2014 Corvette Stingray

The 2014 Corvette Stingray has been described as "a treat for loyalists, but aimed at a new breed." So, what does this mean, exactly? What can we expect from the all-new Stingray? Tune in to find out.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff Works dot Com. Everybody welcome
to car stuff on skepn and on ben Bullen. Like
the dramatic post, Yeah I did. I it was kind
of shot. It was slight, but but it was there.

(00:22):
So let's let's jump right into today's topic because I, uh, woit,
I don't. I don't know how to feel about this
one yet, and I'll tell you why. I'm I'm pretty
much sold on this idea that Corvette Stingray is an
amazing car. I'm there's no doubt about that. Whatever, whatever,
ever read, whatever I've seen, whatever, I've not really experienced
because it's not out there yet, right, but I'm pretty

(00:44):
much sold that this thing is from the ground up amazing,
amazing vehicle. It just any everything about it, anything and everything.
But I haven't seen one in person, and I'm still
I'll tell you, I'm still kind of fifty fifty on
the stereor design. Uh yeah, it's described as a treat
for loyalists but aimed at a new breed. Yeah, okay,

(01:07):
so I don't know if there's I mean just I
know this is early on here to put this out there,
But I'm wondering if listeners are kind of the same way.
Without seeing it in person, I've only seen it on television.
I've seen it in ads. I've seen you know, on websites,
videos on YouTube, lots of photos now because journalists have
had an opportunity to drive this thing, I haven't seen
one on the road, and that changes my mind completely

(01:29):
when I see one in person. So either for the
positive or for the for the negative, well you gotta
see it in action, I think so. And I've called
and asked my dad about this because he's been at
you know, some GM events where there's a Corvette park
there and I've asked him about it and he said, well,
he likes it a lot. Um. You know, the journalists
seemed to fall in love with this thing, because we've
got a lot of journalist reviews that are very favorable

(01:51):
about And there was the End five hundred. It was
the pace car this year, and it looked great there.
But is that just the angles that I'm catching it from,
because there are certain angles when I wasn't quite sold
on the way it look I'm I don't know, maybe
I'm being way too critical about this, but that's kind
of a big deal. When they redesigned the Corvette. You're
reminding me of Fox Molder from the X Files right now,

(02:13):
because the vibe I'm getting is you want to believe.
I do. I do. I want to believe, But you
know this is a I mean, like I said, it's
a big deal when they change the design of the Corvette.
And there were people you know online that we're saying, please, please,
please before the reveal, They're saying, please do not screw
this up. GM, don't make this a bad looking car.

(02:34):
This has got to be right. It's got to be
right the first time. Don't bring it back in two
years and redesign it again. Make the C seven the
one that we want to make it count. And this
is this is interesting because you know, anybody familiar with
the history of the Corvette or the sting Ray knows
that the Loyalists really do play a role in the

(02:54):
development of this vehicle. Absolutely. Yeah, that's right, And there's
a lot of history there as well. Now core goes
all the way back. This is the sixty year of
the Corvette, by the way, so it goes back to
nineteen fifty three. Um, there have been seven generations. And
I don't even know if we need to go through
where the generations fall, but um, you know C one, two, three, four,
all way through seven. UM. I found a little interesting

(03:15):
note about three which I just want to share because
it's just something unusual that maybe not everybody knows. Um.
You know, these cars were built in Flint, they were
built in St. Louis there, uh and now in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Um so they kind of moved around during production. And uh,
nineteen eighty three, which falls right between the C three
and C four generation. Um so eight two was the

(03:37):
end of C three. Eighty four was the beginning of
C four. There was no nineteen eighty three corvette. And
some people may not have known that. I know a
lot of people probably already do because we have a
listener and audience that is, you know, great car savy.
We do, we definitely do. Now. What I did find
about the the the A three Corvette is that, of

(03:57):
course it was supposed to fall, like I mentioned, betan,
you know C four, that's right, Um, there's three event.
There were only forty three prototypes ever built, and all
except for one of those prototypes was destroyed. And that's
because there were their quality issues. There were parts delays,
things like that that were happening, um at the factory
level that didn't allow it to happen in three. So

(04:19):
there's a gap in the Corvette production history. And that's
again that there's that one prototype car that exists out there.
It's a white car, and it's the only surviving eighty
three prototype and it's currently on display at the Bowling Green,
Kentucky Museum, which is the National Corvette Museum. Uh So
you can go there and see if the car is
still owned by GM. Obviously they wanted to hang onto that.

(04:41):
They've got such an amazing collection at cars anyways. But
um so this one kind of oddball one off car,
this eight three Corvette is is still on display. You
can go check it out if you want. Um it's
just kind of an interesting side note. I thought in
the whole sixty year history, Well, I've got to send
you to two on that. Before we continue, I have
to ask, remember we of the v H one Corvette giveaway? Yes,

(05:03):
I do, which is just an amazing, amazing story and
I recommend that people listen to it. So I guess
that's the one he didn't get that is that must
be the one that the the winner did not receive. Yeah,
that's right. It's strange. That's a strange story that give
it that giveaway because you know, because of what happened afterwards,
you know all the cars where they went and who

(05:23):
ended up with them, and it's just a it's a
weird story. But yeah, we have a full episode on that. Yeah,
and so we won't lose too much time on the
v H one giveaway since we already do have a
podcast out about that. However, if you are a Corvette
enthusiast at all and you somehow haven't heard this episode yet,
then please do everyone a favor and listen to it

(05:43):
immediately after listening to that. That's an order. Oh yeah,
I guess I was gonna. I just I really enjoyed
that story. I did too. That was a that was
a cool story and it was a neat thing that
they did. And I wonder, I mean, I haven't seen
anything like that ever again, They've never they have, There's
never been anything of that that scale ever to happen
again a car giveaway like that. I know, there's their individuals,

(06:07):
but that was an amazing giveaway. What a story so okay,
let's get back to our sting Ray here. We're talking
about Corvette sting Ray and and one thing that we
need to say is that, you know, they don't just
kind of flippantly use the sting Ray name for any
vehicle that they that they have. It's gone away for
a while, and um GM looks at a a as
a moniker that has to be earned. It's kind of

(06:29):
like a mark of quality. It absolutely is. I mean,
it's it's reserved for for special Corvette models and um,
I think it goes all the back to nineteen fifty
nine there was a race car that had it, and
then on the nineteen I think it's nineteen sixty three. Uh,
the C two design, which is an incredible design. By
the way, that's probably one of my favorites. I've got
a few favorites along the way. The UM possibly, yeah, possibly,

(06:53):
I think the C two design is maybe my favorite. Uh,
the sixty three split backs, you know that that era. Um.
But but the sting Rays of that era, they're probably
you know, some of the most i guess well known,
more well recognized vehicles. And they were just outright performance cars.
And of course you know the sting ray name hung
on for a while and went away and came back,

(07:13):
and UM, it's just I think that, you know, for
them to bring it out again for says a lot
about the vehicle that they've made. And they've they put
a lot of pride into this vehicle. I mean this
this vehicle. If you watch any of the General Motors
UM or Chevrolet I guess UM materials about this online.
They've got the whole website dedicated just to Corvette, and

(07:37):
they've got short videos and they've got a whole you
know page that's kind of drumming up excitement for it
before it arrives at the show rooms because it's not
out right now. UM. A lot of this that you'll
see is that they use a lot of phrases about
honoring the craft and you know, this is the enemy
of the same, and they've got a lot of catch
phrases like you know, beauty and purpose and a beautiful
weapon and you know, phrases like that along the way

(07:58):
that UM really show you that, you know that they're
really taking every single bit of this seriously. And and
before I even forget this, I've gotta say one one
quick thing. One of the one of the quotes from
one of the engineers in this car and this, uh,
this video about making the car. I was saying that
every single gram of weight that goes into this Corvette

(08:18):
has to earn its way under the car. And I
thought that was a fantastic quote. It's like, you know,
there's nothing that we we take for granted. Everything has
to be scrutinized. Is it necessary? And if it is,
how can we make that part the lightest, the strongest,
the best that we can. And that's every tiny little
detail that's that's exterior, interior, powertrain, chassis, whatever it happens

(08:40):
to be. Everything has been scrutinized in this car. So
it's a. It's a it's extremely well put together. And
uh and not that the ones prior hadn't been. It's
just that this is that much better. It's a. It's
an it's an enormous step up. Now. I think at
this point, if you're okay with it, we should talk
about some of the stats. Yeah, yeah, let's do that. Okay,
So let's start with the weight, because I agree that

(09:02):
is a fantastic quote by the engineer. The frame is new,
it is aluminum, it is a hundred pounds lighter than
the previous iteration. That's amazing. That's that's a huge weight savings. Yeah,
and it's fifty seven percent stiffer than the steel frame
under the Grand Sport models. Always good. Uh So this
also has a magnetic based stamping system a limited slip differential,

(09:26):
so this actually will handle a little bit better too,
in addition to being lighter. I'm going to talk about
handling in a in a short while, I promise, because
there's a lot to that. There's there's several modes you
can slack and yeah yeah, um and then oh you're right, Okay, Sorry,
I got excited for a second and let me get
back to no, no, no basics. Um. So that gives
it four fifty five horsepower, four hundred and sixty pound

(09:50):
feet of torque. And this also has well thing called
cylinder deactivation. Yeah yeah, which a lot of people may
not like really, but there's a there's couple of different
things like that, and man, I do want to get
into that as we go through, because there's a few
things like that, like, um, you know what, I'll just
say that now. They have there's also variable valve timing
and direct injection which is something brand new for this

(10:12):
engine as well. They've never done that on Corvette, on
any of those three things, that never happened on a Corvette.
So that's a big deal for GM or for for Chevrolet, really, right,
And I can see how some people not might not
be a fan of some of this stuff, especially traditionalist,
because the cylinder deactivation cuts fuel to for the cylinders
under a light load. But that's something that happens when

(10:34):
you're at highway speeds, you know, if you're cruising. And
there have been some engines in the past that have, uh,
they've tried this, There's been something that are successful, there
has been something that that are horrible failures, and um
you know, I know that they've got their act together
for this one, and you know, the successes have come
much later than the failures which were early on um can.
I just quickly my my grandfather, you know how I've

(10:57):
mentioned him a few times many times on this podcast.
He drove those giant Cadillacs, right, huge Cadillacs, right, and
he had one in specific, and I laugh every time
I hear about cylinder de activation because he had a
Cadillac that had um an engine that they called eight
six four engine, and it's exactly what this is. It
would it would reduce the cylinder activation down to six

(11:19):
when you didn't need eight, and down to four when
you didn't need eight again, so you know, it would
it would go. It would step down from eight cylinders
to six cylinders to four cylinders. And that thing gave
him horrible trouble. And it was it was a nightmare engine.
And and it's known that it was a bad I
mean it was. It was really gave a lot of
people a lot of trouble. But if I were to
even if I were to go to him now, because

(11:40):
he's still around, if I were to go to him
now and even mentioned that car with that eight six
four engine, he would probably grab his head and you know,
shake it because I mean, it was such a headache
for him. But anyways, anytime I hear a cylinder deactivation,
I think of that, But then I think of like
the positive examples too. I think there was a HEMI
engine from Slur from Dodge that um that had cylinder

(12:03):
de activation that was tremendously successful. It was that very
well done and and it worked out great. I mean,
and I can see that, you know, I know by
what I've heard and what I've read and what I've
looked at, you know, in the last week and a half,
two weeks about this corvette that you know, they've got
it together for this de activation. So I want to
quell any any concerns. I guess that you know that

(12:23):
there's gonna be trouble with this one. Yes, and as
much as I can anyways, Yeah, it's fair that you
say that because you know, as people can probably tell
from the context of this conversation, the overall purpose of
having cylinder deactivation at all is to increase efficiency, correct, Right,
So we've got the steam Ray getting twenty nine miles

(12:45):
for gallon on the highway, um and previously that was
twenty six miles for gallon. Other Yeah, and you know what,
this is also going to help out with GM's cafe
standards that they have to meet that, you know, the
fleet standards that they have to they're required to make,
you know, I certain miles per gallon average and we
have to do with Cafe Racers podcast. Okay, well, yeah,
you know what that that's good Cafe Racers, cafe standards, cafe,

(13:08):
it's we need to go to a cafe and then
we should pour. Why not, so all cafe all day. Okay,
so back to back to the stats. Uh, this is
something that I know you really wanted to talk about.
The drive modes. Yeah you know what, UM, you know,
let me let me jump ahead. Well maybe not not
totally because UM, there's other things that I want to

(13:30):
get back to. But I'm gonna I'm gonna jump back
and forth. Then, So let's talk about these these drive
modes because this is a big deal. Um. It's a
it's a driver selected function, and there's there's really, um,
twelve different attributes that are affected by this this driver
mode select. Um. There's the there's this magnetic selective ride control. Uh,

(13:52):
the exhaust sound is affected, the trans shift pattern, the
electronic throw all control, all these different things. But the
modes themselves, these different modes that the driver is allowed
to select. Um. They go from um, most conservative to
most aggressive, all of them. Um. There's the weather mode,
there's the eco mode, tour mode, sport mode, and then

(14:12):
track mode, and they're just exactly what they sound like.
If you're in even poor weather conditions, UM, you want
to select weather and you want to you want to
go for best miles per gallon. You want to put
it in the eco mode if you're just kind of
driving around town, general driving, I guess you'd call it
UM eco mode, Touring mode maybe long distances, you know,
like you're on the highway and you're just I don't know,
Touring mode is something different. I don't really know that.

(14:34):
UM Sport of course, that's a little more spirited driving.
And then track you know, that's obviously that's gonna be
the most aggressive setting. UM and everything, I mean, the suspension,
the chassis settings change and not only that, the entire
cluster switches when you select these different modes. So you know,
there's this display in front of you, and it's not

(14:55):
the same for all five modes. So when you select
Eco mode versus let's say Sport mode, you're going to
see a completely different cluster in front of you, which
is an incredible thing. It's really neat and it's a different. Yeah,
it really does. It becomes a different, different driver cockpit.
I think touring is like the default. Okay, that's I
think that's why it's so vague. Okay, you know, I

(15:18):
I would see I can understand that touring is just default.
Is like that. That's when you get in and you
turn the key, and that's what it's automatically in the
first cluster. You'll fair enough, fair enough, okay, So sorry
I didn't know the details. You talked about the frame
and everything the um there's also carbon fiber hood and
roof on this Oh yeah, how did I forget that?

(15:38):
We've recently talked about carbon fiber with the wheels, right,
but not in not in Corvette, but carbon fiber wheels
on another podcast, and um, this one, this, this new
Corvette has a carbon fiber hood and roof which is standard.
It's not even an option, it's standard. And I think
you can get a transparent one which is glass. Um,
so you know you can, you can opt out of that.

(15:58):
But the standard roof is a carbon fiber and standard
hood as well. Of course, it takes weight off the
front of the vehicle and off of the highest and
largest panels, which also helps to lower the center of gravity,
which is big in a car like this. Um. You
mentioned the engine already and we talked about all the
uh the different you know, advancements. I guess with that,
you know, you know what we should talk about. What's

(16:19):
that we need to talk about the acceleration and the speed,
because that's what so many people are listening for. But
before we do, what do you think about taking a
quick ad break? Why not? All right, and we are back,
Mr Benjamin, would you do the honors with the acceleration. Ah,

(16:43):
they have promised all along that the acceleration in this
car would be from zero to sixty and under four seconds.
Under four seconds. Now, that's that. That's pretty darn impressive.
And when you hear the price of this car, you
may not believe it because that kind of ties into
this to me. I I don't know why why these
two are linked to personally, but the coup itself, the

(17:05):
coup we'll sell for something like fifty one dollars. That's
a that's an M s r P estimate right now.
At this point, they're not sure exactly that that's going
to be it, but that's what it's estimated at. That's
shipping and everything. I would say that ends up being maybe,
you know, we'll see how you're you're you're anticipating a bump.
I see, um, and the convertible is going to be

(17:25):
about fifty six thousand. Now, the reason I tie pricing
with that with with this zero to sixty time. And
I don't know why I do that. I mean because
there are a lot of smaller cars. There are twenty
five thou dollars that will do something similar, you know,
like maybe a Subaru w r X or something like that.
There's correct, Yeah, because you're talking about a Corvette. I mean,
this is a this is a big car. Because this

(17:47):
car has been built to be longer, lower wider than
the previous generation Corvette, which says a whole lot really right,
because this is in the latest in a line of
cars that we're always aiming for longer, lower wide. That's right.
And you know who that was from, right, That was
Harley Earl way way back in the day that said,
you know, I want these cars longer, lower wider, and

(18:07):
they they you know, Detroit pretty much adhered to that,
where General Motors adhere to that, and it wasn't really
all the Detroit did, but and then they got away
from it with the fuel shortest thing. But um, this
one for it to be longer, lower wider than the
current Corvette. I mean, you've seen current Corvettes on the road.
They're already plenty long, plenty lower, plenty wide, right, I

(18:28):
mean this is gonna be I think, an impressive road
going car. It's gonna look good on the road. And
it's it's slightly it's slightly more than the in the
current vehicle. Now it's yeah, that's it. That's That's the
big thing is that you know, this is a completely
redesigned car built to UM. I mean, I'm gonna say
like it's a it's more of an international car and
that you know, it's it's uh, it's not quite supercar,

(18:52):
but it's getting it's bordering on exotic. Um. It's really
it's it's I don't know, it's um. It could be
a show piece for somebody. Other people could just be
another car. I guess you know what they call it, right,
what's an attainable dream car? Yeah, I guess. So it's there.
It's kind of their flagship car, right, I mean it
is it is their flagship car and they're selling it

(19:12):
for which is really you said fourteen hundred more than
the current coup which is pretty impressive because you know,
the horsepower is going up, the Torqus going up all
new design. Um. You know, you can get a different
performance exhaust with this thing. That you know, opposite even
more the horsepower even more, like another five horse power.
I think they completely designed the interior, redesigned the interior. Yeah,

(19:34):
the interior is is really and I know it sounded
like I'm gushing about this thing. I don't mean to,
because I haven't even seene in person, but it's really
I'll say it's beautiful. It's a beautiful interior. Scott. Can
you give us a little bit of context on this,
because everywhere I looked, there's, uh, there's a long standing
gripe from Corvette loyalists that says the interior US could

(19:57):
use some work. Yeah, they've I mean, I guess, as
with any car line, you know that the design, I
guess gets a little bit stayed a little bit stale
um and I think that was what was going on.
They were saying that, you know, maybe the materials themselves,
we were on the cheap side. And I don't mean
that to be, you know, to despairing towards words GM

(20:17):
or Chevrolet in any way. It just happens, and that's
what happened. Remember we talked about the the Viper in
the same way and which is now the SRT. Uh. Well,
I think it's Viper s RT, but it's not Dodge
anymore or whatever. But that was the main complaint with
that is that, you know, the interior was really uh
not it was it was showing its age. And Lincoln

(20:38):
was the same way. Remember we talked about that with
the Lincoln. It was showing its age. So you know,
they've got update and that's exactly what the Corvette designers
have done. Now. They they've used just premium materials and
it's all you know, well stitched together. I mean everything
is uh, you know, leather covered and it's got this
really nice feel to it. Even the frame. They took
the steel out of the seat frames and replaced with magnesium.

(20:59):
It's magnesium seat frames which are really cool. And you
can get two different types. You can get a GT
seat and then there's another one. Right, there's a competition
sports seat which is more for the the like a
track driving. I guess the GT seat is like, um,
kind of the U. I guess the general seat is
a little daily driver. Yeah, it's a little more cushy,
but still it's a performance seat. Um. The competition seat

(21:21):
is of course for track driving. It's a little less forgiving. Um,
maybe a little extra support for lateral acceleration things like that.
But again, same magnesium frame. Uh, they use really high end,
very refined and very authentic materials is how they put it.
Authentic materials. So so what they mean is if it
looks like leather, it is leather. If it looks like

(21:41):
carbon fiber, it is carbon fiber. It's not, you know,
some cheap overlay or wrap. And the material and like
the materials and the metals and the fabrics and everything,
they all are are pleasing to the touch. How about that.
That's probably the best way to say it. You know,
it's it's a comfortable car to be in. It's a
comfortable car to look at. Um, you know, because it's
it's a very I guess it's a nice design. Really,

(22:03):
That's probably what I'm getting at. And also they're they're
still doing the following rather the trend that we see
in a lot of premium vehicles nowadays, which is the
electronic aspects, the computerized aspects are stepping forward at an
unprecedented rate. I mean, the difference between and in this

(22:26):
in this dimension is startling. Because Theoteen steam ray has
sixty nine different readings showing up on that cluster. Isn't
that a lot that? Okay, is this a plane? It
does seem like a lot. And when you look at
the interior, it's a very impressive interior. I was just
showing that to our producer knoll And and saying, you know,
doesn't this look like you're driving or you're not driving,

(22:48):
you're flying a jet. I mean, it looks like a
cockpit fighter cockpit, really, I mean. And the cool thing
is that it's all and I know a lot of
cars have done this now, but it's all bent and
angled towards the driver and the passenger. Really there's just
the glove box over there, and maybe event you know,
that's about it. I mean, you're you're merely the passenger
in this in this vehicle. Clearly this car is all

(23:10):
about the driver, and you can tell that just by
looking at the the overall dash few you know what's
available to the driver, what's available to the passenger, which
is really nothing. Um but it's it's such an impressive
layout and design, and they say that it becomes um
very automatic, very it's very um ergonomic. I guess in
the way that that things are laid out, in the

(23:32):
way that you know, when you switch between different modes,
it's not as challenging as you think to really kind
of get your bearings as to what what's what um
you're able to You're able to quickly pick up on
you know, Okay, this is where I need to need
to look for this instrument or this this instrument, and
you know, as far as reaching for things, everything is
where it should be. So it's a it's a comfortable feel.

(23:53):
Even though there's a lot and it sounds complex, it's intuitive.
That's maybe the best way to put it in. So
I it too before we go any further. Now, you
you pointed out earlier Scott that you feel as though
you might be gushing a little bit. Yeah, but we're
gonna we're gonna say that we're gonna knit that in
the bud because before we started recording, when we were
off air, you said that there was something outrageous. That's right,

(24:18):
and you know what. I will get to that in
just a moment, but you know what we need to
do first. What's that? Probably should take a quick break
for another add Oh good idea. Okay, so we're back
and you know, I I know I said you know
that that there's something that's that's an outrage, I guess,
but maybe that's overstating a little bit. But there's something

(24:41):
I think a lot of the purists are going to
really really dislike about something that's coming. It's not on
the it's not one So the one that will initially
see at the dealers is not going to have this feature.
They're talking about future Corvette sting Rays. So maybe in
on the road they're talking about equipping them with start

(25:01):
stop technology. Why, Okay, this is now the odd the
really odd thing about this is now, I know that
it's about fuel saving, and you know, I mean everything
understood that. I understand that the they're saying that future
Corvettes may be equipped with a start stop technology. Uh,
they've they've opted against it because it would hurt the

(25:26):
car's high performance image initially, right, right, totally understand that.
I get. I get that, and I feel the exact
same way. I think it's a good idea to not
ever do it. I think so too. And you know,
they're saying that GM may be forced in the future
to make this a standard feature because of fuel economy requirements,
and so that's what's that's what's the driving force behind

(25:47):
this whole thing. Otherwise there would be no reason for
them to do that in this car. Now. You know
what's what's funny about this? And when you really really
think about it, you know, it just doesn't it just
doesn't quite fit with this type of vehicle, right, it
doesn't fit at all. But they did say they're trying
to make it more powerful and more fuel efficients. But
imagine this. You're in a Corvette Stingray. You got that

(26:08):
six point two leader engine that has what do we say,
four hundred and fifty four or fifty five horsepower. It's
probably growling pretty good, you know, it's got a good
sound to it. You pull up to a stoplight instead quiet,
then you go to take off in that stoplight, and
then it picks back up again. It's going to It
just seems it does not seem like that's the type
of application for this this uh this technology, is that right?

(26:31):
I mean, yeah, I'm with you, man, I mean, try
it out. Sure, by all means, make some prototypes and see.
But I think that quite a few Corvette drivers, especially
people who are familiar with Corvettes, and quite a few
of them are not going to like that. Oh. I
absolutely think a lot of them. I think, I think
there's gonna be a near one number that aren't going
to approve that that technology. So, um man, I don't

(26:53):
know what to do about that, but that's going that's happening,
you know, probably in the future, not on theen but
I did want to get it out there that that's
what's happening. And you mentioned a lot of a lot
of electronics, a lot of you know, different different things
that are happening. Right we haven't really talked about the
magnetic dampening and the and the suspension or anything like that.
Um but I do want to say that, you know,

(27:13):
there's a there's a base version, and there's a Z
fifty one Performance package that people can get, and I guess,
I guess these suspensions in this thing are what some
of these reviewers have already driven them called vastly different.
They say that it's it's a completely different animal, like
when you drive the base version versus the Z fifty
one Performance package. Um it's like driving a completely different

(27:35):
car on the track. Now they've they've had it set
up for these reviewers in a like an autocross situation,
a parking lot with with cones and you know who
can get around the cones past, just so you know
they're able to experience it firsthand directly, like that, this
is what this feels like, and then hop in the
seat of this one and see what that feels like.
And the Z fifty one just performs so much better,

(27:55):
UM in that type of situation it was. You know,
of course it's more of a sport or rack performance
oriented vehicle than than the base version, but UM and
Z fifty one package is an additional bucks so you know,
that's not a whole lot of extra money when you're
talking about something that's already costing you comparatively. Yeah, jump

(28:16):
it up to you know, fifty fifty three eight or
eight UM, not a not a big jump comparatively, you're right,
But it does give you larger wheels, UM high performance tires.
Of course, there's a completely unique chassis tuning and suspension
that's available with this, and of course you know that's
a little bit rougher on the streets. They always feel
like they need to to need to mention that. And

(28:37):
of course then there's the magnetic ride control suspension on
the Z fifty one, which UM, that's that's the big deal.
That the magnetic ride control, and we'll go into that
some other time. That's its own topic. Um Man. Some
of these other advancements you mentioned electronics, um there's UH.
They're using what is uh, I would say, the my

(28:58):
Link infotainment system thing. It's getting generally positive reviews. People
like it. Now for for me, you know, I'm a
little bit old school with this stuff. I hate to
sound like a cantankerous old man. I don't know if
I'm old enough to do that yet. But honestly, Scott,

(29:18):
is it a good idea for people to have Internet
browsers and stuff in their car? I mean, I know
that my Link is built with safety in mind, but
I am so suspicious anytime I see an entertainment says
I don't think people check TVs in their car. They're
gonna say it, and they will constantly tell you that
you know, it's not designed to be used while driving,
and you know it's not designed for this and that,
but you know the people are gonna be using it

(29:39):
while driving, right, And I mean I get it if
you have uh, like a Dodge caravan or something, you're
on road trip with the kids and to have a
TV in there for the kids to watch, or for
people who aren't drying, anyone except the driver. Yeah, I
just feel I feel like there's already a lot going
on when you're driving a car, and music is cool.
But I I'm sorry, let me get off the soapbox

(30:01):
before I send it completely and just say that, Yeah,
the the electronics are are complex. My only gripe is
you know, a gripe that I have with every every
car that's coming out with um an onboard uh intuitive
you know, touchscreen entertainment system. Like, I just think it's
too easy to not focus on driving. It's just a

(30:22):
little too much, is what you're saying. Yeah, it's a
little too much. But you know what, man, I am
somebody trying to empty the ocean with a bucket in
that respect, because the tide has already turned, and the
next car anyone buys five years from now is going
to have something like you know what, I totally understand
what you're saying. I mean, it's just it's a little
bit too much of a distraction. I I personally couldn't

(30:42):
do it. I know other other people out there that
can do it. I can't even I I mean, I
couldn't even manage dialing a phone or something in my car.
I just I don't even attempt it. I strictly mess
with the radio. I don't mess with it one bit.
I'm strictly eyes on the road driving. That said, I
have this picture of you hopping into your car. It's
a familiar radio station, but you don't find out about

(31:03):
it until you're accelerating. So you go, oh, I guess
it's just music. Now I'm stuck with that. Yeah, that's
gonna be a Zietico for me. That's it. So all right, So, um,
we talked about electronics. I guess there's a few things,
you know. I want to get back to electronics in
just a second. But you know, we we mentioned all
these different handling characteristics. There's active handling, stability control, there's

(31:25):
performance traction management. Um. But again, they've made it so
that you know that this is a driver's car, don't
don't get me wrong. There that they can turn all
that off if they want. And I know that there's
some type of you know, there's residual bits of this
left in there, and you know that it's still active.
But for the most part, you're able to turn this
stuff off if you don't want to use it. So
you know, even though they're dumping in all these different

(31:45):
electronic controls, you know that that are safe and electronic
stability control and um, you know, performance traction management and
all this stuff. You can get rid of it. You can,
you can, or at least you can mute it. Yeah, yeah,
you can. You can think that it's totally gone if
you want to. And I know that their track modes
and things like that for the car into Um also
aero dynamics. Man, we haven't even talked about air dynamics.

(32:06):
There's so much aero dynamics alright. So, um, you know,
there's a functional hood outlet in the front. And the
interesting thing about this is that the radiator air that
goes through the lower front grill exits right through the
hood almost it goes up over the glass then and
this is kind of a this is a race car
solution to this problem. It's not it's not what happens

(32:28):
with most automobiles. Most automobiles that the the hot air
from under the hood exits below the vehicle and it
or flows through most vehicles, or it intakes through the
hood and then flows out underneath. Uh. This this is
very much like a race car, and where that it
enters through the front, exits through the hood, and goes
over the vehicle. Um, completely different than than most cars

(32:50):
out there on the road. Now, what, let's take a
second here, because let's realize General Motors is trying to
do more than one thing. This vehicle, I mean, first off,
buying if I won't know until I drive it, or
I'll believe you if you drive it and you tell
me this, it sounds like they're they're pitching these different modes.
Is almost completely different vehicles, right, So averaging out that's

(33:14):
a little over ten grand vehicle, Well, not that unreasonable
at all. That's really not that unreason. You're you're really
saving money. To think about it, it's like five vehicles
and one ben Yeah, that's how That's how I'm gonna
pick you know what. You know what else won't be
a big cell. But um, this has a seven speed
manual transmission. You can get an you can get an
automatic transmission, which is a well I don't know there's

(33:37):
reasons for it, but I'm also a fan of the manual.
But let me tell you about well. First, the six
speed is a paddle shift of course, as you would expect.
That's the automatic now, so you can paddle shift the automatic,
which is still pretty cool. The manual transmission, which is
you know, the normal stick you know, with the clutch
and everything that you would normally find with a manual transmission,
it has something called active rev matching. And this is

(34:00):
something that's unique. It's ay, um, this is really cool,
and I'll describe how the engineers described it. As soon
as you start to move the shifter towards another gear,
the vehicle recognizes that and it and it blips the
throttle so that you get the engine at the exact
right speed in order to match match the revs exactly
where it should be for that gear. And it will
determine whether you're trying to go, you're trying to upshift

(34:22):
or down shift, and it will adjust the the engine
speed accordingly. So you're gonna have these seamless shifts. Even
though you may not be an expert shifter. You know,
you may not be someone who's very very well versed
at that, but this is gonna make you This car
is gonna really smooth that you're driving. It's gonna make
for transparent down shifts. Um. It's just something that that

(34:43):
I know. It's gonna make you shift like a professional driver. Really,
I mean, if you think about it, I mean, it's
going to really really help you out quite a bit.
And I don't know if active rev matching is something
you can turn off or not. I haven't dug deep
enough into that because some people may not like that,
but um, I don't know why you wouldn't. If you're
a good shifter, now it's is gonna make you even better.
If you're not a great shifter, it's gonna make you. Okay,

(35:04):
that's a very positive thing to say. I only have
like one one or two more things. Yeah, I'm pretty
much I'm pretty much on the end of this one.
I I do feel I feel like I've been doing
this commercial for the Corvette. But that's not the case.
It's just we're going by General Motors and and um
Chevrolet's information that they've put out so far, and we're

(35:25):
we're based on you know, what reviewers have said, and
of course they're all very positive. Yeah. I haven't really
heard anything about it. Yeah, this isn't a stinker. I
I haven't. I actually have also not heard anything bad.
The the stuff that I have heard as criticism on
forms or whatever is pretty much just referring to some
of the same things we've mentioned that purists wouldn't like

(35:45):
the deactivation of the cylinders and that kind of stuff. Okay,
some of the variety, the variable valve times maybe, yes, exactly,
And I can imagine what they're gonna think about start stop.
I think we already know what everybody thinks about start stop.
I mean, GM probably doesn't like having to have start
stopping there, I would not think. So that's something that
they've well, they protested it, so we'll see how long

(36:07):
they can hold out. So UM one last note to
end on then, uh, the direct competitor for Corvette as
gmces it is the portion nine eleven. So they they've
got some sales numbers that they're they're looking at. And
this ties into what I think should be one of

(36:27):
the bookends for our podcast here. Now we started off
I think early on and here one of us had
the quotation about how it was supposed to please the
people who are brand loyal, but it's supposed to be
aimed at a new crowd. To UM, that is really
one of the end games of I mean, that's why
it's so different. That's why it's called a sting gray.

(36:49):
That's why it has all these new not just bells
and whistles, but new and significant improvements to its performance. Uh.
It's supposed to hopefully, especially the new design, draw younger
buyers into this or people who would not normally buy
a Corvette, and without going to a tremendous price increase.
Because you know, I'm looking at the list, I mean

(37:11):
from going from six right now for the base coupe
all the way up to the you know, the z
R one, which sells for a hundred and twelve thousand. Um,
They've got that. They couldn't make such a big jump,
you know, they had to. They had to do something
that was in the in the price range for that
younger buyer, right Yeah, And they're trying to get that.
They're trying to get a younger crowd in Europe because

(37:32):
you know, the Corvette historically has not been the biggest
success in Europe. So we're gonna see where this goes.
I don't think this is a gamble. I do think
there's a smart move, and I do think there's some compromises. Um,
I don't know, man, I you know, I this is
a car that I would definitely I would definitely consider

(37:54):
buying it. Almost said I'd definitely buy it, but I
feel like you always have to take a test drive first.
I don't know, Man, Corvette, Corvet's Corvette. I love Corvettes.
I always have and you know, I've had a few
friends that have had them. My brother has one right now.
Father had a Corvette. Yeah, so it's like now, my
grandfather didn't have a Corvette. He had had some other
fantastic cars, but never a Corvette that I know of. So, um,

(38:16):
they've been around the family, you know, got here and there.
So man, I don't know, I'm kind of the same way.
I'm still fifty fifty on that design though, I mean
I mentioned that early on. Yeah that's true, but you know,
you're not the kind of guy who likes people fixing
stuff that's not broken. That's true. Yeah, But we would
like to hear what you guys think about that winning

(38:37):
fourteen Corvette and uh, you know, go ahead and throw
in some ideas that you would recommend to GM if
you spoke with them directly. You can drop us line
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you can send us an email directly. We are car
stuff at Discovery dot com. For more on this and

(39:00):
thousands of other topics, this is how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think. Send an email to
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