Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
Later than planned, a drop-top American Vette lands in Europe
IWAS IN TRENTINO, ITALY, WITH MY FRIEND Quinton, each of us behind the wheel of a GR Yaris on our ongoing mission to drive every pass and col in the Alps over 6000ft, when I heard that my new Corvette had cleared customs. I had originally planned for it to begin its six-month holiday in Europe in April, but problems relating to Covid and the Suez Canal meant it was early September when I finally took an early morning flight to Amsterdam, followed by an Uber to Rotterdam, to meet my convertible C8 for the first time.
After the Yaris, which looks wide from the back, tall from the front and short from the sides, the Corvette just looked long, low and wide from every angle. I’ve heard people talk about a car’s ‘pointy end’ before, but the C8 quite literally has one – its nose is so arrow-shaped I can’t imagine how Chevrolet gets it through pedestrian impact tests. It looks great, though, and I was pleased that my chosen Ceramic Matrix Grey Metallic paint looked as good as I’d hoped it would, too. However, I don’t know if the colours on my computer screen were off when I specced the car on Chevrolet’s configurator, but the ‘Natural Dipped’ leather inside isn’t exactly what I had in mind, being somewhere between tan leather and banana yellow. Let’s call it Colonel Mustard. It was made only worse by the oil and grease stains kindly left there by the dude who trailered the car from the dealer to the docks in the States. Still, nothing that couldn’t be fixed later with a good valeting.
The car’s battery was flat after its long journey across the pond, but with the dockyard’s booster pack attached the V8 started first time and I was on my way. First stop: France, specifically Dijon, where I’d been invited to gatecrash an Aston Martin trackday. My calculations suggested that the Corvette should reach the end of its required 500-mile running-in period just as we arrived…
On the long drive to south, following a different friend in his modified 991-generation Porsche 911 Turbo S (pictured), the C8 proved to be a wonderful companion. The driver’s seat is comfortable, everything you want is to hand, there’s plenty of room in the cabin, lots of luggage space in the rear trunk and front ‘frunk’, and in Tour mode the magnetic-ride suspension is simply superb. Of course, I was really keen to discover if this Corvette could also transform itself into a fantastic sports car and even a track car at the flick of a switch, so I was glad to see I was just 28 miles short of the magic 500 as we arrived at our hotel near the circuit that evening.
The next morning, however, I had double bad news. The first problem was a warning message sternly stating ‘Service Transmission Now. Unable to Shift Soon’. It had appeared on the drive down the day before and I’d ‘fixed’ it by pressing the OK button to clear the error while crossing my fingers and hoping it wouldn’t come back. No such luck. Now it was there every time I started the engine.
Fortunately, a better solution came from an Aston technician at the trackday, who surmised that the warning was just a glitch from the battery
being completely dead upon the car’s arrival at the docks. His cure was the time-honoured technique of disconnecting the battery, counting to ten, then reconnecting it. Problem solved – just like rebooting a troublesome phone.
The second problem was a bit more serious, though. Reading the manual had revealed that Chevrolet specifies 1500 miles should be covered before the car is subjected to track use. And an additional two quarts of transmission fluid added. And about seven other conditions if I didn’t want to risk voiding the warranty. No track time for me, then. I was gutted.
Instead the car passed 500 miles just
150 metres before arriving back at the hotel that evening, so I didn’t even get to drive it in anger that day. At least I didn’t miss the moment when the red line on the electronic tacho jumped from 4500rpm up to 6500rpm, indicating that the running-in was complete and also signalling that full torque was now available in the lower gears. A neat touch.
I finally got to experience what this meant the next day, when the roads cleared on my journey east towards the Jura mountains and I could accelerate through the full rev range at last. What a sound! You simply can’t beat a naturally aspirated V8 – especially in Sport mode with the valves in the performance exhaust open.
That exhaust is part of the Z51 Performance Pack, which is standard on European C8s but optional in America. The pack also includes upgraded suspension, tyres and brakes, and on US cars sees power increase by 5bhp to 495bhp – a bit more than European models, which are pegged at 475bhp. That said, it soon became obvious that this car could handle even more power. I don’t mean to sound greedy or ungrateful, but I would’ve swapped it right then and there for a ZR1 or a Z06 version. I suppose this is a massive compliment to Chevy’s work on the C8’s chassis, which is particularly impressive given that this is the first mid-engined Corvette.
It’s also only my second mid-engined car. Ferraris and Lamborghinis that I’ve borrowed or rented in the past have always proved too small for me (I’m 6ft 2in but with short legs, i.e. I have a massive upper body), so thank god for American car makers catering for larger customers! Now anyone who has hesitated to buy a supercar because they won’t fit properly need hesitate no more: the C8 Corvette is there for you.
After two hours spent on wonderful Jura roads, it seemed appropriate to be rolling into Geneva in a car sporting the Swiss flag – namely the Chevrolet ‘bowtie’ logo that is thought to be a nod to the birth country of company founder Louis Chevrolet. And with that, my C8’s first adventure was complete. I’m sure there will be plenty more to come.
Date acquired September 2021 Total mileage 1136 Mileage this month 956 Costs this month $2000 shipping, CHF 100 valet, plus an iphone cable and a Corvette baseball cap mpg this month 18.0