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IoM GP2 - Corvette Z06
Posted by Tom Ford at 9:30AM on Monday 28 July, 2008
TopGear.com Blogs
After roughly 48-hours in its very yellow company, you can't help feeling faintly evangelical about the Corvette Z06.
Why? Because it's brilliant, and nearly everyone you will meet assumes that it is completely rubbish.
This is annoying, and forces you to leap to the defence of a car that doesn't deserve any of the faint praise heaped upon it, mainly by appearing to be at the pointy end of a GM charm offensive one punter at a time.
It seems that there's a casual automotive xenophobia and complete mistrust of anything fast built by stoopid Americans, and the fact that the Z06 we have here is finished in sunburst yellow and chrome wheels seems to reinforce the assumption - that the 'Vette is crude, loud and slightly old school.
Wrong. If you've ever driven a new one, you'll know that the 'Vette is sorted. Hydroformed aluminium chassis, carbon bits on the body, carbon floor, sophisticated suspension.
The basics might be a big V8 driving the rear wheels, some 500-odd bhp and a skin-stretching grin - but that's a good thing. You can see out of it, put a massive amount of luggage in it, pose in it, go very, very fast in it, and every single time you spin up that huge mill and run through the slightly clunky manual 'box, you'll almost split your face open.
The seats are too flat and the engine only does 7mpg if you thrape it, and the left-hand-drive only arrangement is slightly annoying in the UK (you have to pull the entire car onto the other side of the road even to check that a country overtake is possible), but after that it's all gravy. And cheap gravy.
Actually, £60k isn't cheap as such, especially when a certain new Nissan surfs in on a technological wavefront that puts the Corvette to shame, but there is no substitute for cubic inches.
A 7-litre small-block V8 makes a case for itself like no other, and where the Nissan is a tool, the Z06 feels like a proper, wanton supercar. It feels special, and rumbly and nowhere near as ruthless a package the Germans, Nissan et al. It has character.
And it's quick and comfortable, too. On the drive to the IoM, I had the car stuffed full of pop-up tent and various bags, got 23mpg on the motorway and had a fine old time playing with the touch-screen sat-nav.
The three biggest problems? Those seats really are way too flat for a car that can generate such lateral G, the gearbox is too long in throw and the stereo's a bit crap. Oh, four actually, I don't like yellow cars... but this one, I'll forgive.
Posted by Tom Ford at 9:30AM on Monday 28 July, 2008
TopGear.com Blogs
After roughly 48-hours in its very yellow company, you can't help feeling faintly evangelical about the Corvette Z06.
Why? Because it's brilliant, and nearly everyone you will meet assumes that it is completely rubbish.
This is annoying, and forces you to leap to the defence of a car that doesn't deserve any of the faint praise heaped upon it, mainly by appearing to be at the pointy end of a GM charm offensive one punter at a time.
It seems that there's a casual automotive xenophobia and complete mistrust of anything fast built by stoopid Americans, and the fact that the Z06 we have here is finished in sunburst yellow and chrome wheels seems to reinforce the assumption - that the 'Vette is crude, loud and slightly old school.
Wrong. If you've ever driven a new one, you'll know that the 'Vette is sorted. Hydroformed aluminium chassis, carbon bits on the body, carbon floor, sophisticated suspension.
The basics might be a big V8 driving the rear wheels, some 500-odd bhp and a skin-stretching grin - but that's a good thing. You can see out of it, put a massive amount of luggage in it, pose in it, go very, very fast in it, and every single time you spin up that huge mill and run through the slightly clunky manual 'box, you'll almost split your face open.
The seats are too flat and the engine only does 7mpg if you thrape it, and the left-hand-drive only arrangement is slightly annoying in the UK (you have to pull the entire car onto the other side of the road even to check that a country overtake is possible), but after that it's all gravy. And cheap gravy.
Actually, £60k isn't cheap as such, especially when a certain new Nissan surfs in on a technological wavefront that puts the Corvette to shame, but there is no substitute for cubic inches.
A 7-litre small-block V8 makes a case for itself like no other, and where the Nissan is a tool, the Z06 feels like a proper, wanton supercar. It feels special, and rumbly and nowhere near as ruthless a package the Germans, Nissan et al. It has character.
And it's quick and comfortable, too. On the drive to the IoM, I had the car stuffed full of pop-up tent and various bags, got 23mpg on the motorway and had a fine old time playing with the touch-screen sat-nav.
The three biggest problems? Those seats really are way too flat for a car that can generate such lateral G, the gearbox is too long in throw and the stereo's a bit crap. Oh, four actually, I don't like yellow cars... but this one, I'll forgive.
