New corvette

[Pieter Kanitz]

Hello Everybody,
Yesterday sunday 1 july i saw on BBC 2 a new episode of TOP GEAR in which they tested the new vette. It did not come out of the test very well. In a drag race It was easily beaten by a honda NSX and by another British sportscar i can't remember the type but lucky enough the vette manged to win (very marginal) from the 911.
They complained about the old fashioned rear leaf springs, a bad handling gearbox and a pour use of (dashboard) materials. What they did like very much was the head up display. My question to all of you, does this make any sence if soo why are we so crazy about the vette?
And i thought that the new vette was packed whith magnetic drive and other high tec gadges. Please convince me that the (new) vette is a super sportscar,
and that the british top gear is wrong in its overall opinion.

kind regards
pieter

[Chuck S.]

Re: New corvette

"...it was easily beaten by a honda NSX and by another British sportscar."

Pieter...Was it an Austin Healy? MGB? Maybe a Forguar? Asford-Martin? Serves you right for tuning into the BBC; whaddaya' expec...the BBC to have anything good to say about us Yank "Cowboys"?

[Jim T.]

Re: New corvette

Are you sure they had a 2005 Corvette? Corvettes have not had old leaf springs since 81 for the automatics. Remember a Corvette still may hold the 24 hour endurance race record, something like a ZR1 I believe in the 90's. I don't keep up with this, it may have changed.

[John M.]

Re: New corvette

Humm, imagine that, It was beat out by a car that only costs $40,000 more than it does! I think that the Corvette is still the best value there is in sports cars. It easily offers performance on a par with cars costing twice as much. A drag race is obviously not the true forte of a Corvette as it is quite heavy compared to a NSX, but I would guess that it would fare very well on a road course with one, and still leave you enough money to buy your wife a new Tahoe!
Or as an alternative, stick that $40K back into performance modifications and run away from anything on the road!

Regards, John McGraw

[Dennis A.]

Leaf Springs - on a 2005??? *NM*

[Chuck S.]

Only Kidding You, Pieter...

But, if you want political bias, tune BBC...if you want objective (for the most part) automotive news, try a media outlet that specializes on the topic. (See link below)

Performance in this article is still estimated, but will give you something to compare to the BBC's. Regardless of whether the C6 is the fastest (most of us will agree it's probably not going to beat-out cars costing three times as much), it will please the average enthusiast not engaged in track racing. Subscribe to Car and Driver...there will probably be a shoot-out between super sports cars as soon as the C6 is released.




Car and Driver C6 Article

[Patrick T.]

It may be made by Honda...

but an NSX is an Acura.

[Dick W.]

Re: New corvette

And this is from the country that uses electrics from Lucas, "The prince of darkness"? And do you know why the Brits do not use Lucas refrigerators, they do not like warm beer.

[Chuck S.]

In Case You Missed It...

Pieter, there was also a Car and Driver forum thread on that particular BBC review. It includes a wide variety of car guys, some of whom were familiar with BBC's "Top Gear" reviews. Unlike most of us here, they drive a wide variety of marques. It seemed to me that about 75 percent or more of the posters felt the "performance test" was bogus.

The consensus (even among Honda drivers) seemed to be there was no way a C6 could lose a drag race to an NSX unless the driver was clueless, and burned the Vettes' tires off launching while the NSX was headed down the alley. Four pages long...enjoy. WARNING: Includes graphic language and retarded adult behavior. May not be suitable for all audiences.




Car and Driver Forum Thread

[Rob M.]

Re: New corvette

John,

Corvette might be cheaper in the States but in Europe a Corvette is dead expensive (100k+ euro), then the other cars could even be cheaper...

greetings,
Rob.

[Christopher R.]

Re: New corvette

A new Corvette costs over 100,000 Euros in Europe???? Why? It's less than 1/2 that in the US.

[John M.]

Re: New corvette

They must have some pretty steep tarrifs to keep out US cars!

Regards, John McGraw

[Donald M.]

Re: New corvette

Lucas electrics left me stranded by a busy interstate in 1970, at night,during the winter! I had run out of gas due to a faulty gage in my '68 MGB-GT. I was rescued by, of all people, an MG mechanic from a local dealership who was driving by! Just another Lucas horror story. BTW, my next car was a '69 Vette and the rest is history.

[Gary Bishop]

Re: Rear Spring Photos

To see what the SPRING looks like go to the Southwest NCRS Website

> Event Photos > July 10, 2004 - C6 Preview > Photos in 3rd and 4th row.

[Clem Z.]

Re: Rear Spring Photos

corvettes use a trasverse single leaf composite spring like the old flat head fords except the fords were steel and multi ply