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The Corvette used to be a sportscar that cynical Europeans tended to dismiss. Since it got rather serious in eighth generation C8 Stingray form though, they've all had to shut up, for this Chevy really does have genuine talent. If you thought all the fun had gone out of sports cars, you simply have to try one.
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Driving experience
Chevrolet has long talked about giving the Corvette a mid-mounted drivetrain, but only with this C8 generation model was that actually delivered. As part of a clean sheet concept incorporating a new backbone-style aluminium spaceframe chassis. You don't expect a super sports car designed in such a way to be powered by heavy old V8, still less a normally aspirated one, but that's what this Stingray model still has, a unit linked to a new 8-speed dual clutch automatic plumbed into a torquey drivetrain that sends power to the rear wheels. The power in question amounts to 475bhp, enough to dispatch 62mph in 3.5s en route to 184mph.
That's quick, but not excessively fast by super sports car standards; a rather less exotic base Porsche 911 Carrera records similar figures, aided by being around 150kg lighter. But what'll be more important for 'Vette enthusiasts will be the aural fireworks that accompany the acceleration, a melodic V8 bellow that no more modern turbocharged engine can replicate. No need for stereo speaker embellishment here.
All European-market versions of this car get Chevrolet's Z51 pack, which includes an electronic limited-slip differential, a shortened axle ratio and updated suspension, brakes and exhaust. But unless you take to the track, you might struggle to get the benefit of all that, so big and wide does the Stingray feel on a typical British secondary road. If you've owned a Corvette before, one pleasant surprise will be the supple ride quality, a key ingredient in allowing this model to tread the delicate line between being a GT and being a super sportscar. That's because the transverse leaf spring suspension that's characterised the Corvette for generations has finally been ditched here in favour of rear double-wishbone axles with adjustable coilover suspension and magnetorheolgical adaptive dampers.
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Design and build
Unless you knew this was a Corvette, you might not initially recognise it as one, so different is every aspect of the exterior design from what went before. This C8 generation model was styled with much more cab-forward look and created from the ground up to be a convertible - which is why even the coupe version has a lift out Targa-style roof panel. The Convertible variant has a power-folding roof.
This Stingray-generation model is a little longer than you might expect a mid-engine sports car to be - the 4,634mm length makes it almost 100mm longer than a McLaren Artura for instance. The wheels are mixed sizes, 19-inches at the front and 20-inches at the rear, clad with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres.
Inside, the cabin cocoons itself around the driver, the main talking point being the unusual column-like button arrangement running down the centre console. There are three seat types - GT1, GT2 and Competition - which have different levels of body-hugging support and position you ideally in front of the squared-off race-style steering wheel. A 12-inch digital instrument display is complemented by a head-up display and an 8-inch central touchscreen with a 14-speaker Bose audio system. Quality should feel decent, particularly if you can stretch to the top '3LT' trim which gives you a leather-stitched dashboard and lots of smart suede-like material. Cheaper plastics feature too though, especially around the rather small cupholders.
Cabin storage space is limited and there's so little visibility out of the back window that a digital rear view mirror has to be fitted. There's a very sensible amount of luggage space for a sportscar though, 356-litres of it split between a compartment in the nose and larger one at the rear. Unusually, there's more carriage space in the Convertible than in the Coupe.
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Market and model
The main issue here is getting hold of a car to buy or drive because Chevrolet doesn't have any UK dealers, having pulled out of Europe years ago. The only outlet in the UK is Ian Alan Motors based in Surrey. Corvette prices start at around £107,000 for the Coupe version, with a premium of around £4,000 for the Convertible. That's for base '2LT' trim. You'll need to allow an extra £2,000 or so for the plusher '3LT' trim that many customers will want. All European Corvettes get the Z51 performance package, which gives you an electronic limited-slip differential, a shortened axle ratio and updated suspension, brakes and exhaust. Make sure you leave enough in your budget to find the extra £1,940 that is required for the optional Magnetic Selective Ride Control system - the magnetorheolgical adaptive dampers. Getting this also gets you a Performance Traction Management system.
The '2LT' spec provides quite a lot. So with that, you get standard GT1 seats that are powered, heated, cooled, have memory settings and are upholstered in Mulan leather. Also included is a 12-inch instrument screen, a performance data recorder, cruise control, a head-up display, rear camera mirror, a surround view camera system, ultrasonic rear parking sensors and a wireless phone charger. There's an 8-inch 'Chevrolet infotainment 3' centre touchscreen with navigation and a Bose Performance Series 14-speaker audio system.
Upgrade to '3LT' trim and you get grippier GT2 seats trimmed in Nappa leather, suede and microfibre upper interior trim, leather trim for the lower parts of the doors and additional interior colour options.
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Cost of ownership
You probably expect to get a sinking feeling when you pull into a petrol station in a Corvette, but it's really not as thirsty as you might imagine, thanks in part to the aluminium spaceframe which means that the kerb weight - 1,730kg - isn't quite as heavy as you might expect a Chevy with a 6,162cc naturally-aspirated 475bhp V8 to be. Or at least it isn't if you resist the temptation to drive the car flat out all the time. That's surprisingly easy to do, for this is a languid and relaxing thing just to cruise along in. In fact, it's one of the very few cars where we'd be confident of approaching the standard model's stated 23.3mpg combined cycle fuel economy figure if we were going gently.
The fuel tank is a pretty feeble 70-litre thing, so if you take this Corvette on a track day, you'll be making frequent visits to a filling station but in day-to-day use, we'd bet that this Chevrolet would generate fuel bills not too far off those of a big-engined hot hatch, say something like a 2.5-litre Audi RS 3. The CO2 reading is a smoky 277g/km. If you do take to the track and fail to resist the temptation to go showboating, expect big bills to replace the bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres. Maintenance costs of course won't be cheap and because there's just a single UK dealer, Ian Alan Motors in Virginia Water Surrey, there's the hassle of arranging garage visits.
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Summary
This is the first properly global Corvette - and it was worth waiting for. It still has the exotic V8 charm of its illustrious predecessors, but the switch to a mid-engine layout now makes this Chevy a true alternative to the European super sports car elite. Other rivals can go significantly faster, but cost significantly more and sound significantly less engaging. In this segment, only Porsche's 911 makes a better job of combining a supple GT driving feel with ultimate sports car track dynamics. And this Corvette is better equipped, better value and more spacious for baggage than one of those.
In the past with a Corvette, none of this would quite have been enough to compensate UK customers for the fact that the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car, but now that issue's at last been resolved, the only remaining key problem lies with the sales and service difficulties that lie with the brand having just a single UK dealer. If you can get over that, there's so much to like about this disruptive US import. A credible slice of Americana that ought to really worry the European automotive elite.
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