were serious.

I just kept getting the feeling that if you peeled away their pompous, condescending outer layer, you would find a bunch of insecure brits still embarassed and smarting about that whole American Revolution thing :L

 

[UB2 SLOW]

What you should know is that Mr Clarkson, big guy in the pink shirt, hates Corvettes and once blew up a C4 with a helicopter gunship on one of his videos. In some ways towards the end of the tape the small guy was reasonably complimentary although he did maybe overstate it`s shortcomings a little. Maybe you should also take account of European buyers expectations when it comes to what they want from a sports car. It is not all about a few tenths or the odd mile an hour here and there, the whole package has to be considered. With a UK price of £40k (nearly $75,000 !!!) there is a lot of choice out there for buyers especially if you have a look at something from say Porsche of Ferrarri that is a couple of years old.

Corvettes have never sold well in Europe, there is a small but loyal following but they have never really been all that popular here. It`s true that the TVR is most probably it`s direct "rival" in the UK and probably around the same price but streets ahead in the technology stakes in both the engine and suspension department. The fact that they don`t sell them in America has nothing to do with it.

J.

None of that has anything to do with being inpartial in his evaluation. Which he was biased as you can clearly see. It has nothing to do with the fact that the so called drag race was fixed either. If he is going to evaluate several cars, atleast do it in a fair manner.

 

[Patrick]

I hate having dial-up at home. I have to wait until I'm at work so I can watch stuff like this off the T1 line.

Wow, what a pompous, condescending cretin the man is. That part here he put an acorn on the road and then did a bad acting job of getting a pain in his back when he drove over it. :eyerole That's where he lost all credibility with me. And why was he driving the Vette, a car he so obviously disliked, in the drag race? He should have been driving the TVR, and having a neutral third party drive the Vette. Can you say... throw the race?

It's Brits like this that make me glad we Americans decided to fight them rather than talk with them about independence for centuries. *COUGH* *67HEAVEN* *COUGH* *MAC* *COUGH* Colonies, indeed. Perhaps he was referring to Toronto.

-Patrick

 

[Patrick]

Okay, to be fair, I downloaded and watched the video again. (And my dial up, that's an undertaking that took a substantial amount of my evening! :L )

Once you get past the obvious Anglo-centric bent of this piece... you discover that you can't get past the anglo-centric bent of the piece. Those two are so full of themselves- and so ready to take digs at non-British cars- you almost feel sorry for them. I mean, the angst they express at the plastic interiors, they way they describe the shifter as "vintage Victorian" (or words to that effect), they whole subtext they have to plastic body parts, and the leaf springs. (What was they said? A suspension straight from Vietnam? But look at the fun Charlton Heston's Chariot had with leaf springs? A running joke that got old.)

Do the Brits take these guys seriously? I've gotten more substance off the E-Entertainment network, and more "don't take yourself too seriously" humor out of a nightly episode of Bill O'Reilly. Is this what passes for credible reviews of automobiles in the land we over-threw? Do we need to over-throw them again? Calling UB2SLOW- the Marines may have a new mission! :L

I will say, however, that C6 was a beauty. Hmm... I may be revealing a slight bias there. I have to be fair to the local competition revealed in that drag race. Okay, compared to the TVR, it was an exceptional beauty. And if we could have gotten the host to shut his pie hole long enough, we might have even been able to appreciate the way it sounded.

Ah, the Brits. They gave us Fish 'N Chips, and they complain when we gave them Chili, Barbecue and (cold) beer. They gave us Magna Carta, and complain when we gave them the US Constitution. They gave us unreliable Jaguars, and complain when we give them the Corvette. No appreciation for our efforts. Once again, America bashing is rampant. I say, we colonists need to unite! Land Rovers? Bah! Aston Martin? P-shaw! Rolls Royce? The Pikers!

-Patrick, suddenly feeling a wave of patriotism!

 

[Brett]

I just have to say, where does this intense hatred and bias stem from? My vote is jealousy. Do I cheer for American automobiles? Sure I do. However, that doesn't mean I hate European cars. I appreciate them for what the are and the different approach they offer. But there is no reason for such bad blood.

I mean, someone said this guy shot up a C4 with a helicopter gunship? Sorry, but he needs to get a life. It's obvious that Corvette's make him feel insecure. Otherwise there would be no reason for such ridiculous actions.