The automotive media will probably never stop comparing the Chevrolet Corvette and Porsche 911. The two sports cars couldn’t be more different, but at the same time they share multiple similarities. They are both relatively affordable compared to other high performance cars on the market, they are considered legendary nameplates among car enthusiasts, and both are extremely successful on the race track.
Unlike the Porsche 911 however, the Corvette always made the most sense here in North America. It’s a big, wide American gas guzzler that is no longer the affordable performance car it is in North America once it makes the jump across the pond to Europe, where the asking price for one is often substantially higher.
The latest ‘Vette is a bit different than the others, though. It will be sold all over Europe, and is being lauded as one of the best performance cars to ever emerge from the land of the free. Top Gear magazine recently acquired one to find out just how it fairs on the twisty, rain-covered British A-roads against the proven 991-generation 911. We know the Stingray can handle the 911 on the track, but how does it fair on public European roads? Check out TG’s full review right here to find out.
Comments
The Corvette is a gas guzzler? It gets 30 MPG! How is that a gas guzzler? It seats 2 people and weighs 3200 pounds. How is that BIG?
I just meant to a lot of Europeans it may be one. Having a V8 isn’t necessary for most people there. There is no doubt the C7 is efficient.
Considering EVERY car that would possibly complete with the Corvette in Europe is actually a gas guzzler by comparison, pointing out a bad fuel economy perception makes even less sense.
Maybe Japan could lay claim to “fuel efficient” sports cars ( a very very long time ago) but Europe has never been known for miserly performance cars.
I know it’s too late to engineer it for the C7, but the C8 will need to be offered with RHD.
RHD cars, as a percentage of all cars sold, are a minority. But I can’t stand the Corvette touting itself as a ‘world car’, yet GM keeps forgetting that one important feature of the motoring public. If the Corvette is offering such a brilliant driving experience, it shouldn’t matter which side of the car the driver sits; they’ll still walk away with a huge smile.
The key is that the investment into RHD vs just how many cars you will sell, it if you are only going to sell a few cars in England how much do you really want to invest. Now once they establish themselves in the rest of Europe and then they can consider moving to the Right.
I really think the key will be moving to Australia and selling there as the numbers there would better cover the investment.
What I do like in this story is how they say the Corvette used to be a good sports car for the money. But now it is just a great sports car no matter the price. It has finally been accepted by those who have not always respected.
The key for this car is mostly going to be Germany, The upper part of Europe, Spain, Italy and France as they have space to really use this car. England you really have to get north to take much advantage of this car anymore.
I deal with many customers for performance parts and the American cars are so very popular to the north.
Heck a Swede just won his first race in pro stock in the NHRA last week. In Europe he races a Camaro too.
Also the biggest market for the Corvette is the Middle East. They sell very well over there.
Seriously? You really believe that England is the only right hand drive market? I shouldn’t be surprised that you have this point of view. For what it’s worth, let me educate you. In Europe, apart from England, you forget Ireland, Malta and Cyprus. In Africa there are several including South Africa. There is India (perhaps the largest RHD market), Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore (whose natives are notorious for their love of and their ability to buy brand new, well-appointed cars), and Malaysia in Asia. Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Japan round out the far east. With the exception of Belize, the entire English-speaking Caribbean also drives RHD cars. All totalled, 1/3 of the world drives on the left. That’s nothing to sneeze at.
Thank you Richard.
RHD may be only a 1/3 of the driving world, but GM has no excuse to ignore them by making the Corvette more difficult to live with.
Richard you only have two real markets RHD in England and Australia.
Lets get real here how many C7 Corvettes do you think they will sell in Malta and Cyprus?
The economy is so poor in Ireland they can not afford many $80K and up cars. India has always been a high demand area for Corvettes?
Asia is a mixed bag of small countries that would all add up to so few sales.
The fact is Richard the 1/3 of the world you names would buy only a 100-300 cars at best outside of Australia and England.
Companies like Ferrari can get away with building a RHD car as they charge so much for them they can cover the cost. With the Corvette pricing and costs are held tight and they can not just go making cars like this on just a whim that they may sell a couple hundred that would never make back the cost.
At some point I see them designing the car to accept RHD and LHD sharing more parts but the fact is the C7 was not designed to do so at this point since they really had no major plans to sell the extra few hundred cars.
Now when they make the move to ship them to Australia It would help them recoup the cost as the volume then may be closer to what they need to pay the bills on the options.
Richard as normal here you on take in the fact you want to use and not all the factors GM faces in building the real car. If only It was as easy as your internet CEO ways try to make it out.
To do a Corvette in RHD would take about 2,000 cars to break even and 3,000 to make money at this price point.
The pricing of the Corvette is a blessing and a curse. Doing a great car like this cheaper limits some of what you can do with the car. Now if you charged $250K for each one you can pretty well do any damn thing you want but when you have a base price of $52k and loaded price of around $75K this limits what you can do at low volumes.
This is why so many sports cars at lower prices never last more than 10 years. The Miata and Corvette are two that have beaten the system but few others do long term..
I wish the “Fast and Furious” gang would use the new C7 Corvette Stingray in its next movie, and race it against any of the European supercars. Dominic’s Olds did race against Japanese sports cars and won, but it is too old to stay as the hero car. It is time for Dominic to run with the Stingray!!
I know they are using a Mongoose Grand Sport Corvette reproduction. They build 9 of them here and one of them came back and has been seen on the roads here. It is a roadster version in silver.
While the Mongoose looks like an older original 1963 Grand Sport under the body is a modern Corvette suspension and they use all sorts of engines. One guy here has a coupe like the one AJ Foyt an Jim Hall races with a fuel injected 502. We also have a Penske painted roadster running around too.
Outside they look stock but the Hildebrand wheels are generally the same style but in 18 inch knock offs.
The Corvette and 911 are like Michigan vs. Ohio State You are always going to pull for the home team. But right now both teams are finally now on equal terms and even the other side is admitting it has finally gotten to where it needed to be.
I am not a big 911 fan but I have a lot of mile in a Carrera. It has a lot of things I felt were odd about them but the car was easy to drive fast and it made going fast feel slow. That is the better refinement of the tuning of the chassis.
Today the Corvette has gotten all the funding they needed to get it 100% right and not just 95% right. That last 5% is what make the difference.
We will see this extra 5% in all of GM’s car as we already have in the CTS etc. The new platforms will let them finish these cars as they need to be done.
Hey we need all these cars to be good as it only up’s the game for all of them. The Camaro would not be what it is today if it had no Mustang and like wise too.
Competition breeds better cars and GM can finally afford to do it right.
All the people in my country prefer the 911, because he know and love since they are children.
But I always preferred in my life, rebellion, charisma, fun and power of the Corvette.
Many times they tell me, that I don’t have good taste in cars, and I do not know to appreciate the quality and class.
I answer: “you wear expensive clothes and elegant, does not make you a better person than I.”
CORVETTE¡¡¡
Regards from Spain