“I’m in love with my car”... Well, the new Vet.

Daniel Grenier · #1 08-02-2019, 04:40 AM

Remember Queen’s “I’m in love with my car”? I bought A Night At The Opera in 75 only because that song was on it as I, too, was “in love with my car” (a 240Z).

Well, The new 2020 Corvette is out so I put the record on again last night as I was configuring my new (virtual) Corvette. Alas, this one will forever stay in the iPad and will never see my driveway but man, what a sharp-looking beast! GM has hit a home run with this one!

Sure, it looks just like a Ferrari but that’s why it looks so good and it’s a fraction of the price. “I’m in love with that car”!

RedJoker · #2 08-02-2019, 05:45 AM

I never really cared for the look of the vette until the C7 and now C8. Only recently did I realize that I am now a middle aged male and their exact target demographic.

CoffeeFan · #3 08-02-2019, 06:03 AM

Yeah, the new Vette is incredible. I may be paying a visit to my local Chevy dealer in the not-to-distant future to discuss...

Mr. Jelly · #4 08-02-2019, 06:52 AM

Some things I learned from having sports cars is you can't really drive them. Meaning the cars can't really be put to the test on city streets, country highways and only a moment or two on the freeways. They are to expensive to take to a track and man handle them. Plus the majority of people can't come close to taking them anywhere close to the limit. Really high speeds are another paradigm. So they are all about driving around saying look at me I have the biggest and the baddest. Over the years the cars that I've owned that were to most fun to drive were spunky and ergonomic.

imwjl · #5 08-02-2019, 07:01 AM

The new model has grown on me but coincidentally yesterday had me thinking there's been nothing like performance cars in my life where I've changed from thinking fun to dumb. Maybe I'll rethink it in the future when I can't do trail riding and skiing at an expert level.

I do get the mid engine change. These days a minivan has more horsepower than a Corvette used to have so the design makes sense.

PorkPieGuy · #6 08-02-2019, 07:16 AM

Man, Chevy is so close to moving into the "supercar" realm with this one IMO with a starting price under $60k. So cool.

RP · #7 08-02-2019, 07:29 AM

I was raised on sports cars beginning with being thrown with my brother into the jump seat seat of a TR-3 in 1956. My father had the bug, and he passed it on to me so it shouldn't be any surprise that my definition of a "sports car" may differ from others and doesn't include the current crop of Corvettes. To me, the thrill of driving a sports cars is not defined by high speed and straight line acceleration/performance but how it feels through the twisties. Maybe this is a distinction without a difference, but I'd call the Corvette a sporty muscle car, not a true sports car. Would I love to drive one? Definitely; but I wouldn't trade my 2010 Mazda MX5 for a Vette to putter around the back roads near my home in rural Albemarle County, VA....

RedJoker · #8 08-02-2019, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

Some things I learned from having sports cars is you can't really drive them. Meaning the cars can't really be put to the test on city streets, country highways and only a moment or two on the freeways. They are to expensive to take to a track and man handle them. Plus the majority of people can't come close to taking them anywhere close to the limit. Really high speeds are another paradigm. So they are all about driving around saying look at me I have the biggest and the baddest. Over the years the cars that I've owned that were to most fun to drive were spunky and ergonomic.

I wouldn't say the cars are about saying "look at me" but I agree that that's why many buy them. Most won't take them to the track or even to an autocross.

As a side note, I used to have a Shelby Cobra replica and there was an event that would draw hundreds of them from all over the US for a weekend get together. They set up an event to drive them at Mid-Ohio racetrack but out of the hundreds of cars, probably only ten of us actually went to the track. We drove them in the manner they were designed in a controlled environment. So much fun that all those others missed out on.

Daniel Grenier · #9 08-02-2019, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RP

..... To me, the thrill of driving a sports cars is not defined by high speed and straight line acceleration/performance but how it feels through the twisties. Maybe this is a distinction without a difference, but I'd call the Corvette a sporty muscle car, not a true sports car. Would I love to drive one? Definitely.......

Ditto and Bingo! My very first car was a sporty Fiat 124 spider. My second a Datsun 240z and then a Volvo GT. All stick shift, of course. Lots of “twisties” were had in those.. Fun! But now that I have all that out of my system, I’d probably be that guy in a Corvette, with automatic (gasp!), barely going over the speed limit.

KevWind · #10 08-02-2019, 09:59 AM

Couple thoughts first I have not driven one, but I would assume that being mid engine the new vet is a very capable "twisties" vehicle. And not simply a "sporty muscle car"

Also the notion that in order to enjoy the handling and performance you have to be at full speed is a narrow sighted concept . Good performance and handling can be enjoyed at any speed. The idea that a full blown sports or "supercar" is "all about look at me" beyond "self" is specious speculation about the motives of others .
While no doubt some people would buy one to compensate for ego issues
There are no doubt people who simply enjoy the machine.

Now in full disclosure I personally would not buy a Vet or any other super car. My Mini Cooper Clubman is all the performance car I need, and being a Clubman I enjoy some extra utility as well. But I would not even begin to speculate on the motives of those who buy such a vehicle and "more power to em"

jpd · #11 08-02-2019, 11:46 AM

Wow, it's not your fathers Vette! Long way from my '77

Joseph Hanna · #12 08-02-2019, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevWind

Couple thoughts first I have not driven one, but I would assume that being mid engine the new vet is a very capable "twisties" vehicle. And not simply a "sporty muscle car"

Also the notion that in order to enjoy the handling and performance you have to be at full speed is a narrow sighted concept . Good performance and handling can be enjoyed at any speed. The idea that a full blown sports or "supercar" is "all about look at me" beyond "self" is specious speculation about the motives of others .
While no doubt some people would buy one to compensate for ego issues
There are no doubt people who simply enjoy the machine.

Now in full disclosure I personally would not buy a Vet or any other super car. My Mini Cooper Clubman is all the performance car I need, and being a Clubman I enjoy some extra utility as well. But I would not even begin to speculate on the motives of those who buy such a vehicle and "more power to em"

Agreed. I'm surrounded by super cars. As I've mentioned here before I have a neighbor with a 488. Another neighbor two doors down with a 2006 Ford GT. One of my closest friends has a Porsche GT and another friend a 2019 C7. None of them are even remotely "look at me" kinda guys. They're genuine car enthusiasts who've been successful enough to afford a car like that.

I've driven them all and I can tell you driving a 488 at 40 mph is spectacular. I dunno where the top end of that car is but I don't need to to enjoy the sheer joy of a beast like that. It growls and roars at 60 mph in the canyons without the slightest hitch. It's an unworldly car experience. The same goes for that Ford GT albeit not quite the sensory overload nor sheer performance of the 488. The Ford GT does almost rival the sound of a Ferrari which is a feat unto itself.

As pertaining to the topic at hand I was REALLY impressed with the 2019 C7 (more than I thought I'd be) but it is a car whose performance is starting to outpace the weight distribution of a front engine machine. It has a pretty sophisticated driver aid computer but the traction control was kicking in way too much to feel organic. It felt over correcting. The Porsche GT feels organic even pushed hard. I like that "not over-correcting" feel a lot and I suspect the 2020 mid-engine Vette will solve a bunch of those nagging problems.

As for the 2020 Vette I suspect it's gonna pull a lot of 911 buyers into it's camp, especially at the cost of entry. Who'd of imagined 20 years ago GM would have something to at least make Porsche buyers take a look? It's a sharp looking machine although I see more Ford GT than I do Ferrari as others here have mentioned.

Thumbs up for GM on this one!

CoffeeFan · #13 08-02-2019, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

So they are all about driving around saying look at me I have the biggest and the baddest.

This is pretty funny considering that it's posted on a forum with such topics as "How many guitars do you own" and "Do you gig with your expensive guitars?", and on which people routinely discuss their five figure guitars.

It's all relative.

As in "This is going to look relatively sweet in my driveway."

KevWind · #14 08-02-2019, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoffeeFan

This is pretty funny considering that it's posted on a forum with such topics as "How many guitars do you own" and "Do you gig with your expensive guitars?", and on which people routinely discuss their five figure guitars.

It's all relative.

As in "This is going to look relatively sweet in my driveway."

That will definitely "look sweet in your driveway" even at 0 mph it will be fun

DCCougar · #15 08-02-2019, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RP

I was raised on sports cars beginning with being thrown with my brother into the jump seat seat of a TR-3 in 1956. My father had the bug, and he passed it on to me...

Yeah, my dad restored MGTDs in the garage. Kind of a toy car, really. So I evolved into a couple MGBs, then had a couple 12 cylinder XJS Jags, all bought used, mind you. And only one at a time, of course.