Tiff Needell drives the new Corvette Stingray! Full review!

It's been almost two years since I last went to a car launch abroad, but now we're back here at Frankfurt Airport with something quite special, a pretty little red Corvette. I actually haven't driven a

corvette

since I flew to the south of france to test the z06 version of the c6 series I moved up to the eight series here with this new car, the

corvette

has been running for over 60 years. I still remember the first time I left the airport and headed into the hills beneath the Alps. When that fat shifter hit the accelerator, it had that wonderful throaty noise from the V8 engine up front.

I had a smile on my face instantly. It was a brilliant car and brutal to drive, but of course we moved on. At that time, the European castle was increasingly computerized. flapping paddles, manual gearboxes were disappearing so I love that corvette but now we're updated, we now have a corvette for the first time with that mid engine, first time no manual gearbox options and a v8 with a very soft sound. on the back, but of course there's one where I can change that because there's a z button or a z button and I preset what I like on a car.

I press the z button and now I go down one or two speeds, it sounds much better now. I have a smile on my face, in fact the C7 version that came out in 2014 was almost a mid-engined car because by then the marketing department had heard rumors that they were calling the Quebec the old man's toy because apparently 46 of the sales were They targeted people over 55, compared to 30 percent for the Porsche 911 and 26 percent for the Audi R8, so it's been coming for a while and now the Corvette is in the modern world, but is that something good, who knows?

We're about to find out well, cruising down the highway at 100 miles per hour back in tour mode, the basic setup is actually pretty quiet, pretty relaxing, very comfortable, very nice, but we need to get off the highway, we really need to get off off the autobahn at this point we finally get off the highway and onto some beautiful twisty roads, it's time to find out how much sting this new

stingray

has in its tail and of course the other reason why I'm a big fan of corvettes , not only for that. The experience in the z06 is due to the fact that they are a wonderful competition company, which is why they have been competing in Le Mans since corvettes were born in the 50s.

They have been competing with corvettes, but it was in 1998 when they created their team of factory to take on the global gt world dominated by ferraris, porsches and aston martins, they created their c5r and since then they have been hitting the world, these wonderful yellow beasts, the factory cars, won in le mans their class eight times as they wanted. the daytona 24 hours won the scene brings 12 hours they won the insta american championship so many times a british driver oliver gavin won le mans five times he made his career so i have followed the corvettes and loved the fact that they toured the world is defeating its opponents and now they are doing the same in this new mid-engine version, but now we can move on, it's still a little quiet, so now I can go to these modes, now they have so many cars, that's all. about the mode, so give me a little rotary knob here, turn the other way, there's, there's, there's, there's, mine mode, there's the basic climate mode, which is obviously a rubber one, and then you can have the Tour mode, which is the normal road mode, and then you can have my mode, where you can set all kinds of different settings, then you have the follow mode and you can adjust all the weights of the steering, the suspension, the rear brake , feel the engine sound anyway, I have preset all of these, you make your own with the z button, so I press my z button now and everything z comes to life and everything gets louder and the gearbox goes it comes back sharper, but now I have the brake feel maxed out, so it's a really solid pedal, the brakes feel good, the power is coming. but on a dry road I can go even further than zen mode so I press a few more times and fiddle around a bit and eventually I get race mode, traction controls are off, everything is off and the little display screen that comes with this car is so good, cute, small, neat, colorful, like all my gears and speed, but now this just comes to life, still not the same real noise in the old front engine beast head, but a pleasant and powerful urgent noise. 483 horsepower from the 6.2 liter small block as they call it and that's the most the standard corvette has ever had, obviously the z versions had more but this inspires so much confidence on these roads it's just a joy, well for Of course, there is an elephant in the room that I know my regular viewers will know I am.

I'm going to say this: I probably should have said this as soon as I got in the car because it has a stupidly shaped steering wheel. One of the most horrible things I've ever seen reminds me of the Allegro and I know this doesn't matter most of the time. when you don't need any more lock than the steering grip you have because when you come into a tight turn over a parking lot when your hand goes around the corner of the steering wheel it's just not right, look I said something else about that, it's just me, I know it's just me, oh the corners are getting tighter, they turn squeezing out the power and of course there's great visibility now that you're sitting, you know, a couple of feet ahead and you don't have one that long, it's in front of an incredible view of the road in front small red wings of each size as aiming points to reach the apex listen it doesn't change as fast as I wanted there but it doesn't have the same wild emotion for that zo6 and I have to say 06 between you and me, but oh, it is a very pleasant trip and much safer.

I have no doubt, but sometimes I can want that little bit that it doesn't have, no matter how surprising, although even in this zed mode. takes the little bumps on this bumpy road with surprising smoothness and that's because this guy has the optional magno ride or is it magna ride anyway that smart suspension smart shock absorbers just smoothes out the bounces it really is a beauti

full

y balanced and balanced chassis, does it? you see? we're flat, we're hitting bumps no joke, really comfortable ride even in race mode, paddles, nice feel, just the way you want them, surprisingly in the US you can buy the base model of these for £45,000 in the UK.

The entry level weighs about 74,000 pounds, but comes with many options that the US entry level doesn't have. It has this z51 package that gives you a little more power. It has a high performance exhaust. It has a bigger Brembo. brakes and a few other things and of course there is also a convertible version which costs about five thousand pounds more than the entry level, about seventy-nine thousand pounds, but even with this Cooper you can remove this center panel so you can still have something fresh The pneumatic drive, even in the coupe version, is not as good as the converter, with the entire top kicking back in about 15 seconds at 30 miles.

Now for the usual tricks, but as you know, I'm not a big fan of removing the roof. another wind blowing in my hair i just want to feel the steering feel the gears click feel the engine revving of course no big revs i mean it's a big v8 and i don't really know where the red line is actually let's find out about the six and I think that was enough, sure there are all kinds of colors, you can have the red corvette here, there are about 16 different colors, some for a little more money, lots of carbon fiber bits for a little more money, but you basically get a card.

We will put a smile on your face that's for sure, unfortunately as often happens on these trips I now have to interrupt my enjoyment in the park, this beautiful cover up so that Tom can take some nice photos. You're done? because I always have the obligatory walk talking about style problems. I've never been a big style guru and it's so important to me that you know that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and what I always tell people is do you think that if I was parked outside your house I would make the neighbors curtains would move, then you are on to a winner and this would definitely make the neighbors curtains move, but they are lovely, nice little black bib spoiler, this little grill entrance, a little vein in it , big black. mirrors in this center section of the roof, which is the part that you can remove from the chicken coop paste to put in the trunk or the trunk or the rear trunk, which can actually be a clear tinted glass so you can let the light through from the sun, but I really love this rear wing, they haven't slapped a horrible high mounted GT3 wing on it and this actually blends into the bodywork, so I like that and the rear, the rears are rears, I mean, Yes, he has all that, however he does it.

I also have to show you the trunk space, the trunk space, that's part of my job, so now I have to press a couple of buttons because we have one in the front and one in the back, little buttons, we'll take a look. look at the back. First and before opening the back, you can see the engine there, like in the Ferrari. You can see the big thing if I can see it better. Well, this is the rear trunk, there's plenty of room to fit in there and these little latches here are the roof when you arrive. it actually clips into the trunk so you have less ability to carry stuff, but look at that engine, I mean it's a treat, you can feel the heat, someone's been keeping it warm, but there's room in the front too , so there is plenty of space to put. a lot of luggage, interestingly enough because those American regulations even have the button, the escape button in case you're stuck in a trunk, Americans have to have a button to open it.

You'd have to be a very small kidnapper to get in. this trunk right front trunk Can I drive again? Please, well, I forgot to mention a pretty neat little door handle right under there. three and a half seconds oh, I want to cover this on a race track so I can push it to the limit. I went alone on these roads, it feels so planted, but obviously I can't push it to the limit. go down again oh it's so smooth, that's the thing so calm over bumps and cambers, it really is a brilliantly sorted chassis, in fact they are using the same chassis in the race cars as they do in the street cars, it's so torsionally rigid, but it is not. just one handle is impressive, but if I stop a little bit now and appreciate the build quality that they really have on the market and there are some wonderful touches of leather and bits of carbon fiber and the seats, I'm in a racing seat there a GT1 seat, the GT2 seat, you can choose whatever you want, so I'm sitting very comfortably and it's a nice place to be.

It's got a big band of buttons in the middle, but the bottom half is the passenger temperature and stuff, the top half. are for me, I like the fact that there are more buttons and switches. I hate this stingy touch screen too much. Now it has a really nice screen for the street map and where we're going, so I like that angle towards me that you're sitting at. This section of racing cars as a driver wrapped up and separated from your partner who's playing with a camera while I try to drive all that sort of stuff, it's a lovely place to be and, apart from the revolution of being the first corvette with an engine central and the first corvette without a shifter is also the first call where they will come with right-hand drive, so when I talked about European and British prices, they are right-hand drive versions.

Oh, sadly, our day is almost over and it's time to head back to the airport and fly home. So how do I sum up this new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray? Well, I have to admit, as I'm a little over the 55 year mark, I miss some aspects of the old man's toy. I certainly missed that big, beefy manual gearbox and maybe I miss a little the wild handling it had, but I have no doubt that young people will be lining up for this Corvette's big leap into the future because it is a very impressive car. that fell again one last time.

I explode you