2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51 - Road Test - CAR and DRIVER

[Music] [Applause] let me count our blessings this is my lucky day because it's the first chance I have to drive the new Corvette extensively on public roads this is your lucky day because you get to come along for the ride so let's not a lot this is actually our first public road drive in the new Corvette I'm in a z51 stick-shift pre-production car so let's fire it up and see what it sounds like so one of the new features is a five position driver mode select on the center console the five modes are weather or inclement weather Eco for maximum efficiency and when you're on a trip tour for normal driving that's the default mode sport which everyone of course will use and track or when you're on a race track or you want to go for broke I'm going to change it to eco so in our first drive we can see if the engine will shut down to four cylinders for maximum efficiency possibility of 4-cylinder operation smarts I'm sure that just went too for summers we're at 42 miles an hour very light throttle fourth gear let's try fifth gear okay this is about 1,500 rpm nearly 50 miles an hour all right let's try seventh that's a super tall ratio almost no throttle required we're at 60 miles an hour 1,250 rpm nice and smooth I feel sort of a subtle rumble which I suspect is on the p4 if you're going on a trip you could we run like this all day no problem the new structure really improves ride handling quietness it helps allow engineers to - the dampers lock don't ride if it helps quietness in the interior there's no feeling any creaking or anything the steering isn't jumping around in your hands over these bumps I wouldn't drive like this except for experimentation but uh I suspect a lot of customers will we tried eco very interesting it certainly works it's quite palatable smooth now we're gonna go to sport which is not the default mode that's tour but it's one notch up from tour and I think that's where a lot of people will drive so you just turn this we're not gonna get any code now there's no four-cylinder in this mode so here we go as you can hear a little throat ear note to the exhaust [Music] not using all the revs my job I am using ground matching which makes that slop shifts very low effort very easy the dampers have shifted to a more aggressive tighter setting so you feel more bumps but the structures doing a great job I wouldn't call it plush nicer feeling sports cars like that you can hear tread noise these are very thin body Devils there's not a lot of sound deadening or damping for weak reasons over hook bridge excellent control practically no body vertically dampers are working very nicely shift from fourth to seventh just to show you how the noise drops we're still in sport but very low RPM with eight cylinders cruising efficiency no real engine noise plenty of body motion control meal control almost no body roll is evident I don't get a lot of feedback and Road through the steering but quickness and the ratio is excellent linearity is good and the effort built is exactly where I would put it I think they did an excellent job with this electrically assisted dollars [Applause] we've got a straight section here so we'll try out we'll run down the hill [Music] let's quick love the engine sound mix 460 horsepower peaking at 6000 rpm and order 65 pound feet or rpm about fifty pounds but overall it's about a six percent gain i'm tirpat able to not only direct fuel-injection for the first time ever but variable valve timing a whole new combustion system which means a very carefully engineered combustion chamber top and piston the ports are all read on there's almost nothing carried over an lt1 except the basic architecture the fact that it has cylinders in a VM and pushrod maltreat but everything else will do anybody who writes about pushrod saw they're running out of ammunition now this is mini Porsches that could run with this certainly none that have a base price of 52 thousand dollars okay we're not on a race track but just for study purposes I shifted it to track mode you could engage different traction control systems different modes there so we'll shift that to race and just see what it sounds like it feels like notice the exhaust this is the loudest lowest restriction I saw smoke there is [Music] [Applause] [Music] I think the real beauty in the stride ahead is a collaboration that exists in c7 electronic limited slip differential especially now it can vary according to tire temperature the settings for the mode selector and a bunch of other variables too to give you the maximum to give you all there is to get to use all the adhesion help you and protect you on the racetrack GM did a lot of testing and Tom the irr lightning lack location when I did run it on the track and talked Milford Road forcing GM proving ground so I found it very forgiving drive right up to the very high limits and bring it back there's nothing there this is clearly the most sophisticated Corvette ever I was highly developed Engineers use the term integration what that means is this system talk to that system they're on the same wavelength they help each other and they work together to make the car more easily drivable more easily enjoyable safer quicker no other Corvettes had that in the past to this level naturally started [Music] now that we've done some test driving we're looking ahead to the next step with the c7 Corvette that would be a comparison test of course with production cars that will happen soon but in the meantime I think customers and owners and Corvette fans have something they're truly going to admire I've test driven a lot of Corvettes in my time I participated in four out of the last seven product launches I raced a c4 I owned a c2 but all things considered this is the best Corvette yet thanks for coming along on the ride you

Channel: Car and Driver

Views: 750,527

Keywords: Sting Ray, Z51, C7 drive, Corvette Stingray (Automobile Model), Corvette C7, Car And Driver (Magazine), American Cars, corvette, CD feature, C7, driving, First Test, Don Sherman, C7 Vette, Chevy, roadtest, New Corvette, Chevrolet (Brand), Stingray, Review, vette, Z 51, Instrumented Test, best of cd, Chevrolet Corvette (Automobile Model), Road Test, 2014 vette, Corvette review, 2014 corvette

Id: O1nlfMTL154

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 25 2013