In all my years as an Automotive Journalist, I've
yet to put my hands on a Chevrolet Corvette. Stubbornly, I've always shunned
the Vette as an "all engine, no poise" poorly built muscle car
without really driving one. Well, know I have and I’m beginning to change my
tune.
Where I got it right, the interior is painfully ugly
and went out of style in the late 80’s. Really, it still uses buttons from that
era. The seats feel as though they are planks of plywood with a bit of
low-density foam tossed on top. The steering knocks about, the clutch pedal is
longer that a tractors and it drives like an old pickup when not pushing it to
the limits. Finally it’s the poster car for the man’s midlife crisis, as not
one 20 or 30 year old gave me the thumbs up, but every guy over the age of 50
were drooling at the sight of it.
Where I got it wrong, it is a beautifully balanced
car, the magnetic ride and super sticky, super wide Michelin Pilot Sports will
have it bending physics theories in corners, the brakes are some of the best I’ve
ever experienced, the seating position is that of a proper sports car. When you
do start to push it, the truck feel of the controls goes away and everything
starts to make sense, and finally, it’s just really good fun to drive, while
having no refinement, no real technology, it harkens back to when sports cars
where no nonsense, no frills, single minded speed demons. Other than a USB port
to play you favourite music, a GPS unit to save the real man from the embarrassment
of asking for directions and traction control to keep everything on the
straight and narrow when in civil environments, there is nothing else added to
the 427 Vette that doesn’t make it go faster.
So do the old guys know something we don’t? I’m
beginning to think they do, or I may be in denial of how much my hairline is
degrading. Either way, the Vette is a proper sports car, a car that nostalgically
brings back the true joy of driving.
