The Car thread
- Thread starter 6thElement
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This club doesn't do that. It's the Arctic Sports Car Club, not part of SCCA, so there really were no classes. I'm not sure if they intend to post results by class/pax, but it didn't seem so. Much looser run organization in every way. I thought my best time was a 149.2, but I hadn't heard my 2nd to last (they transmit on 107.9 so you can tune your car radio to hear your time after the timing lights). Only after the race did I learn my 2nd to last time was 148.5, which I was happy with, as well as my standing overall. The Legend race car I was behind is insane fast in the turns, and then after that in the order was the C8, although that was significantly faster than me. There are some saying on the forums that SS 1LEs can run with them...not in my experience, they are reaching much higher peak speeds and reaching them faster, just an amazing performer. Either those C8 driver suck or I suck, which is possible, but the C8 seems to be a much higher performance vehicle (and it classes higher). Still, to get 4th overall is not bad and when the courses start getting longer like this, I tend to do better and better (as it gets bigger). It's also cool because they use the oval, the parking lot and the strip, so you get to some higher speeds (for us). Our normal AutoX stuff is real tight and speeds are pretty low. Any time I can get into 3rd gear...
You are welcome.
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This car is about 6 to 8 inches wider than your average car which makes it very easy to handle around the terns.You are welcome.
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Sweet, I wanted a new bird watching car.
Doesn't say what it is titled as and it's a VW 4 speed but listed as a 2011. Guessing it's a bug chassis with a V8. Sketchy.
Corvette is now mid-engine?
People point to the spot-pricing issue in Texas during floods as a setback to EVs, but forget this sort of shit happens to ICE vehicles too:
Welcome to 3 years ago? This is the Z06 in all it's glory. The E-Ray (front electric drive) will be next, then the ZR1(twin turbo flat plane) and Zora (all of it?).
I assume I’m not the first to say this, but the Corvette doesn’t look like one anymore.
Everywhere I've been where one is around, it gets non-stop attention.
Some folks are plenty pissed about that. But the fact that the C8.R is crushing on the track shows why it was needed for next level.
<edit> the Z07 package is supposed to include carbon wheels and active aero for less than $100k.
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Yeah, I suppose they are going after a different market. I’m sure they are super fast on the track, but supercars on public roads is pretty nonsensical. Enjoy that 30km/h and speed bumps in my hood!
The corvette not looking like itself has probably been going on for 2-3 generations now… but this is coming from those who have seen it through many generations. My uncle who has one (2008?) said this to me. He pointed to the lack of round tail lights and the general angulation. This was prior to the mid-engine. It’s a whole new ballgame now. Such is life I suppose.
The c8 looks pretty cool imo. It looks like a modern version of a European wedge of sorts.
When folks say corvette though, it is the C1, 2 or 3 that comes to mind.
C6 C7 and C8 are the only ones that ever interested me, and the C6 just a few of the models, like Z06. Lots of the ones before that were just jokes in many ways. There are one or two stand-outs, but for a long while in the 80s GM was trying to pitch this as an alternative to the 911. It was in no way such a car, lacking basically everything. The few times they could get decent 0-60s or quarter miles, they would then over-exaggerate the point to make it seem like it was on-par. I see the later C6s as part of the cars that GM came out with for enthusiast where they actually took performance seriously. Pontiac G8, Z06s, ZR1s, ATS-V and CTS-V, 6th gen Camaro 1LE/ZL-1s, and more. Even a CTS-V wagon, a freaking wagon, which is cool as hell. Nothing like that from Ford, who tries to stretch the mustang to fit all performance realms.
The regular non-Z51 C8 is very tame, pretty soft, probably what you have in mind. There are some good vids on the differences and how much that one sucks on the track.
I think your uncle is just yelling at clouds. If they improve performance and re-define what the car is, all the better. If they try to hang on to nostalgia and use that as an excuse for meh-improvements, that really doesn't get my attention. They can absolutely redefine the car any time they want, as long as it's a good car. How not to do this is like in 2008 when Subaru decided to import the Impreza GT and call it the "WRX" in the US. It was NOT a WRX, it was NOT a better car, it was a turd. The hatch wasn't the problem, the skinny luke-warm Impreza and internals were.
Yeah, the round tail lights will be missed for sure. But the idea that a semi-mass produced American car can compete with Euro cars at a fraction of the cost is pretty cool.
We will never have an F1 driver, but at least we can win LeMans
Well to be fair, LeMans or the ALMS (not even sure if thats still around, don't watch anything nowadays) is/was way more exciting to watch than F1 ever was.Yeah, the round tail lights will be missed for sure. But the idea that a semi-mass produced American car can compete with Euro cars at a fraction of the cost is pretty cool.
We will never have an F1 driver, but at least we can win LeMans
I've only gone to one race years ago, but I'll never forget the sound of the Corvette's running around Mosport. Or should I say feel them, those 7.0 liter v8's were freakin' loud.
The flat plane is nutty. 9k redline! I don't rev mine much above 3k, so I have no idea what that's like.
F1 has been really good. Last Sunday was crazy! Lando should have boxed! But he will get a win soon.
My uncle was commenting on an aesthetic design element that is no longer and a car that no longer looks much like itself – that's valid. It says nothing of performance. I think it's important for strong lines like the corvette to carry some recognizable elements along the way even if they're making fairly drastic changes. Round taillights are a small affordance that says, "corvette"... that's something he was just noting was gone. The f's he gives are near zero. He has a corvette that he likes (C6), the end.
I think they do carry on evolutionary lines. It doesn't mean it looks like a 1954, but they always carry on features of the last few generations forward. So it's got angular lines, "V"s and triangles like the C7 and the C7 carried forward a lot of the design cues of the C6, and so on...
The Corvette was very close to being killed off at the end of the 80's. The Doug Nash 4+3 transmission mixed with the L98 motor made the Corvette a turd. The LT1 and T56 6 speed made a HUGE difference, but the chassis still had issues.
The C5 moved the trans to the back with the all aluminum LS1 gave it near 50/50 weight. The torque tube chassis is wicked stiff that allows +1g turns. The C5.R won races that proved the improvements.
The C6 is really a C5.5 and the C7 had the 7 speed manual and slush box auto that were meh. The C8 was natural evolution.
So how the hell did Mercedes do what they did with the GT Black front engine rear drive?
The driver is sitting damn near over the rear axle. Plus, almost anything is possible if you throw as much money at it as necessary/possible. Mercedes would never go exotic mid-engine for a production car, they just don't do that. So they'll use more exotic engineering to get to the same place, with more cost naturally. The C8 isn't all that lightweight and from what I've heard on auto blogs that spoke with the engineers, that's part of the sacrifice for the cost. It's not crazy heavy either, but it's not C5 light (also not full of C5 plastic either). So probably less use of aluminum, structural CF and other lightweight materials that could bring the weight down more. Best value for the performance from their point of view.
My point about the chassis and competition of the previous cars though was more directed at the cars as a whole. It wasn't that there weren't good performing models as far as certain parameters, it's just that what they chose to go up against in marketing was so much more solidly built, much more quality, and so on. Buddy at work has the first version C6, before they used the LS3 in it, slush box, and because I gave him a ride one day in my C6 Camaro 2SS 1LE, he kept bugging me for weeks after that he "owed me" a ride in his plastic-mobile. I was able to avoid this for months. When I finally did, it goes without saying I was really underwhelmed. Especially because the top of my head in the px seat was where the roof would be, but also the miles and miles of plastic. We get a bit unrealistic and biased though in our expectations for interiors IMO too. You look at any older interiors and you tend to see a lot of stuff that we gave a "pass" on with other manufactures at the time that we are now somehow concerned about. But again, what they were choosing to benchmark kind of led them into this. The concept was good, big american V8 performance coupe, but it was only occasionally pulled off well.
The new e-mobile is pretty bad ass, too.for certain definitions of "production"
I happened to catch a test of the c8 the other day from a a UK reviewer, one thing that caught my attention was that he said the milage on his test was like 3mpg! Obviously that was under a combo of ‘spirited’ driving and just regular cruising but holy shit.
I've got nearly the same engine, it's a revised intake on the LT1. I get around 24mpg on the highway at normal speeds. I'm 22-24 with a bike on my receiver too. That's with giant giant wheels and tires. The C8 gets away with less giant wheels and tires, not as much of a brick in the air.
I don't even want to know what my MPG is while racing...but that's every and any car. No matter how hard I drive I can't really get it below 18 and it's hard to get more than 24 at any normal highway speed.
I'm thinking that 3mpg is just during tracking. Hell, we sit there warming up engines and components so they won't bite back so hard, or burning off fuel to get at the right weight, etc. I'd be pretty confident in Chevrolets mileage figures, even driving it pretty hard. Track at 10/10ths is totally different.
My C5 is averaging 26.8mpg over 7 years. Now I've never raced it, I have driven it as intended (get about 7 when scooting). I get up to 32mpg at 70mph in 6th gear @ about 1200rpm. The C5 has the lowest drag of any generation.
<edit> 140k miles in those 7 years and a lot of commuting.
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Yeah, virtually no frontal area. The pushrod V8 sits down so low and takes up so little space comparatively. Same thing with the C8, I was look in closer and that engine is really down low in there. Nice setup.
That's why some folks call it a front-mid engine because it's physically behind the front axle vs over it.
It's all fun and games until you need to get under it.
Fun fact. It's WAY easier to drop the motor out the bottom than it is to pull it out from the top. You can pull it out from the top, but it's a bitch.
man, the car market is insane right now. new cars have a $3k markup attached and used ones are through the roof. sheesh
Cars, cars, cars… you’d think there weren’t enough in the world!