Ken
Gone but not forgotten
From Star Tribune.com:
2005 Chevrolet Corvette
Price as tested: $52,795
Options: DVD-based navigation system, $1,400; preferred equipment group, including heated sport seats and a seven-speaker audio system with in-dash CD changer, $4,360; Z51 performance package, including Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar EMT tires, $1,495.
Engine: 6.0-liter overhead-valve V8 produces 400 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm.
Transmission: Rear-mounted Tremec six-speed
Performance: Top speed 186 mph; 0-60 in 4.1 seconds.
Weight: 3,200 pounds
After 52 years in production, the Chevrolet Corvette is a legend, an institution, an American icon, which is reason enough to be suspicious of it. The fact is, until recently (1997), the Corvette wasn't a particularly good car. Those of early 1990s vintage handled like the thin end of a 10-pound ax and had the "that's-close-enough" build quality of a Monday-morning British Lister. The cars shivered like wet Chihuahuas over rough asphalt, and the unyielding suspension thrashed plenty of backsides.
Enthusiasts (you will know them by their Corvette Club bomber jackets) have been willing to forgive the Vette its excesses and inadequacies -- for much of its history it wasn't even that fast -- because Corvette meant something to them. It's always been a big, audacious slab of a car for an audience that can be fairly described likewise. It's always been America's Sports Car, for those who would sooner down a wine-tasting spit bucket than drive a foreign-nameplate car like Porsche 911 or Acura NSX.
And it has always looked cool. That's where I get on board.
The new Corvette (model year 2005) is known by those who know such things as C6 -- that is, the sixth generation of Corvette. Although the car is still raked and sloe-eyed, low and ornery, the latest redesign is the least-dramatic and maybe the least-compelling. The changes include shorter front and rear overhangs, a slightly longer wheelbase, underbody faring at the rear, sharper creases in the composite-fiber fenders and a general lipo-sculpture around the gluteal area.
While in the eyes of experts these changes are of cosmic significance, the general public might have trouble telling at a glance a C5 from a C6. The biggest cosmetic change, and far overdue, are the fixed high-intensity headlights under polycarbonate lenses, replacing the retractable headlamps. This is not the stuff of grand ambition.
To me, the new car looks pinched and compressed, like a C5 seen through an anamorphic lens. Since the Larry Shinoda-designed split-window coupe of 1963, one of the formal properties of Corvette has been its galling, luxuriant length, a look that suggested a steaming rocket sled laying its own tracks ahead of it. Something about the C6's foreshortened proportions don't add up.
Truth is, I like the C5 better from the outside, but from the inside, I'll take the C6. Instantly comfortable and accessible, the cockpit derives much of its technical jewelry from its platform-mate, the Cadillac XLR -- bits like the electronic door latches, push-button start and electro-luminescent instrument panel.
Our test car -- a coupe -- was equipped with a DVD-based navigation system ($1,400) and the "preferred equipment group" ($4,360), including heated sport seats and a rib-rattling seven-speaker audio system with in-dash CD changer.
If I were a sports-car fundamentalist, I suppose I might object to the optional nav system -- extra weight and distraction. But this clever, easy-to-learn system makes the Corvette much more livable as a daily driver, and generally rounds out the Vette's portfolio as a grand touring car, a starship for the Interstate.
What worked about the C5 interior -- the ample rear compartment storage, the easy-off targa top, the generous foot wells and well-placed dead pedal to the left of the clutch -- has been retained, and everything has been anointed with a slick, smarter-than-thou competence. Build quality is excellent. Compared with Corvette interiors of a decade ago, which chirred and rattled like Ricky Ricardo's percussion section, the new Corvette is as solid as a steamer chest.
2005 Chevrolet Corvette
Price as tested: $52,795
Options: DVD-based navigation system, $1,400; preferred equipment group, including heated sport seats and a seven-speaker audio system with in-dash CD changer, $4,360; Z51 performance package, including Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar EMT tires, $1,495.
Engine: 6.0-liter overhead-valve V8 produces 400 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm.
Transmission: Rear-mounted Tremec six-speed
Performance: Top speed 186 mph; 0-60 in 4.1 seconds.
Weight: 3,200 pounds
After 52 years in production, the Chevrolet Corvette is a legend, an institution, an American icon, which is reason enough to be suspicious of it. The fact is, until recently (1997), the Corvette wasn't a particularly good car. Those of early 1990s vintage handled like the thin end of a 10-pound ax and had the "that's-close-enough" build quality of a Monday-morning British Lister. The cars shivered like wet Chihuahuas over rough asphalt, and the unyielding suspension thrashed plenty of backsides.
Enthusiasts (you will know them by their Corvette Club bomber jackets) have been willing to forgive the Vette its excesses and inadequacies -- for much of its history it wasn't even that fast -- because Corvette meant something to them. It's always been a big, audacious slab of a car for an audience that can be fairly described likewise. It's always been America's Sports Car, for those who would sooner down a wine-tasting spit bucket than drive a foreign-nameplate car like Porsche 911 or Acura NSX.
And it has always looked cool. That's where I get on board.
The new Corvette (model year 2005) is known by those who know such things as C6 -- that is, the sixth generation of Corvette. Although the car is still raked and sloe-eyed, low and ornery, the latest redesign is the least-dramatic and maybe the least-compelling. The changes include shorter front and rear overhangs, a slightly longer wheelbase, underbody faring at the rear, sharper creases in the composite-fiber fenders and a general lipo-sculpture around the gluteal area.
While in the eyes of experts these changes are of cosmic significance, the general public might have trouble telling at a glance a C5 from a C6. The biggest cosmetic change, and far overdue, are the fixed high-intensity headlights under polycarbonate lenses, replacing the retractable headlamps. This is not the stuff of grand ambition.
To me, the new car looks pinched and compressed, like a C5 seen through an anamorphic lens. Since the Larry Shinoda-designed split-window coupe of 1963, one of the formal properties of Corvette has been its galling, luxuriant length, a look that suggested a steaming rocket sled laying its own tracks ahead of it. Something about the C6's foreshortened proportions don't add up.
Truth is, I like the C5 better from the outside, but from the inside, I'll take the C6. Instantly comfortable and accessible, the cockpit derives much of its technical jewelry from its platform-mate, the Cadillac XLR -- bits like the electronic door latches, push-button start and electro-luminescent instrument panel.
Our test car -- a coupe -- was equipped with a DVD-based navigation system ($1,400) and the "preferred equipment group" ($4,360), including heated sport seats and a rib-rattling seven-speaker audio system with in-dash CD changer.
If I were a sports-car fundamentalist, I suppose I might object to the optional nav system -- extra weight and distraction. But this clever, easy-to-learn system makes the Corvette much more livable as a daily driver, and generally rounds out the Vette's portfolio as a grand touring car, a starship for the Interstate.
What worked about the C5 interior -- the ample rear compartment storage, the easy-off targa top, the generous foot wells and well-placed dead pedal to the left of the clutch -- has been retained, and everything has been anointed with a slick, smarter-than-thou competence. Build quality is excellent. Compared with Corvette interiors of a decade ago, which chirred and rattled like Ricky Ricardo's percussion section, the new Corvette is as solid as a steamer chest.
