Ken
Gone but not forgotten
From Businessweek.com:
JUNE 24, 2005
CAR REVIEW
By Thane Peter
Going Topless in the Best Vette Yet
Whipping around the countryside in this all-American roadster with the roof down is about as good as it gets, with decent mileage to boot.
Sports-car enthusiasts generally agree that the new Chevy Corvette is one great car. Car and Driver put it on the magazine's Top Ten Performance Cars list and declared that it's "just flat unbeatable in this price class." Thoroughly redesigned for the 2005 model year, the C6 (for sixth-generation Corvette) is shorter, faster, lighter, and has better brakes and more precise steering that the C5 Vette, which was on the market from 1997 to 2004.
Let's say you're hitting middle age, and you've got the blahs -- and enough money to inject a little excitement into your humdrum existence. If you're thinking about a Vette as the remedy, then you gotta go with the soft-top version, which came out late last fall. Sure, oil just hit $60 a barrel, and gasoline prices are set to soar even more, but this is your mental well-being we're talking about. You're not gonna let the price of gas stop you, right?
Nor the extra eight grand premium the convertible gets over the coupe, bringing its base sticker to $52,245. Hey, what's a measly eight grand in this context?
JUST TRY TO KEEP UP. After all, the thrill of driving a powerful car like the Corvette with the top down is enough to shake the boredom out of anyone. And the C6 is the fastest Vette ever: Chevy (GM ) claims it can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.2 seconds, which is Ferrari-style acceleration, and tops out at 186 mph. On an isolated stretch of four-lane highway, I ran it out to a pretty high speed (I take the Fifth on exactly how high) with the top down and the windows up -- and things were remarkably calm in the passenger compartment. I flipped an Alison Krauss CD into the sound system, and the lyrics were clearly audible. The pages of a book on my passenger seat barely stirred.
When I pulled off the freeway onto a long curving road that heads into a down-at-the-heels little Pennsylvania coal town near where I live, I noticed in the rearview mirror that a guy in a 5-Series BMW was trying to stay on my tail. The Corvette I tested was equipped with the Z51 performance package (a $1,695 option), which includes high-performance springs, shocks, and stabilizer bars. It nonetheless felt slightly iffy accelerating into the curve, but the BMW slid outside the white line on the edge of the highway and fell behind.
This sort of things happens a lot when you're driving a Corvette convertible. Car buffs see it and try to keep up with you. Lotsa luck to most of them.
HOW MANY G'S? One reason the new Corvette is so fast is that a powerful, six-liter, 400-horsepower engine comes standard, as does a six-speed manual gearbox (a four-speed automatic is available as a no-cost option). The C6 is also very light for such a powerful car -- barely 3,200 pounds. All sorts of design features underscore its speediness. For example, the air ducts on the side and the four big chrome exhaust pipes coming out of the rear end.
It also boasts a fighter-plane-style heads-up display that creates the illusion that the speedometer, tachometer, and other instruments are hovering out in front of the car, just above hood level. The heads-up display on the 2005 Corvette even includes a reading of the G-forces you're generating when you stomp on the gas.
New on the 2005 Vette and especially cool is the automatic convertible top. O.K., so maybe it isn't worth the $1,995 it adds to the price (a manual top is standard), but it really is convenient. Pull a latch just under the rearview mirror, then just push a button on the dash, and the top automatically retracts into an enclosed space behind the passenger compartment in less than 20 seconds. It comes back up just as easily. If you don't get it latched tight enough, a warning flashes on the dash.
OLDSTER ACCOMMODATIONS. When it comes to styling, the new Corvette looks a little Italian to my eye. It's slung very low to the ground and is an inch narrower and five inches shorter than the previous Vette. That doesn't seem like much, but it makes a difference. This Corvette doesn't have that weird-looking, overextended front end that older ones have. And the hulking, humpbacked rear end seems slightly narrower and more refined.
The exterior fit and finish is far better than on Vettes of yore, too. Having lived in Germany, one of my pet peeves is that American cars seem slightly junky next to German and Japanese rivals because the gaps around doors, hood, and body parts are wider and less uniform. Yet when I set the 2005 Corvette next to a top-end Mercedes, the fit and finish wasn't quite as anally retentively uniform as the German car's, but it was close -- and that's a big improvement.
As with many new cars these days, the Corvette's designers have made many subtle accommodations to older car-buyers. For instance, the heads-up display may make you feel like Tom Cruise in Top Gun, but the numerals are extra-large, so you don't need reading glasses to see them.
WHAT TRUNK? Another feature is called Auto Exit Recall, which allows you to program the power seats to rise to a higher, more convenient position when you turn off the engine (which keeps older people from having to do that embarrassing double pump they'd otherwise have to do to get out of the low-riding bucket seats). And if you leave the turn signal on for more than three-quarters of a mile, a chime sounds. This avoids the total mortification of cruising along for miles looking like a duffer because you've absent-mindedly left the signal on.
Chevy is even trying to pitch the Corvette as a sort of economy performance car. It's mileage isn't half-bad actually -- it's rated at 28 miles per gallon on the highway and 18 in the city -- and the P.R. people have prepared a little table showing how the Corvette has better mileage per unit of horsepower than the Porsche 911 and other speedy rivals. A small advantage, but when you're pumping gallons of premium unleaded into the thing at $2.40 per gallon it's worth keeping in mind.
What negatives does the new Corvette convertible have? Not many, as far as I'm concerned. Some of the interior appointments are terribly tacky for such an expensive car. The glove compartment is made of cheap plastic, and in the car I was driving some sort of sensor had fallen out of the rear-view mirror and was hanging down by the wires.
It also could use a little more storage space behind the seats and in the doors, especially given that with the top down there's barely five cubic feet of trunk space. But, hey, it's a convertible. And if you're looking for a high-performance ragtop, this is a great one.
The Good: Powerful new engine, tight handling, and cool automatic soft-top
The Bad: Tacky interior details, lack of storage
The Bottom Line: Great update of an American classic
JUNE 24, 2005
CAR REVIEW
By Thane Peter
Going Topless in the Best Vette Yet
Whipping around the countryside in this all-American roadster with the roof down is about as good as it gets, with decent mileage to boot.
Sports-car enthusiasts generally agree that the new Chevy Corvette is one great car. Car and Driver put it on the magazine's Top Ten Performance Cars list and declared that it's "just flat unbeatable in this price class." Thoroughly redesigned for the 2005 model year, the C6 (for sixth-generation Corvette) is shorter, faster, lighter, and has better brakes and more precise steering that the C5 Vette, which was on the market from 1997 to 2004.
Let's say you're hitting middle age, and you've got the blahs -- and enough money to inject a little excitement into your humdrum existence. If you're thinking about a Vette as the remedy, then you gotta go with the soft-top version, which came out late last fall. Sure, oil just hit $60 a barrel, and gasoline prices are set to soar even more, but this is your mental well-being we're talking about. You're not gonna let the price of gas stop you, right?
Nor the extra eight grand premium the convertible gets over the coupe, bringing its base sticker to $52,245. Hey, what's a measly eight grand in this context?
JUST TRY TO KEEP UP. After all, the thrill of driving a powerful car like the Corvette with the top down is enough to shake the boredom out of anyone. And the C6 is the fastest Vette ever: Chevy (GM ) claims it can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.2 seconds, which is Ferrari-style acceleration, and tops out at 186 mph. On an isolated stretch of four-lane highway, I ran it out to a pretty high speed (I take the Fifth on exactly how high) with the top down and the windows up -- and things were remarkably calm in the passenger compartment. I flipped an Alison Krauss CD into the sound system, and the lyrics were clearly audible. The pages of a book on my passenger seat barely stirred.
When I pulled off the freeway onto a long curving road that heads into a down-at-the-heels little Pennsylvania coal town near where I live, I noticed in the rearview mirror that a guy in a 5-Series BMW was trying to stay on my tail. The Corvette I tested was equipped with the Z51 performance package (a $1,695 option), which includes high-performance springs, shocks, and stabilizer bars. It nonetheless felt slightly iffy accelerating into the curve, but the BMW slid outside the white line on the edge of the highway and fell behind.
This sort of things happens a lot when you're driving a Corvette convertible. Car buffs see it and try to keep up with you. Lotsa luck to most of them.
HOW MANY G'S? One reason the new Corvette is so fast is that a powerful, six-liter, 400-horsepower engine comes standard, as does a six-speed manual gearbox (a four-speed automatic is available as a no-cost option). The C6 is also very light for such a powerful car -- barely 3,200 pounds. All sorts of design features underscore its speediness. For example, the air ducts on the side and the four big chrome exhaust pipes coming out of the rear end.
It also boasts a fighter-plane-style heads-up display that creates the illusion that the speedometer, tachometer, and other instruments are hovering out in front of the car, just above hood level. The heads-up display on the 2005 Corvette even includes a reading of the G-forces you're generating when you stomp on the gas.
New on the 2005 Vette and especially cool is the automatic convertible top. O.K., so maybe it isn't worth the $1,995 it adds to the price (a manual top is standard), but it really is convenient. Pull a latch just under the rearview mirror, then just push a button on the dash, and the top automatically retracts into an enclosed space behind the passenger compartment in less than 20 seconds. It comes back up just as easily. If you don't get it latched tight enough, a warning flashes on the dash.
OLDSTER ACCOMMODATIONS. When it comes to styling, the new Corvette looks a little Italian to my eye. It's slung very low to the ground and is an inch narrower and five inches shorter than the previous Vette. That doesn't seem like much, but it makes a difference. This Corvette doesn't have that weird-looking, overextended front end that older ones have. And the hulking, humpbacked rear end seems slightly narrower and more refined.
The exterior fit and finish is far better than on Vettes of yore, too. Having lived in Germany, one of my pet peeves is that American cars seem slightly junky next to German and Japanese rivals because the gaps around doors, hood, and body parts are wider and less uniform. Yet when I set the 2005 Corvette next to a top-end Mercedes, the fit and finish wasn't quite as anally retentively uniform as the German car's, but it was close -- and that's a big improvement.
As with many new cars these days, the Corvette's designers have made many subtle accommodations to older car-buyers. For instance, the heads-up display may make you feel like Tom Cruise in Top Gun, but the numerals are extra-large, so you don't need reading glasses to see them.
WHAT TRUNK? Another feature is called Auto Exit Recall, which allows you to program the power seats to rise to a higher, more convenient position when you turn off the engine (which keeps older people from having to do that embarrassing double pump they'd otherwise have to do to get out of the low-riding bucket seats). And if you leave the turn signal on for more than three-quarters of a mile, a chime sounds. This avoids the total mortification of cruising along for miles looking like a duffer because you've absent-mindedly left the signal on.
Chevy is even trying to pitch the Corvette as a sort of economy performance car. It's mileage isn't half-bad actually -- it's rated at 28 miles per gallon on the highway and 18 in the city -- and the P.R. people have prepared a little table showing how the Corvette has better mileage per unit of horsepower than the Porsche 911 and other speedy rivals. A small advantage, but when you're pumping gallons of premium unleaded into the thing at $2.40 per gallon it's worth keeping in mind.
What negatives does the new Corvette convertible have? Not many, as far as I'm concerned. Some of the interior appointments are terribly tacky for such an expensive car. The glove compartment is made of cheap plastic, and in the car I was driving some sort of sensor had fallen out of the rear-view mirror and was hanging down by the wires.
It also could use a little more storage space behind the seats and in the doors, especially given that with the top down there's barely five cubic feet of trunk space. But, hey, it's a convertible. And if you're looking for a high-performance ragtop, this is a great one.
The Good: Powerful new engine, tight handling, and cool automatic soft-top
The Bad: Tacky interior details, lack of storage
The Bottom Line: Great update of an American classic
