Five classic ‘first car’ horror stories
– “I didn’t see the tree until it was too late…”
– “So my mates took off the handbrake and left the car on the football field…”
– “The wing mirror is somewhere in Leeds I think…”
– “”J-turning took a bit of practice to get right…”
– “Nah, it ended up on its roof…”
Our final run of the day takes us to Jebel Jais, the UAE’s legendary stretch of tarmac that puts the Nürburgring (in some people’s eyes) to shame courtesy of majestic views, tight chicanes and hairpins, barely credible inclinations, and sheer 1000m drops over the edge should we get our braking points wrong. And yes, the digital crew following in the camera car are equally as worried about performance. I’ll admit that vision through the rear window could be a little improved, but I’m honestly paying too much attention to the road ahead to focus on that. Cocooned as I am in the driver-focused cabin, my seating position is wonderfully low slung, allowing me to really feel the car underneath me. Reach and rake options for the steering wheel fortunately help me find a comfortable driving position, which means by ‘the Jais’, I’m ready to give the Corvette a hammering. In perfect comfort.
The seats for instance, though firm and supportive, are still very comfortable, and after seven hours on the road, I still have full feeling in my legs, my back and my neck, debilitating spasms yet to kick in. There’s even a WiFi hotspot built into the car for improved connectivity. Mercifully, as the heat hits the low 50s, the air conditioning is working too, though fortunately not at the expense of the fuel consumption: call it sacrilege if you will, but in-between the Sport Mode honed runs on the roads themselves, the highway stretches between driving roads have been done in Eco mode via the five-way Driver Mode Selector on the centre console: at highway cruise, the V8 essentially becomes a more frugal V4 as four of the cylinders are automatically shut down. Though I’ve not bothered to connect my iPhone to the system’s Bluetooth network, I’ve taken great pleasure in the USB connection, which has allowed me to roll through some of my favourite driving songs, much to the dismayed pleas from my fellow road trippers who wanted to hear more of that enhanced V8 rumble through the Advanced Exhaust System. Philistines.
Five ‘one hit wonders’
– ‘Mmmm mmmm mmmm’, Crash Test Dummies
– ‘Cars’, Gary Numan
– ‘Jump Around’, House of Pain: “ah, that’s another good driving song…”
– ‘What is love’, Haddaway
– ‘500 Miles’, The Proclaimers
We’re back in Hatta, specifically ‘the border run’ that runs between Oman and the UAE. It’s busy, and well-known petrolhead nirvana, but you’d never have forgiven us if we’d left it out of our top seven.
It’s not just about mashing the throttle through this stretch, as the ribbon of tarmac itself rolls up, into and down the mountainside: hit the loud pedal and the Brembo brakes a little too forcefully and you’ll be spat into either the rocks …or an oncoming motorist. It’s an awesome stretch, one that puts testicular fortitude to the test and, for that matter, handling.
It may look awesome, but the loooooooong, long bonnet – coupled with the rear-mounted seat – makes you feel like you’re sitting right over the rear wheels, and you’d be forgiven for thinking this would affect feel for the front end. Eu contraire. The updated electronic power steering offers just enough weight to keep you connected with the front wheels, allowing you to effectively drive with your shoulders and force the nose to go where you want it too. The grip though is arguably more impressive, particularly at the rear. Even with 455 furious brake horsepower gnashing at the bit, those whopping 20-inch wheels stay rooted to the surface in Sport Mode (I’m not feeling quite brave enough for Track), allowing me to hit each blind apex as they come without fear of understeering wide.
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