So - the Corvette is a 'heavy, bad handling yank tank'...

[Fluxlo]

Originally Posted by RC45 Originally Posted by Fluxlo Heh...Yes the z06's curb weight is around the low 3100 mark but some of your numbers seem incorrect. For example the GT2's curb is 3170 is only 50 pounds heavier. Not bad for something that's still made almost completely out of unit steel, but still has air conditioning and other creature comfort amenities. Weight is important, but a hundred pounds doesn't mean a huge change in lap times. For example, the 405 horsepower 3100 pound z06 with a close ratio gear setup (compared to the standard c5) cannot keep up with a 911 turbo in a straight line(car and driver's test showed the best run of the 911 turbo upto 150mph was more than 2 seconds faster than the z06, didn't expect that out of that giant german piece of granite did ya?). The turbo most likely will match it or fall slightly behind in the turns because of the weight and the fact that a fr car can be handled better by an expert around the curves than a 4wd. But still, considering that it's curb weight in the car and driver test measured to be 400 pounds heavier than the z06 i think it faired pretty well. Oh and in that test, The 911 Turbo came out on top, followed by the Viper ACR and bringing up the Rear was the Z06 (Porsche. There is no Substitute. ) Link No doubt when it comes to price/performance ratio nothing will beat the vette, it's just too fast and too cheap. A phenominal car should be respected, but there's no reason you need to trash "imports" (which i'm guessing includes both euro's and jap's). Not trashing any one - just posting numbers.

My appologizes, but i feel like i've heard this out of you a hundred times. The corvette is not a heavy bad handling yank. The reason it might have that image is because of all muscle cars that existed in that era alongside the corvette, and muscle car lovers going "yeee hah!" while flying down a straight street. The corvette isn't a muscle car, it's a sports car. The first american sports car. Don't compare it to Camaro's, GTO's and Firebirds.

From the get go the vette's body was constructed from fibreglass (instead of the common unit steel). Every vette was constructed from some form of fibreglass, giving you a very light car.

(weight in pounds)

c1 - 2886
c2 - 2945
c3 - 3562 (seems heavy, but take into account that cars like the camaro and firebird were near the 3900lb region at this time)
c4 - 3333
c5 - 3246

Not only was it light, it handled very well. This is a little excerpt from an article i was reading regardng the 1963 C2 corvette.

Chevrolet was proud of the 1963 Sting Ray, and rightfully so. Car Life awarded it's "Engineering Excellence" award to the new Corvette, Motor Trend described the new Corvette as being "far in advance in both ride and handling of anything now being built in the United States", and Car and Driver stated "Steering effort is very low, cornering behavior is extremely stable, and the car inspires a high degree of confidence." The new Corvette even impressed Road & Track.. .. Just a few of the things the normally import oriented publication liked were: The curved side glass, redesigned windshield, improve heater, spare tire mounted in it's own housing underneath the car, better weight distribution with 48% front and 52% rear, the front crossmember, welded rather than bolted to the frame, and the all new options. Zora Arkus-Duntov was quoted as saying, "For the first time I now have a Corvette I can be proud to drive in Europe."

I've said it once, i'll say it again, the vette isn't a muscle car, it's a sports car, an american sports car.

[RC45]

Originally Posted by Fluxlo [My appologizes, but i feel like i've heard this out of you a hundred times. The corvette is not a heavy bad handling yank. The reason it might have that image is because of all muscle cars that existed in that era alongside the corvette, and muscle car lovers going "yeee hah!" while flying down a straight street. The corvette isn't a muscle car, it's a sports car. The first american sports car. Don't compare it to Camaro's, GTO's and Firebirds.

You are correct - we have been over this 1,000 times - the same way we have heard a 1,000 times from the "other camp" that American cars are only good for "yeee hah!" while flying down a straight street - and we will probably go over it 1,000 more times...

I am not the one doing the flawed comparisons... I wanted to spark a debate around a realistic table of numbers - to see how openly and honest the discussion would be.

Let's face it - folks are refusing to believe that their "light weight hero's" might not be as light as they hoped - and the that the "heavy weight contenders" are not that heavy at all...

[coloradosilver]

With the modern upgrades in suspension, power, tires, and light weight materials, I'd say that the more modern corvettes C4- C5 are do very well in the performance catagories. and when you consider that to even come near the performance of a corvette you'll have to pay $20,000 more anywhere else, I'd say that the GM is doing quite well with this car.

[tabh]

ive seen that video its pretty funny the lotus never had a chance

[veilsidebr]

Nowadays new cars are becaming too heavy. A very good car i would problably buy is the Lotus Elise Motorsports, with 200 horsepowers and weight of just 700 Kg. Very fast and good handling.

The opposite of this, ferrari 575M Maranello. Almost 1900 Kg with a 525 Horsepower engine. Even with a 900 hp engine, it won´t go as fast as a Maclaren F1. Bad projects.

The Maclaren F1 has an awesome 627 hp engine in a car that weights just 2840 Lbs. Very good handling and acceleration. This is really awesome, not Ferrari 575 M.

[coloradosilver]

Yup, all has to do with power to weight ratios. I hate all these cars that are coming out from Mercedes and Jag. They claim 500+hp, but when the car weighs 2 tons, it really isn't that fast when compared to a 400hp car that only weighs 3000lbs.