Finally! On this episode of Ignition
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 [ENGINE REVVING]
00:14 Here we have the C7 Corvette Stingray, the latest
00:18 iteration of America's sports car.
00:20 And it's definitely one of the year's most hotly anticipated
00:23 cars for myself, too.
00:25 Why?
00:26 Well, it's because it's a sports car.
00:28 Why?
00:30 Well, it has a dramatic departure in styling
00:31 that ushers it into a new era.
00:34 We have more power, more grip, better braking performance,
00:37 so it's faster, too.
00:40 But crucially, there's an unprecedented amount
00:42 of technology that promises a new level of driving
00:45 sophistication.
00:47 But without any further ado, let's get behind the wheel.
00:50 [ENGINE REVVING]
01:02 Around the figure eight, the C7 drives very differently
01:05 than its predecessor.
01:07 [TIRES SCREECHING]
01:11 It likes slip angle.
01:12 It likes sliding.
01:13 And it put down a very impressive lap time
01:16 in lateral G result.
01:17 [TIRES SCREECHING]
01:33 While the Corvette's launch control is very effective,
01:36 our best acceleration was achieved without it.
01:38 [ENGINE REVVING]
01:50 Large rotors and sticky tires led to a very impressive
01:53 stopping distance.
01:54 [ENGINE REVVING]
02:15 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:42 So the new C7 Corvette is a car.
02:46 But it's a very interesting car,
02:48 and one that has so much inside of it, so much to talk about,
02:52 I honestly don't know where to start.
02:54 So let's begin with the question I most like answering,
02:57 and that is how it drives.
03:00 It drives very well.
03:02 [ENGINE REVVING]
03:09 Woo-hoo.
03:11 So this Corvette Stingray has the Z51 package.
03:15 And that adds a number of things--
03:16 bigger brakes, bigger wheels and tires,
03:19 cooling for the transmission and the differential,
03:22 a couple other items, and also an electronically controlled
03:24 differential.
03:25 We also have dual mode exhaust, which
03:28 gives us 5 horsepower, 5 torque, kind of negligible,
03:31 but also a really nice sound when
03:33 you get on the throttle hard.
03:35 [ENGINE REVVING]
03:40 But the thing that I'm finding most impressive
03:43 about the Corvette is how it ties all these things together.
03:47 And we'll get to that by talking about this drive mode
03:49 selector here.
03:50 You have five drive modes.
03:52 You have economical, you have touring, you have sport,
03:55 you have track, and you also have a wet weather mode.
03:59 Now, these, in effect, control all kinds
04:01 of sub-settings that tailor the car to drive a specific way.
04:05 But it isn't just those modes, because there's customization
04:08 further in.
04:09 You have performance traction management, a very smart
04:12 and very capable traction control system
04:13 that we've seen on the ZR1 and the Z06.
04:17 And it's very advanced here, now incorporating the differential
04:20 and how it works.
04:21 You can adjust the steering response,
04:23 and you can configure it to either change
04:26 with your drive mode or to just have it at one setting
04:29 the entire time.
04:30 [ENGINE REVVING]
04:35 When you really push this car at the limit,
04:37 as we found out during testing, it's
04:39 working all around your inputs.
04:41 That differential, that electronically controlled
04:43 differential, allows the engineers
04:46 to tailor the behavior of this car to any driving situation.
04:50 And it's really fascinating how it works in effect.
04:53 It's talking to the ABS sensors.
04:55 So it's looking for what the brakes are doing
04:57 and trying to help them accomplish their goal.
04:59 It's talking to the magnetic ride.
05:01 It's talking to your throttle input.
05:03 It's listening to the yaw input of the car.
05:05 There is a system monitoring the tire temperature,
05:08 reading the temperature off the valve stems, doing some math,
05:10 and then figure out what state the tires are in.
05:12 And then the differential will change its behavior
05:14 depending on what temperature the tires are at.
05:17 It is absolutely fascinating the level of technology
05:20 in this car.
05:21 [ENGINE REVVING]
05:25 But the thing is, the crucial thing
05:26 is, unless you're pushing this thing at the limit,
05:29 you don't really notice that.
05:32 That stuff sort of just blends into the background.
05:35 The really cool thing is, when you're charging up this road
05:37 like we are now, it feels like a very capable, very well set up
05:44 rear wheel drive sports car.
05:45 [ENGINE REVVING]
05:50 You can get a connection between both axles in this car,
05:53 from the front with your steering,
05:54 to the rear with your throttle, that you feel really in tune
05:58 with what they're doing.
05:59 And that's quite a new thing with Corvettes.
06:02 I've never really enjoyed pushing Corvettes hard
06:04 because I never felt like I really understood
06:07 what the axles were doing.
06:10 This car talks to you much more clearly
06:13 about what the car's intentions are and what it wants to do.
06:16 That's very admirable.
06:17 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:20 I just got to add something about the engine really quick.
06:22 This is a direct injected, variable valve timing engine
06:25 that has push rods.
06:27 Love that.
06:28 Just absolutely love that.
06:30 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:34 You have a nice, broad power band
06:36 with early torque delivery that seems
06:38 to last all the way to red line, maybe a little bit before then.
06:42 But it gives this car a flexibility
06:45 that allows you to really push it when you're driving hard.
06:48 [ENGINE REVVING]
06:56 We also have a seven speed transmission,
06:59 which seems weird on paper, but in practice
07:03 is just like a manual six speed with another cog.
07:06 When you're on the freeway, you just throw it in seventh.
07:09 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:11 And this car actually pulls decently from 1,000 RPM
07:15 in seventh gear when you're going 50 miles an hour.
07:17 It's pretty nice what torque can do.
07:19 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:22 One other system we have to talk about is the rev matching
07:25 system.
07:25 You have to turn it on every single time you drive the car,
07:28 but it works brilliantly, especially on this road
07:31 like we're driving right now.
07:33 You will never get a downshift as clean doing it yourself.
07:38 That simple.
07:38 [ENGINE REVVING]
07:40 One oddity about it, though, is that they've
07:42 mounted the on and off buttons like shift paddles
07:46 behind the steering wheel.
07:48 And that's just kind of weird.
07:50 As I've been driving this car, I keep putting my fingers on them,
07:52 expecting them to be upshift and downshift paddles,
07:55 even though obviously I have a gear lever right here.
08:00 I just don't get why.
08:01 But still, they're there.
08:03 They work.
08:03 It's something you'll get used to.
08:07 And we haven't even touched on the interior yet,
08:10 which is a dramatic, dramatic improvement over the C6.
08:15 It's completely different and every bit better because of it.
08:20 This car has some options attached to it.
08:23 We have a carbon fiber dash.
08:24 We have some microfiber suede.
08:26 And they're all really nice things to look at.
08:28 But the functionality of it seems to work really well.
08:32 We have this infotainment system,
08:33 which I'm still adapting to and learning.
08:35 But so far, it seems clever enough and useful enough
08:38 to be very nice to use in long trips or drives
08:41 or when you own the car.
08:43 This center display, which is all digital and extremely
08:46 customizable and tailorable, is really easy to read,
08:51 really clear, and has a lot of nice little neat little
08:53 features in it.
08:54 It'll tell you more than you could ever
08:56 want to know about your car, too,
08:57 including how many revs it's had and its lifespan, which
09:01 is kind of crazy but cool as well.
09:04 The Corvette has always been a very strong dollar
09:07 to performance bargain.
09:09 And this car continues that trend.
09:12 It's incredible the amount of power and performance
09:14 you can get out of this car for not a lot of money.
09:17 But beyond that, I'm looking at the level of technology
09:20 and sophistication and just general cleverness
09:23 from the interior to the engine to the differential and so on
09:27 and how little money it takes to get all that.
09:29 And I'm honestly surprised that they've
09:31 been able to do it for so cheap.
09:34 [ENGINE REVVING]
09:38 This is a car that, again, I want
09:42 to spend a lot more time with.
09:44 I want to spend time on a track with
09:45 to learn its characteristics and quirks, just exactly what
09:49 it's capable of.
09:51 I feel like this is a car you could get along
09:53 with for quite a bit of time.
09:56 And it seems a bit more multifaceted
09:59 than Corvettes of previous.
10:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]
10:04 The Corvette is, in many ways, overwhelming,
10:17 spilling over with numerous technological innovations
10:20 and clever little details.
10:22 It was such that at the end of the day,
10:23 when the cameras were turned off,
10:25 I still couldn't wrap my head around the car as a whole.
10:28 There was simply too much to take in, the majority of it
10:31 good, and the car begged to be driven further.
10:34 Our first taste wasn't enough.
10:37 As unsatisfying as that may be, it
10:39 is a very good indicator of the type of car
10:41 the Corvette is, one you'll want to drive for a long time.
10:45 And you can expect to see a lot more of it
10:47 on this channel in the near future.
10:49 [ENGINE REVVING]
10:51 [ENGINE REVVING]
10:56 [TIRES SCREECHING]
10:59 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:12 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:20 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:26 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:33 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:37 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:40 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:44 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:48 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:55 [ENGINE REVVING]
11:58 you