2014 Corvette

ANYTHING is better than the old vette. That super ugly blocky rear end is so lame!
The designer of that should be flogged!!

I’m liking the direction of the new Stingray.

Thought this was interesting…not the fact that the car auctioned for more than a Veyron, but that all of the money will be donated to CCS. Does that mean all the CCS students now get to buy Corvettes? Nice little gesture for the design community.

In the light of the “fake vents” discussion" I got to ask you how this could have gone down unnoticed:

It is very obviously pretty horrible at pretending to be an air intake, isn’t it?

mo-i

Alfa did a scudetto like this on the 145 and it was so awful that owners did all kinds of things to it, to “improve”:

I noticed it, whoever did the render got lazy and filled it in. That whole front grill isn’t fake in real life.

None of the aero features on the new Vette are fake - they’re all air in or air/pressure out - it’s a nicely engineered car (albeit heavy handed like most have commented). As long as it attracts my Dad, they did their job, but everyone I’ve talked with about this car mentions the same gripe - Camaro taillights…wtf? Even my GM friends in the RenCen and out in Warren don’t know what happened there. I’m not crazy about the forced differentiation between this C7 and the C6 - take the C pillar for instance; why force some Nissan GT-R into it, the glass hatch was useful space and the fastback look had brand cache.

Someone mentioned the obligatory comparison test between the new Vette and the Viper - there won’t be a new bodied ZR1 for a few years so they already tested the outgoing ZR1 against the new Viper and the ZR1 spanked the Chrysler Group’s best offering - but the Viper IS worlds better than the old Viper so it’ll sell just fine…it’s hard to beat a ZR1.

I take back my side 3/4 window C pillar thoughts, the latest AutoWeek came and there’s a great side view poster in it - the window form is more Aston Martin than Nissan GT-R…and the whole car is growing on me the more I look at it!

Maybe they didn’t just get my Dad’s approval…maybe they have mine!! Does that mean I’m old? Uh oh.

Only thing I notice in the real life pics compared to the renders is the real life panel gaps are huge.

R

Richard: I remember reading about previous GM products: “The panel gaps are big enough for a horse to make love to.” Like a rock, somethings prove difficult to change…

loved the stingray in person!
still dont like all the black vents on a colored car, but thats an easy fix. from the photos i was very suspect of the rear end design, but in person i think its cool. as someone else stated its very “in the moment” design, i dont think its TIMELESS necessarily, but niether was the IROC camaro or diablo, or countach, and thats what i love about those cars.

also looks much cmaller than the C5 and C6 vette when you walk up to it.

the main thing that worried me though was the amount of fender gap in the rear especially :open_mouth:
base model BMW 3 series or any german sedan really, all had less fender gap… i dont get it. I suppose you could make the case if it were live axle musclecar that you need the travel for launching, but the vette has grown past that right? so why so much gap?? :confused:

dziner: Remember, this is a fiberglass bodied production car. No one else does that today.

http://www.coolhunting.com/design/interview-tom-peters-2014-corvette-c7.php

decent interview over at Coolhunting with the designer Tom Peters. Apparently this design concept came before the current Camaro and influenced a lot of it.

Lotus! And their panel gaps aren’t much better than this, but they are working out of a shed in Norfolk, so you can’t expect much.

Bingo. It’s like they tried to Bengalize it to cover up the fact that the design hasn’t really changed since 1983. Which is fine, but take a page out of the 911 book guys! It’s not that hard! Well, OK it is, but still. What happened to the GM of the late 80’s? I’ve really been looking at those things the past couple years. While I’d never drive one, they actually had really nice, clean, understated lines… sortof like the one pictured above.

It seemed like since '53 or whenever it was, the Corvette redesign was able to somehow redefine the American Muscle Car and capture the American automotive zeitgeist. I think that the Viper really did that in, when did the show car hit '89? The 'Vette team should have taken a big dump in their pants when they saw that and had something truly competitive (design wise anyway) in '93. Hell, even Mustang had something ready by '93. And actually, they may have, I do recall a few cutting edge Corvette concepts back in the day, maybe '96 or so? Even the early show cars seemed promising, but possibly watered down by GM’s world famous craptastic management. Who knows. It just seemed like it was time for a truly new Corvette. This one is certainly not it.

Vette’s were always the most conservative of sports cars - remember they were the last to lose pop-up head lights.
GM is taking a huge risk here. Especially considering the crowd of over 50 white guys who make up their target market.

I don’t think they really are taking that much of a risk.

As the only person on this board who owned a Corvette (and was under 50) the old guys are still going to like it. The name/brand is enough for that, and no one who isn’t a designer is going to say “I was going to buy one but now that it has trapezoidal tail lights, I’m going to get an M3 instead”.

The Corvette has always been the American poster child for mullets, but the reality is there is no true “Sports car” in that price range from any other manufacturer. If you want a high powered, RWD vehicle you’re either left going with one of the Pony cars (Camaro, Challenger, Mustang) or you have to start jumping way up the price ladder to the more prestigious vehicles that are way higher in price.

The Vette has always been an economical (high torque, low gearing, good gas mileage) practical (you can fit a bike in the back with the hatchback design) and fantastic handling sports car/GT car. Almost all of my car buddies out of school at one point or another went to a Corvette. My brother had one, uncle had one, it’s just a great vehicle even with all the cheap rattles and junk that was associated with it.

Not only that, the Vette is the only car I have ever owned where owning one made you automatically feel like part of a community. I could never drive past another Vette driver without getting or giving a wave back. Little kids would stop me on the street and yell for a burnout. When I drive past another BMW driver at best they give me a dirty look…if they take enough time to look up from their cell phone.

GM did a lot of concepts for the Corvettes that were mentioned, like the early stingray concepts from the late 80’s/early 90’s that transformed it into everything from a Mid-Rear concept to a 2 seat roadster - and I think while any of those would have been “new and fresh” they would have diluted what makes it such a great car in the first place.

America. F yeah.

F Yeah.

Thanks for bringing some owner perspective to the conversation.

I love the current ZR1 design, and would give anything to drive one…

that only one poster here actually ever owned a vette, kinda proves my point.
so expect a non “stingray” version out in a year or two. it’ll neccessarily be a plainer looking version that will be the high volume seller (to over 50 white guys)
This (risky) version is what will drive customers into showrooms but most people will buy something else (like the new VW beetle does)

I don’t think that’s necessarily a valid proof point - how many people on here have owned any sports car whatsoever? I’m willing to bet the designer crowd would jump on a Volvo wagon before jumping to a Corvette, even at the same price.

I don’t think there’s any intention on doing a “base model” Corvette, Ed Welburn mentions in an interview with Jay Leno that the Stingray name was brought back specifically to eliminate the notion of the “Base model” Vette.

Do I think most dealers will order more conservative color combinations and that they ma offer a body matched vent option down the road? That’s more likely.

Designers are never a good sample set. We have odd tastes and corner case functional needs that lead to Volvo wagons…


I’ve only ever bought 3 cars: Toyota MR 2, Audi TT quattro, Audi s5

None of them are in the league of the Corvette, so I would not say I am a true sports car guy, but I would certainly put it in my comparison set for the next vehicle.