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Jeremy Clarkson Reviews the 2015 Corvette Z06

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The Clarkson review: Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (2015)

By Jeremy Clarkson Published 11 May 2015
The Sunday Times


Hold the high fives, Hank, till someone figures out how to drive it, and I must admit it’s been rather enjoyable. Talking to an American about stuff is like talking to a child who’s going to the zoo. There’s no irony, no self-deprecation and none of the barely fathomable subtlety you get when talking to a Britisher. It’s a non-stop rollercoaster of primary-coloured enthusiasm.

We see exactly the same sort of thing in the online blurb Chevrolet has created for its new Corvette Z06. It’s billed as a “world-class supercar” and a “triumph of design and engineering”. There’s even a quote from Tadge Juechter, the chief engineer who worked on the car: “Its aerodynamic downforce performance is massive and unlike anything we’ve ever tested in any street car.”

Here in Europe we scoff at this sort of thing. We read it and think, “Yeah, well, you would say that. You designed it, so you’re hardly likely to say it’s a bit crap.” Whereas an American would read the quote and think, “Wow. The new Z06’s aerodynamic downforce performance is massive and unlike anything Chevrolet has ever tested in any street car.”

There’s more. Chevrolet tells us the Z06 sits “at the intersection of Le Mans and the autobahn”, which to me means it sits in the French village of Bar-sur-Seine, just to the southeast of Troyes. But it wasn’t sitting there at all. It was sitting in the pits at the Thruxton racing circuit, in Hampshire, on a very windy and extremely cold May day last week.

There is nothing on God’s green earth that is quite as depressing as a second- division British racing circuit: the metal window frames on the mildewy portable buildings, the boarded-up burger vans, the cock-eyed signs saying, “Marshal camping”. And there in the middle of it all was what appeared to be a child’s toy, an egg-yellow Corvette. It cheered the place up in the way a pair of bright curtains can make a squat feel like home.

Full Story: The Clarkson review: Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (2015)
 
"Let me put it this way. If this car is supposed to sit at the intersection of Le Mans and the autobahn and if all that titanium and carbon fibre stuff is there for a reason other than marketing, why is it available only with a manual gearbox or the dimwitted automatic that was in my test car? Why would it not have blink-of-an-eye flappy paddles?"



Doesn't the Z06 have column mounted paddles for the 8 speed auto transmission?
 
It's Jeremy Clarkson, what do you expect?
 
Looks like the BBC wasn't wrong after all. Has anyone seen a review of the Z06 by Chris Harris? Now him I respect!
 
Looks like the BBC wasn't wrong after all. Has anyone seen a review of the Z06 by Chris Harris? Now him I respect!

I just have to laugh at all of these arm chair Z06 drivers. :L If you want to find out what it's like, you can't do it sitting in a chair reading the latest car industry rag. Get one out on a track! Then you will know just what this car actually is; proviuded you don't succomb to heart attack before you're finished.:W
 
It's Jeremy Clarkson, what do you expect?



Nothing more than humor. BBC Top Gear is not a car show, but an entertainment show that sometimes features cars. I don't know of anyone who watches the show that would buy or want a vehicle based on anything BBC Top Gear has an opinion on, it's just a quality humorously entertaining tv show. I like the show for it's humor, but their opinions on vehicles are not anything I would take seriously, and I'm not sure the presenters do either.......:)
 
I'm guessing it would be a different story if Jeremy actually knew how to drive a performance car. :chuckle
 
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This Car's Performance?!

What a review... it didn't make any sense to me until reading this thread. Now I know the show he co-hosts, which explains quite a bit about his ZO6 review. If the car couldn't do better than mid-11s in the quarter mile, the driver couldn't have read up or recall a briefing on the PTM system. He couldn't have had the launch control in use with the correct settings - at least that explains mid-11s in an automatic! 10.9s are very common these days. I've even seen a 10.9 or two from a manual transmission! That is just using the car's systems.

The same thing can be said about exiting a turn. If the car must be driven slowly around the turns, someone forgot to tell the car! The Owner's Manual PTM track mode instructions state that when applying throttle when starting the turn's exit, continue to press the accelerator to the floor. The OBC figures out how much power to apply from there. Again, if you know what PTM settings you want and how to set them, this awesome Corvette more than lives up to its claims. Thanks to the contributor who reminded me about the reviewer. It appears that his reviews can't be taken any more seriously than the show he works on! He is good at making some laugh at his humor. Apparently this review should be taken in the same vein!
 
Brits need to Fully purge this Bad Apple

Its a shame The Guardian chose to publish the ill considered, seemingly manic, and xenophobic rantings of this violent, abusive, and boorish person. Well every country has its ill tempered and vulgar people and Jeremy Clarkson certainly is among those unpleasant ranks in the UK. The lovely country that brought so much to the world of culture and the advancement of human character has little impressed this obnoxious degenerate who should have been expunged from the great BBC years ago. Inspired artists from that Poetic Isle from John Milton, Jane Austin, Henry Fielding, William Thackery, Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy, and Charlotte Bronte brought to life the foundations of human character; and in more recent times brought us some of the greatest music as well, and for that, I will always respect the British.

Its hard to imagine Mr. Clarkson could be so rude to his cousins who brought us men of equal caliber like Ralph Emerson and Henry James. Why so vicious to a nation that through its invention, sacrifice, courage and productive might saved Europe Twice.

Now Mr. Tadge Jeuchter is a gentleman certainly and has brought forth through years of diligent effort an American sports car of advancing engineering integrity and innovation, and so importantly real beauty. It is of high value that the Corvette delivers its substantial attributes at a relatively modest price and makes high performance, exhilarating emotion, and great motive fun available to many. Mr. Clarkson's driving impressions of the Z06 are certainly refuted by the experience of others and perhaps his driving, misconceptions as to the application of driver controls, or road conditions are at fault; but his savage dismissal of this mighty and spectacular American road machine really is not in the realm of truth or made in the spirit of human decency. I have never met anyone named Bud or Hank and the Supercharged Z06 sounds positively Supernatural Expressing its balanced explosive and propulsive Tones.
 
I'm guessing it would be a different story if Jeremy actually knew how to drive a performance car. :chuckle


Exactly! Going sideways is not the same as going fast. Except for dirt track racer cars, the fastest way around a circuit is NOT sideways, and that seems to be old Jeremy's gauge of what a performance car should be able to do. But on the other hand, he wasn't crazy about the C6 Zs, and they excel at tail-out "dirt tracking." So it seems that that JC is either a Euro-snob, pandering to the Brits dismissal of anything American, or he fancies himself an entertainer whose license includes permission to say anything mildly amusing. Or, most likely, both. I really don't miss that gigantic gas bag at all, and his co-hosts, while more likable, were just there to set up his shticks, or be the butt of them.

I don't think the C7 is the greatest performance car in the world, but it IS in the class picture, and can't be dismissed out of hand as Top Gear TV tended to do. On a separate note, Top Gear, the magazine, raved about the Stingrays, without irony or condescension.
 
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"There is nothing on God’s green earth that is quite as depressing as a second- division British racing circuit: the metal window frames on the mildewy portable buildings, the boarded-up burger vans, the cock-eyed signs saying, “Marshal camping”. And there in the middle of it all was what appeared to be a child’s toy, an egg-yellow Corvette. America does Disney. And what we have with the Z06 is Disney trying to do a hard-hitting documentary about Africa’s civil wars."
J. Clarkson

If you were looking for a serious review of an automobile why read the bloviating of an entertainer? After all, when it comes to automobiles BBC Television is only one notch above Hollywood; and they are at the bottom of of a very tall pile of a brown and very malodorous substance akin to the 'gift' my neighbors dog leaves on my lawn on some mornings. :L:L:L:L:L:L:L
 
The Corvette is a world class car and Jeremy needs to deal with it. It bugs him that this American upstart can do what it does, cost less and with class. Time to deal with the Corvette because it isn't going away,


 
Nothing more than humor. BBC Top Gear is not a car show, but an entertainment show that sometimes features cars. I don't know of anyone who watches the show that would buy or want a vehicle based on anything BBC Top Gear has an opinion on, it's just a quality humorously entertaining tv show. I like the show for it's humor, but their opinions on vehicles are not anything I would take seriously, and I'm not sure the presenters do either.......:)

I sooooo agree with you, but many (some on this forum) actually think the opinions of those guys actually have more merit than any of the rest us. I think they confuse celebrity with skill. It's far easier to dirt track around a fast corner than to cut a precise, fast apex, but Jeremy likes to broadslide, and it IS great fun to watch. That's entertainment, but doesn't reflect real driving skill or real world vehicle dynamics.

Truthfully, the last couple seasons were in the Fonz jumps the Shark arena. Seems they ran out of great ideas, and just tested mega cars that most of us will never even see.
 
I sooooo agree with you, but many (some on this forum) actually think the opinions of those guys actually have more merit than any of the rest us. I think they confuse celebrity with skill. It's far easier to dirt track around a fast corner than to cut a precise, fast apex, but Jeremy likes to broadslide, and it IS great fun to watch. That's entertainment, but doesn't reflect real driving skill or real world vehicle dynamics.

Truthfully, the last couple seasons were in the Fonz jumps the Shark arena. Seems they ran out of great ideas, and just tested mega cars that most of us will never even see.



I especially liked the last BBC Top Gear show with no audience, quite tongue in cheek......:)
 
Damn, I didn't know there was a category called "Midsize Premium Sporty Car".

Or that the Corvette was a midsize sports car. Nice. :)

I think they just make s**t up.
 

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