Edmunds Vlogger Raves Corvette is ‘Faster than Anything Else for the Price’
Forget Porsche, BMW’s M4, the Mustang GT350, and other sports cars. The new C8 is seriously impressive.
If there’s an automotive journalist that has driven the new Corvette and been let down, we haven’t heard of it yet. Edmunds recently tested a Z51 and follows the trend of lauding the mid-engine C8‘s achievements. Kurt Niebuhr hosts this video for Edmunds, where he takes it on some mountain roads and to their test track to find out all the tricks this inexpensive supercar can pull off.
Real world numbers are important, so what can the Corvette do on regular Z51 tires and an un-prepped surface? The 0-60 time came in at 3.2 seconds and the 1/4 mile was completed in 11.5 seconds at 117.8 miles per hour. That’s a long way off factory estimates. Why? Niebuhr explains the discrepancy: “First off, yes, these numbers aren’t as good as we were expecting. We didn’t have access to 93 octane, as we only have 91 octane fuel here in California.”
Handling isn’t dictated by fuel, however. Lateral g-forces top out at 1.09 which is quite impressive for the rather average tires of the Z51 package. “That’s with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires and a narrow 245 section front tire,” remarks Niebuhr. Bear in mind, the corner conquering Camaro Z28 had 305’s.
On-road manners are even more impressive. For friendly weather, you have Tour, Sport and Track modes. Tour is obviously the most comfortable, and Niebuhr notes, “it slackens off the shocks a little bit and gives really good compliance.” Sport is a click up from Tour, but Track mode is an interesting one. While you’d think engineers would be tempted to turn it up to 11, Track mode in the Corvette isn’t extreme. It just takes advantage of an already excellent chassis.
The Z51 package on this Corvette is what we feel will be the most popular version of the Corvette. While you can get a C8 starting at just $60,000, when all is said and done, you’ll be looking at far more. The MSRP of the one shown and tested here is $83,300, which is a far way off from that headline grabbing base price. Still, there’s plenty of cars out there you could buy in the mid $80,000 dollar range if the Corvette is just too fast for you.
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