C7 Corvette Stingray
Discussion
A quick write up on hiring and driving a surprisingly good car... the 2014 Corvette Stingray
460bhp
6 speed auto with manual paddle shifting ability - apparently carried over from the c6
targa roof (manual lift out)
wheels - standard 5 spoke I think 19 inch.
the looks, the best part of the package as far as im concerned. It looks epic. I love the front and rear lights and genuinely the Mrs mistook c7's driving past us as Ferrari f12s once or twice. its a stunning looking car in my view.
quality of interior... this is the let down I suppose. fairly basic and not particularly special materials. he seats are ok in support but certainly don't look sexy nor have been upholstered in a basic pattern.
the button door release is perhaps a disaster waiting to happen but a bit gimmicky. things like the head up display was pretty good and the large digital speedo very useful for long geared high speed acceleration.
I believe the car had the z51 handling package as this was the area that surprised me most about the corvette. this one can actually corner! I took the car out some challenging roads outside of Los Angeles including Angeles Crest highway (what a road) and was astonished at how well balanced the car was round the mid speed corners. Im not a racing driver but have peddled plenty of fast cars and this was pretty good. Steering feedback is a bit lacking but not bad.
Ive driven a new m4 coupe bmw recently and to be honest, I would say the corvette is a better performer and was much more "fun"
the noise...
well no sports exhaust so it is muted. I saw a few with exhausts and it generally does sound good. the standard car is still quite a nice roar when its reved out although the gearing is long which means this doesn't happen as often.
gearbox - I mainly stuck with Sport or track mode and it certainly is more responsive in these settings. changes are "automatic" and therefore lazy ... well lazy in comparison to dct, pdk etc but you could live with it. Clearly an auto is still an auto so not really what a supercar should be sporting but for all round conditions of traffic and highways in the USA it works for the conditions.
One big issue was length of gearing, I saw something like 84mph out of 2nd gear and I think 3rd might have touched 130mph... this is just too long and meant any serious reving out on even the highway let alone the back roads, was giving serious law braking speed which is a bit off putting.
Everyday use.
yes its pretty low but the front end seemed to cope with most gradients etc. the boot arrangement is a pain though, the hatch back is nice but its not a deep boot so you have luggage moving around and only a net to secure down so its probably best to travel very light! Certainly it is very easy to use
I imagine fuel consumption being a 6.2 v8 means UK is an expensive place to run a corvette. I think we were doing about 16mpg in traffic and heavy right foot use.
traction off the line was again very surprising given the bhp and rear wheel drive, the auto defaults to 2nd gear unless in manual you opt for 1st, but I really struggled to see the rear light up. I was expecting to get bogged down with wheel spin but it coped well. Basically it gets off the start line on dry roads very quickly without trouble.
I would say pound for pound its an impressive car and actually makes an interesting proposition in comparison to the usual Euro choices. the corvette is not a joke any more, I will fully respect it now!
I will be interested to hear thoughts from other corvette owners and c6 owners.
460bhp
6 speed auto with manual paddle shifting ability - apparently carried over from the c6
targa roof (manual lift out)
wheels - standard 5 spoke I think 19 inch.
the looks, the best part of the package as far as im concerned. It looks epic. I love the front and rear lights and genuinely the Mrs mistook c7's driving past us as Ferrari f12s once or twice. its a stunning looking car in my view.
quality of interior... this is the let down I suppose. fairly basic and not particularly special materials. he seats are ok in support but certainly don't look sexy nor have been upholstered in a basic pattern.
the button door release is perhaps a disaster waiting to happen but a bit gimmicky. things like the head up display was pretty good and the large digital speedo very useful for long geared high speed acceleration.
I believe the car had the z51 handling package as this was the area that surprised me most about the corvette. this one can actually corner! I took the car out some challenging roads outside of Los Angeles including Angeles Crest highway (what a road) and was astonished at how well balanced the car was round the mid speed corners. Im not a racing driver but have peddled plenty of fast cars and this was pretty good. Steering feedback is a bit lacking but not bad.
Ive driven a new m4 coupe bmw recently and to be honest, I would say the corvette is a better performer and was much more "fun"
the noise...
well no sports exhaust so it is muted. I saw a few with exhausts and it generally does sound good. the standard car is still quite a nice roar when its reved out although the gearing is long which means this doesn't happen as often.
gearbox - I mainly stuck with Sport or track mode and it certainly is more responsive in these settings. changes are "automatic" and therefore lazy ... well lazy in comparison to dct, pdk etc but you could live with it. Clearly an auto is still an auto so not really what a supercar should be sporting but for all round conditions of traffic and highways in the USA it works for the conditions.
One big issue was length of gearing, I saw something like 84mph out of 2nd gear and I think 3rd might have touched 130mph... this is just too long and meant any serious reving out on even the highway let alone the back roads, was giving serious law braking speed which is a bit off putting.
Everyday use.
yes its pretty low but the front end seemed to cope with most gradients etc. the boot arrangement is a pain though, the hatch back is nice but its not a deep boot so you have luggage moving around and only a net to secure down so its probably best to travel very light! Certainly it is very easy to use
I imagine fuel consumption being a 6.2 v8 means UK is an expensive place to run a corvette. I think we were doing about 16mpg in traffic and heavy right foot use.
traction off the line was again very surprising given the bhp and rear wheel drive, the auto defaults to 2nd gear unless in manual you opt for 1st, but I really struggled to see the rear light up. I was expecting to get bogged down with wheel spin but it coped well. Basically it gets off the start line on dry roads very quickly without trouble.
I would say pound for pound its an impressive car and actually makes an interesting proposition in comparison to the usual Euro choices. the corvette is not a joke any more, I will fully respect it now!
I will be interested to hear thoughts from other corvette owners and c6 owners.
f1ten said:
the button door release is perhaps a disaster waiting to happen but a bit gimmicky.
Same as on the C6, and after 7.5 years and 52k miles mine are still working fine 
As for gimmicky, once you get used to it you wonder why all cars don't have it... (Although I'll concede that the external button for the boot has packed in after 7+ years of road-crud accumulating on it...)f1ten said:
One big issue was length of gearing, I saw something like 84mph out of 2nd gear and I think 3rd might have touched 130mph... this is just too long and meant any serious reving out on even the highway let alone the back roads, was giving serious law braking speed which is a bit off putting.
Again, same as on the C6 (and your numbers are pretty much spot on, with 3rd topping out at a real 120mph or so). If you've got enough torque you don't need a lot of gears Seriously, 2nd gear is the gear for revving and it's not like the car can't pull the gears. Think of it in terms of time accelerating from rest (and with 1st topping out at around 45mph): 1st-2nd change after less than 3 secs, 2nd-3rd about 4 secs later, 3rd-4th 5-6 secs later... Would you really want to be changing gear more often? f1ten said:
I imagine fuel consumption being a 6.2 v8 means UK is an expensive place to run a corvette. I think we were doing about 16mpg in traffic and heavy right foot use.
It's better than you'd think, and remember than (even on UK cars) the trip meter shows US mpg rather than UK mpg - so the real consumption is about 20% better than the display shows. Over 52k miles of mixed town, country and motorway driving my C6 auto has averaged 22mpg which isn't too bad.f1ten said:
I will be interested to hear thoughts from other corvette owners and c6 owners.
Final point is, for the C6 certainly, reliability is excellent and servicing costs are more like a family saloon than a sports car. Corvettes aren't for everyone - especially if you like having a dealer network! - but they're an interestingly different option if you don't fancy a European sports car."I believe the car had the z51 handling package as this was the area that surprised me most about the corvette. this one can actually corner! "
Please, I think you'll find previous ones could corner too! How do you think they got around the ring/ TG track so fast if they couldn't corner?? 7'19 ZR1, 7,22 Z06, 7'24 Nissan GTR, 7'25 Enzo and 7'28 458.
As for fuel, I did a trip with some friends in various cars to the ring earlier this year. Some very spirited driving on country roads and some fast autobahn driving and some traffic jams too. The Z06 (which is going to drink more than a base vette was returning similar to my mates 360 superstrate
Ref inside finish, there are several levels of trim , I suspect you were not in the 'loaded' one. There are also competition seats available or the touring seats.
Please, I think you'll find previous ones could corner too! How do you think they got around the ring/ TG track so fast if they couldn't corner?? 7'19 ZR1, 7,22 Z06, 7'24 Nissan GTR, 7'25 Enzo and 7'28 458.
As for fuel, I did a trip with some friends in various cars to the ring earlier this year. Some very spirited driving on country roads and some fast autobahn driving and some traffic jams too. The Z06 (which is going to drink more than a base vette was returning similar to my mates 360 superstrate
Ref inside finish, there are several levels of trim , I suspect you were not in the 'loaded' one. There are also competition seats available or the touring seats.
Edited by Gixer on Friday 18th September 16:16
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