C8 vs C7 Corvette Comparison - Finally | Everyday Driver TV Season 7

[Music] [Applause] we're finally here it's finally happened the mid-engine corvette isn't just a rumor it isn't just possible spy photos and we think it's coming it is here this is one we're in it [Music] i have counted at least 14 concepts or proofs of concept over the years from gm and they never pulled the trigger until now but what gm has done has finally moved the passenger compartment 16 and a half inches forward and created a true mid-engine corvette it has to be a sports car it has to be a gt car it has to carry golf clubs and it has to be handsome and fast and fun the c8 corvette is the most compromised car ever conceived [Music] the corvette for seven generations was the same basic recipe a v8 out front you're sitting near the back it has a nice long front end it's an american car it's got a muscle car feel so to talk about what's happened when you take this classic american car and you take it from front engine to mid engine we brought along a c7 to figure out what did they do how did it change it and is it better you're watching everyday driver we make a tv show podcast and youtube channels dedicated to great cars driving adventures and helping you find a car you'll love subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss a thing so what we brought is the 2014 which means this is the first year that chevy brought out the c7 corvette it is an automatic transmission and notably this only has a six-speed automatic we of course would prefer the manual but let's be honest the c8 doesn't come at a manual and also think about this the corvette started as an automatic the first year of the first generation corvette was only offered with a two-speed automatic so as weird as it sounds to say historically the corvette and the automatic have always been married the car we've got with us is the 3lt this is as much as you can do without going to a z06 without going to zr1 3lt with the z51 package and they dared walk away from round-ish tail lights to go to this much more aggressive and frankly camaro looking design there was a steady build from the generations prior to this c7 interior which at the time was revolutionary and felt like a car worth its price point for the first time kind of ever i'm a little concerned from a build quality some of the cars we've had the panels weren't quite buttoned down all the way people just wrote it off to being a chevy and that was fine but for the c8 there can no longer be that qualification you remember the c2 the aircraft style doors integrated into the roofliner well aircraft have changed over the years this car is now pointed at f-22 raptors and f-35 fighter jets for its inspiration for that claw on the side and i'm concerned that it doesn't look good with every color but in black this looks great on the road you would not believe the number of people that are turning their heads honking their horns waving out the window we had one man screaming so excited about this car i swear to you we originally thought it was a teenage girl i still don't like the back end it's still far too camaro for me and the reason for that large back end was one of the things it has to do is carry two sets of golf clubs the back end could be so much more svelte and yet it isn't because it has that requirement of those golf clubs this car is a 2lt trim version which means the owner decided to not get any carbon fiber extra bits anywhere and he got the price down to 81 thousand dollars now that does include the gt2 seats which are brilliant look at the instrument panel of course it's digital the screen off to the side here seems a little bit unnecessary it seems sort of strange at first but then it integrates into your driving experience immediately i've been worried about this wall i'm concerned about the separation between passenger and driver i've spent some real time sitting on the passenger side and you know what it's not annoying at all it's just a structure of the car now you're aware of the fact that the driver is more important than you but hasn't that always been the case and the buttons are surprisingly intuitive you sit down you look at the hierarchy of where they put the button then it just makes sense i was concerned about the materials i was concerned about the build quality it's as good as any car you buy it feels tight and solid i have to be very careful how i set up the seats so that i hit the seat and not the roof yesterday i nearly brained myself trying to do an explosive acceleration moment and i put my head back too quick and hit it on the crossbeam you'll also notice the screen here well it's the rearview mirror but it's the screen and it utilizes the periscope and it is the only way to look out the back it's a revelation these mid-engine cars like this guess what they have big old blind spots because they've got an engine behind you chevy has yep terrible blind spots in that mirror unless you just flip the mirror over to camera mode and now it's better visibility than you have in the best visibility car you've ever driven it's been killed by how great that mirror is so the c7 is powered by the lt1 engine in the z51 form which is the only package that you want on your corvette it is the package it makes 455 horsepower in base form it's 450 but it gives you a little you know five more horsepower but the z51 gives you better brakes [Music] it is a modern car definitely but it still retains a lot of the muscle car feel that i really like even when we drove the original base c7 we were struck by the fact that this feels like plenty of power this maintains that long-legged loping v8 feel that corvettes have had for a long time now where you're just you're not stressing it at all it's got power but it doesn't need to use it it's giving you decent miles per gallon because keeping up with traffic is something you can do by barely waking up unfortunately this is what you fear when you think about an automatic sports car this transmission doesn't really listen like you'd like when you pull a paddle it thinks for a second sometimes you catch it out completely and it goes oh wait oh am i supposed to do something then it shifts for you i'm sure that the marriage was happy when it was first formed but the years have not been kind even though it's connected to an automatic transmission you can start to ring some things out of this engine i do like it the problem is it's really sluggish when you try to up shift and downshift can i do it i'm gonna do it yep i'm gonna do it it's got power and it sounds amazing [Music] now this is the lt2 so it is revision of the engine in the c7 but it is still a classic american push rod v8 6.2 liter naturally aspirated 490 horsepower 470 pound-feet of torque which is a nice bump from the c7 however that number doesn't tell the story of the acceleration in this car what's happened is that the grip has increased enough especially in sheer takeoff that the 0-60 hear me now has dropped by a second the c7 was plenty fast at just under 4 seconds 3.9 this car is doing 2.9 [Applause] you need to put 500 miles on your c8 and once you do the instrument panel changes it actually changes your rev limiter because up to this point it's been limited at 4 500 but then once you cross 500 miles it all changes and suddenly maximum torque is available new features buried in track mode are available the car is now ready you need to put miles on this thing the faster you go the better it gets this lt2 makes so much power everywhere and you might be disappointed to know that chevy is not offering a manual transmission with this car and after driving it i can tell you why there is never a time when the car is in neutral when you're switching gears there is a lot of power at all times being put down to the road there we go there's the power oh oh listen to that this car clearly was not designed to ever have a manual even the placement of where that stick would go is right here where the mode dial is this is embracing what's happened with exotic cars across the board where they've just walked away from even offering a manual and just said trust us the dual clutch is better and it is faster and it is intuitive and it does make stop and go traffic easier don't you just want a manual i mean the truth is when you don't have a manual transmission there is a layer of engagement that is lost the problem with the dual clutch is very often they don't like doing the automatic things which is the slow crawl or the stop and go and this can do that but then you can pull a paddle which now thankfully feels wonderful and it rockets away or it jumps to that gear there's no waiting there's no questioning there's no waking it up from a nap it's right now if the c7 is an automatic this is an entirely different [Music] thing [Applause] gm's first dual clutch in this sports car is well done what i love about the c7 is you can feel the weight of history in this car all of the generations that came prior the front engine v8 that came before this is the distillation of the best that can be it's easy to just feel at home in this car the dynamics are a little bit old school but they're comfortable the c7 is that enjoyable activity like that movie you can pull out at any time and just watch it and enjoy it and laugh and cry and feel comforted the c7 drives like that it turns in exceptionally well and what i love is that the faster you go the lighter the front end gets the car actually feels smaller than it is and when a car gets smaller around you and starts to act more nimble than the numbers should suggest that's when it gets really great there is a little bit of body roll the rotation is excellent but you're aware of the fact that the point of rotation is ahead of you the engine in spite of being front mid engine is still up front you're sitting close to the back axle but this is a corvette feel [Music] todd and i love mid-engine cars we love the feel the nose has dropped away and i'm one with road i really am a part of the driving experience more than any corvette ever has been now one of the main reasons that chevy decided to finally go mid-engine is because there really wasn't any more performance available in the prior idea you want to get the weight further back so that it stays over the rear wheels and keeps the car in good traction otherwise you wind up doing what many other manufacturers have done with their exotics and go all-wheel drive gm is all about the center aluminum structure that's what allows the c8 to be an incredible convertible and an incredible coupe because you really don't need a top it's very structurally strong and it needs to be it needs to have the strength to leap ahead in terms of handling and this c8 also is equipped with a z51 package and you have to have that interestingly it has the track pack which deletes the front axle lift system so you can't even get it if you've got the track pack because of the suspension but that's okay because you do have magnetic ride and it's even more amplified in terms of its goodness there are noticeable changes in the way this car rides when you jump through the various modes that's not just a little thing on the dash that changes no the actual character of the car and the ride does change this is the great thing about magnetic ride control is you can turn this car and even prior corvettes into a boulevard cruiser that is just relaxed or you can crank it up and make it angry there is a hallmark and an homage to zora right on your steering wheel it's the z button on your left hand side it is really just a customizable button you push it and the car transforms into what you want and that's what zoro wanted for us zora archus duntov joined the project during the back end of the c1 era about 1955 and he wanted the car to be mid-engine pretty much from day one we finally got there zora sorry you didn't get to see it it's created a lightness and a clarity in the front end that i've never felt in a corvette at 3 600 pounds it's 200 pounds heavier than the c7 and you can't tell that it's that heavy part of that is it's a little more powerful but a big part of it is just where the weight is the difference in the c8 is that through corners it melds with corners it flattens itself in corners you've got the suspension working for you the brilliant steering the wheelbase and the power of the engine keeping you planted there are very few sports cars at any price that make corners feel like that the feedback is there and the precision is there both are there i just i want to turn the car just to feel the dynamics just to feel that rotational inertia you can feel that the weight is behind you and all you have to do is that classic mid-engine thing of point the nose where you want to go feel the chassis settle and then add power and it just vanishes the zr1 the last big corvette we drove was flatter in a corner than the c8 but a couple of things to keep in mind first off this is the base c8 secondly it's not sloppy at all this is an incredibly agile car that will grip better than you think it will because of that new layout the great thing about the c8 right now is that the handling is so surprising it is very refined the magic is in great ride quality thanks to magnetic ride and a handling rotation that now feels exotic because the whole platform went mid-engine i'm in disbelief and hungry for this steering feel i don't have this on my cayman it is not this good everyday driver is brought to you by hagerty let's drive together this is the last of the traditional front engine corvettes this has an old school feel old school tendencies that harken back to the history of the corvette since that first generation but that doesn't mean it's bad this is a perfectly well sorted version of what this car became they had to make a mid-engine ca because i do feel like from a dynamics perspective as good as this car is and as fun as it is i'm not feeling like it dances it still feels heavy on top of the corners [Applause] driven in isolation this is an incredible sports car and when you consider the fact that now used these are going to cost you about half what a c8 is going to cost you this remains an excellent sports car this isn't half the sports car of the c8 the c8 had to be miles better than the c7 it couldn't just be a little bit better they're finally able to do what they want and it shows you ever been out with somebody and just thought why are they with me the c8 has an element of that it has an exotic flair about it that hits you initially and you realize this is much better than i thought there's a surprise factor in the c8 that i wasn't expecting honestly every time i drive this especially back and forth with that c7 i just get in this and it feels special it is up there with some of the best mid engine cars being sold right now it is a direct competitor think about this to the porsche cayman and the lotus evora two of the best mid-engine chassis of any price being sold now it's also very different than both of those so ask yourself at similar prices and all three very well set up which one is the most used gm has done something for its brand name and for its halo car that very few car companies have ever done make an entirely new generation of enthusiasts want this car more than anything and todd and i have discussed will that continue when c8s are everywhere i believe they will because they're now such a special car [Applause] [Music] what amazes me about this is the fact that we've driven the c7 in almost every variant we've driven every generation of the corvette i didn't think that the c7 really had any problems and then i drove the c8 and suddenly that felt old well the reason the second car was ever conceived and built is to be better than the first car ever built this is the reason the c8 exists and it doesn't feel just a little bit better there's new technology here there's new build quality it feels decades better than the c7 which is shocking to me well you heard me say it i mean i expected it to be better because i like mid-engine cars but i didn't expect to be surprised by it i'm very surprised by it that is still a great car and it's now a great value but this is the one i just want to drive and drive and drive this is the car i want to own hands down and now this can be compared to just about anything at any price point it drives so good they've made the corvette exotic which is a crazy thing to say it's always been the king of the muscle cars it's been a very good sports car the c7 is a great sports car it's now exotic it's now aspirational and to your point you're right what do you want to put it against it kind of goes with it i want one of these cars i need one of these cars well done chevy well done gm this is the corvette the world needed [Applause] [Music] this car has taken the things i like about mid-engine cars and it has merged it with the angriness and the history of corvette that's a win you

Channel: EverydayDriver

Views: 396,374

Rating: 4.8827915 out of 5

Keywords: Corvette C7 vs C8 comparison, Corvette C8 review, C7 vs C8 review, TV, Everyday Driver, The best Corvette, Chevrolet Corvette C8, Driving, comparison, exhaust, drive by, mid-engine corvette, Corvettes compared, c8 corvette, 2020 c8, c7 vs c8, c8 z51, 2014 corvette stingray z51, 2020 c8 corvette review, throttle house, straight pipes, motortrend, hagerty

Id: soB-xrUSQEU

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Removebeforeflight88]

This is sort of odd to say, but for whatever reason the c8 looks horrible in photos but astonishing in person. That said, I can’t wait for the z06 treatment!

[u/The_Exia]

I'd take a C8 Stingray over a C7 Stingray but I would take a widebody C7 any day of the week over a C8 Stingray.

The C8 Stingray does look better in person but so does a C7 Stingray. Once the C7 widebody came out it wasn't even a contest as to which C7 looked better, not just because of the wide hips but because I hate the Stingray front grill.

C7 Widebody > C8 Stingray > C7 Stingray

I imagine when a widebody C8 is released it will look amazing.

[u/TexasGulfOil]

C7 exterior > C8 exterior

C8 interior > C7 interior

The C8 still looks super weird. It needs the Z06 treatment to start looking good. Those DRLs don’t help.

[u/DarkMatter00111]

I personally would want a C7 ZR1 over a C8. Those ZR1's are so dang fast.

[u/inter_mittent]

A number of reviewers have talked about significant understeer that makes the C8 somewhat less sharp and fun to drive. It's interesting that they didn't seem to experience that with this car. Wonder if the track package this car has reduces it.

[u/RKfan]

My dream is to drive either one of those cars through that canyon.

[u/[deleted]]

Bout to pickup my c8 daily on Monday so this is relevant to my interests.