corvettes have recently grown on me, and this is even more proof that an American company can show the others how its done

 

You hit the nail on the head... many Corvette enthusiasts have said the exact same words. When you compare to Ferrari and Porsche, both are entire car companies. The Corvette is just a car, made by Chevrolet. So yes, the Corvette does compare just fine, but when you look at the proper comparison (Chevy vs. Ferrari vs. Porsche) you see the issue.

Plue... later C3's and most of the early C4s just plain sucked... sure they were on par w/ the industry, but they tarnished the brand and created a hole that C5 and now C6 has had to claw out of.

The other thing to consider is rarity... if only a few thousand Corvettes were made a year, and they were tripple the cost you'd see more attention paid to them.

A study was done w/ a Chevy Aveo to test brand awareness and it's affect on quality perceptions. Test subjects rated the Chevy as a 6 out of 10. Then the badges/emblems were changed to Toyota and subjects (a different group) rated the car as a 8 out of 10. Then it was switched to be a Fiat... it rated 4 out of 10. Just goes to show you that brand has a direct effect on perceived quality.

 

That's the shit that pisses me off. People are so narrow minded and ignorant sometimes...

 

Like me! Watch this:

Who asked GM if they could borrow the pushrod design? Anybody?

 

Well at least with one car.....


Doesn't the C6 have rear leafs? That's what I heard on Top Gear.

I will admit that I have a bias against American cars. I think there is a certain stigma American made cars have had for a while now, but the Corvette is an exception. It shouldn't be a Chevy, like the GT shouldn't be a Ford. I understand all of the performance things about it, like how you can start moving from a dead stop in 3rd (or was it 5th) and get to 180mph in like 30sec. That's incredible! With as much respect as I have for Corvettes, they simply aren't my thing. It is however one of the only American cars I would buy.

I have to give them a thumbs up for the gas mileage they get, I simply can't understand why something with an engine that big is doing better on gas than my little 2.0l S2000!

 

They do. But they get the job done just fine it seems.

 

Also the big difference between a Porsche/ Ferrari and Corvette is how the engine is built.

A VERY reputable teacher of mine (built engines for a couple nascar teams and has owned two engine performance businesses himself) told me about the LS2/LS6 engines being one of the worst balanced V8 motors he has come across.
He said he has rebuilt around 30 of them. All the motors he received were brand new from factory and in half of them the crank was untrue, as far as .030.

 

I found this amusing. 505BHP and 30MPG with those weird ass columnar hunks of steel.

You're joking right? Of course they have leaf springs. I mean Jeremy Clarkson is the epitome of automotive intelligence.

 

I thought you might.

I have to hate pushrods. It's what I do.

 

I know. I think they're pretty goofy too.