Ride Along in Six Generations of Corvettes

[Bob]

I haven't watched all of these yet, but this looks interesting. There is a lot more commentary about design elements than the driving experience, but this is still kind of cool to see:

http://blog.caranddriver.com/ride-along ... tes-video/

[kevm14]

This seems just a little bit like Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. But without the comedians.

EDIT: I swear I said that without seeing the title text, which says "Car Nerds In Corvettes Getting Nothing." Maybe it was the music that triggered the thought.

[kevm14]

LOL @ Tadge.

I'm afraid to really get on it and do a 2-1 downshift. When you only have 2 gears it's got to be a heck of a downshift.

Then he does.

[kevm14]

Not enough hammering on the C2 427!!

[kevm14]

Not enough hammering on the C3 LT1.

Check out the Saginaw steering column and lock cylinder.

I also realized that the earlier Corvette generations let you choose from several engines. That went away through the 70s I think, perhaps as a result of the emissions era, and perhaps some cost cutting (and general move to corporate engines, rather than divisional engines).

[kevm14]

By the time you get to the C4, though, there was significant progress as fuel injection systems rapidly matured and, presumably, computer-aided head design began to take hold. So you have a real gradient across the 84 Cross-fire C4, to an L98, to LT5, LT1 and LT4. Twice the power within the same generation (Cross-fire to LT5), and from the same displacement! As a result there are so many choices to sample on the C4. It's impossible to pick a single "representative" year.

[kevm14]

Ah, C5 Z06. That works. The others are good, and even a 97 would have accomplished the illustration of the many improvements over the C4. But the Z06 is sweet, obviously, and kind of the C5 showcase (but affordably priced unlike the C4 ZR-1).

I'm laughing at the key in the dash thing. The 97 Malibu debuted with key in the dash.