It’s only when we hit the next road though that the effects of the gear changes really strike. This next ribbon of tarmac is a relative unknown for the crankandpiston team, Google maps and a dash of hope eventually paying dividends. Much like ‘the border run’, this new road is buried deep in the mountains – Fujairah this time – but the run-up is much more ferocious, long stretches scything into the fast sweepers a recipe for potential tankslapper action. This has occurred to the digital team too, and as I pull over to prepare myself (and say a few quick prayers), they shimmy up the nearest mountainside – no more than 30/40ft in the air – to take in the view. Kilometre after kilometre of beautifully coloured mountainside with hardly a living soul to spoil in-sight, save the occasional goat: should I barrel through a guardrail, it will take some time to hit the bottom, and salvation is a good few hours walk away.
Thankfully the 50:50 weight distribution of the Corvette and magnetic ride control (which automatically adjusts dampers 40% quicker than the previous model for improved road holding) help keep my nuts off the cliff-face, the steering into and out of the corners pinpoint and aided by the all-new eight-speed paddle shift gearbox. Between Tour (default) and Sport modes, the difference through the gearshifts is astonishing. I’ll admit that the size and position of the paddles is a little unorthodox, they being less robust than expected in a machine like the Stingray: you could even call them, ‘delicate’. Saying that, the swiftness on upshifts is phenomenal, a far cry from the ‘click, wait a beat, there it is’ gear changes on Corvettes of old. The C7 is really gunning for the ‘driver’s car moniker…
The enormous stoppers on the Corvette (320mm on the front, 338mm at the rear) are being put through their paces too, with little in the way of an apology. It’s the engine braking under downshifts though that’s making me smile. There’s a sizeable whack under downshifts which throws me towards the Head-Up display in front of me: whiplash is on the doctor’s note, and yet the rear wheels once again refuse to budge. Having taken the first couple of runs gingerly – and been chastised for doing so by my colleagues filming from the mountainside – I’m now barrelling into turns with more ‘commitment’ than before, confident the front end will stick even across the rutted surface. The only slight issue are the water bottles in the boot, which – having fallen loose from their housings, are now rattling around like a wrecking ball. I can only imagine how annoyed the owners of that building were when Miley Cyrus came crashing through their wall in her work boots….
Five superhero movies the world really didn’t need
– Catwoman (2004)
– Green Lantern (2011)
– Electra (2005)
– Superman IV (1987)
– Batman and Robin (1997)
And so, it’s all been leading to this, a double whammy in Fujairah: one road is tight, twisting and completely surrounded by high mountain walls; the other is open, long stretches of tarmac moving both up and down across the undulating landscape, and even includes a coupe of fords. There’s very little room for manoeuvre across either of them, which seems the perfect final test for the Corvette Stingray.
But not from a performance side…
Across our three-day odyssey (well, it has taken in nearly 2000km), the focus has been on speed, dynamics, comfort, practicality, looks, and handling of Chevrolet’s newboy. All of which, during the course of a 2/3-hour test drive, we’re happy to wax lyrical on at crankandpiston.com. But with a three-day event, fatigue plays a big role (especially during mid-summer temperatures), and you’d be forgiven for thinking that by now the sound of a thunderous V8 would have reduced my eardrums to pulp, my spinal column to dust and my lifelong dream of owning a sportscar to ashes. And yet weirdly, none of this seems to be the case. I’m still shy $74,870 from my bank balance, but I don’t feel stiffer or more arthritic than I did clambering into the Corvette just two days ago. And as we round the tightening corners of our final two play areas, it doesn’t feel that the time and work put into the journey has been spoiled as a consequence.
In celebrating 60 years and seven generation of its illustrious sportscar then, Chevrolet has produced a game changer with the C7 Stingray. You could reasonably have expected ferocious power wallowy handling and poor build quality: ‘all bark and no trousers’ as Corvettes have had a tendency to be in the past. But with the Stingray comes new looks, new oomph, and with huge strides taken as a genuine ‘driver’s car’. Seventh time lucky then appears to be the charm for Chevrolet, and if you can think of a better way of putting that the test than seven epic driving roads, we’d be intrigued to hear it.
Full technical specifications available on page 4
– FULL GALLERY OF SHOTS AVAILABLE HERE – CLICK –
Awesome wallpapers available HERE – SET 1
Awesome wallpapers available HERE – SET 2
