Yahoo Autos The Grand Sport Is the Corvette for Drivers
It was maddening, really.
There I was, behind the wheel of the new, hybrid-powered, technological wonder (and Performance Car of the Year) Acura NSX on my home track, NCM Motorsports Park, and R&T.com Site Director Travis Okulski was directly ahead of me in the 2017 Corvette Grand Sport. I'd spent the last two laps reeling him in, slowly but surely, but I couldn't quite catch him. In fact, in Turn Five, the long, fast, sweeping right-hander in the back section, he actually widened the gap a bit. And although I made it back up in the tighter turns that followed, I couldn't quite get close enough to force a point-by when we came back around to the front straight.
You see, I had arrived to the PCOTY test waving the Acura flag loudly and proudly, having piloted the NSX to victory in the SCCA's Targa Southland event just a few weeks before at the very same track. And yet here was a crude, pushrod-V8 powered, Made-in-Kentucky Corvette managing to keep this modern marvel of technology behind its rather wide rear bumper.
What was this voodoo? I followed the admittedly gorgeous Grand Sport into pit lane as quickly as possible-I just had to find out. Luckily, I had just the right venue to do it.
If you're going to subject a Corvette to scrutiny, there's no better place to do it than Bowling Green, Kentucky, the final assembly point of every 'Vette since 1981. And if Bowling Green is Mecca for Corvette owners, then NCM Motorsports Park is the Grand Mosque. Each and every day, Corvettes (and Corvette owners) of all vintages line up for lead/follow touring laps around the 3.2 mile track at "above highway speeds." In reality, this equates to about 80 MPH on the front straight, and cruising speeds everywhere else. All that potential on such a gorgeous canvas-it would be like hiring Monet to paint your family portrait, and then limiting him to primary colors only. Corvettes come to Bowling Green to sample only the slightest taste of their abilities, only to shrink underneath car covers and behind garage doors for the rest of their days.
As I slide behind the wheel of the Grand Sport, I am determined to make the most of my time with it. After all, this is the Corvette that has been lauded as the perfect combination of Stingray powertrain and Z06 suspension-all the grip and balance of a supercar paired with the naturally-aspirated roar of GM's direct-injected V8 powertrain. But surely it will all fall apart in this exclusive company. The Grand Sport is a fine car, but it's not a modern marvel like the NSX, or a finely-tuned scalpel like the Lotus Evora 400, or even a blunt instrument like the Audi R8 V10. No, it's just another Corvette, a movie that we've seen before, including two of the last three PCOTY tests. Sure, it's been a great movie, but I fear the Grand Sport is more The Godfather: Part III than Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Making a beeline from pit lane into Turn Two, my suspicions are being confirmed. It's no faster in a straight line than the Stingray, of course, and it doesn't sound any different, either. But as I start to accelerate through the relatively benign Turns Three and Four, I realize that I'm carrying well over a hundred miles toward Turn Five. I briefly remember Okulski's earlier magic trick in that same turn, and I dare to think I might be able to carry somewhere near 90 through the off-camber corner.
Okay. Now I get it. Hell, yes, do I get it.
Not only is 90 possible, it's easy. In fact, on the next two laps I get closer and closer to nudging triple digits, sliding past 95 on the speedometer-no, not with ease, but who wants that kind of driving to be easy? Feeling the Corvette pull over one G on the optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s isn't just exciting, it's downright intoxicating. As such, the Corvette, down on power in the straights, does a very un-Vette like thing-it makes time on everybody in the corners.
Along with the Evora, the Grand Sport is the only car here to offer the chance to row your own gears. It's not a purely analog experience-flawless rev-matching makes that perfect heel-toe combination sadly unnecessary-but the Corvette makes a marvelous, scientific facsimile of a driver's car. While the suspension absorbs curbing and elevation changes without a second thought, it still communicates every scratch on the track's surface. And don't worry about the seemingly infinite drive modes and stages of traction control. Just turn as many settings "OFF" as possible and go. The grip and confidence will be there.
At this price, however, there are compromises to be made. While the Grand Sport isn't what anybody would call cheap-our car was optioned up to $90,260 with the Z07 kit and other upgrades-it's still the least expensive car in the test fleet. The interior won't stir great aesthetic joy in the heart of anybody but the most fervent of Vette loyalists. The sound isn't as nasty as I'd want it to be. And, amazingly, the 460 horsepower generated by the V8 seems almost quaint among this ensemble.
But if I had the chance to put any of the contenders in my garage, to drive to the office on Friday and drive to the track on Saturday, there's no question in my mind that the Corvette Grand Sport would be the one. This isn't the Vette for the owner who only knows how fast the magazines say his car goes and which cleaning products produce the best shine. This is the Vette that hangs with cars more than twice its price tag. This is the Vette for the drivers.
So, please, if you buy one, drive it. Do it for all of us who wish we could do it ourselves. Maybe it's not the Performance Car of the Year, but it's certainly the performance car that provides the most "Yes!"
You Might Also Like
