What do you think about these as habits:
1. Go thru 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear running it up to 3,000 - 4,000 rpm regularly (50% highway / 50% urban - lights are 1 mile apart).
2. Lots of highway cruising at 1,700 rpm
3. The car has only seen 5,000 - 5,5000 rpm's 3 or 4 times
4. If I ever go past 5,000 rpm, 5,500 rpm will be my "personal" limit
5. No pop the clutch
6. no squeal the tires

This is not a Honda and I am not going to drive it like one.

How long will she last??

 

200,000 miles or more. If you don't abuse a car and take care of it, it will last a long time.

 

My point kind of was - "do you think any of this is considered abuse"?

 

That kind of driving is not abuse. There are different kinds of abuse. I drive 2.5 miles to work every day, that is one kind of abuse but your kind of driving is good for the car, it gets warmed up and you are not driving it hard. You might think your are but remember it is built to be driven hard and you are not even doing that.

 

It sure sounds like you are.

If you're going to baby the tires and brakes as well, it should hold up for 6 figure miles. The things you mentioned are not abuse and the car can take much more.

Did you buy an extended warranty?

If you like the car purely on how it looks and performance was just gravy to you, that's cool. I not sure why you'd want to set certain parameters for your driving limits. It's certainly understandable that you want to keep the car pristine, but an occasional burst to red-line surely isn't going to hurt.

I'm with you on not dumping the clutch and squealing the tires!

Mike

 

Not even close. I think you're still driving it like a Honda.

 

No, not abuse. Neither is shifting just prior to the redline and it is much more fun.

 

Are you going somewhere with this? Regardless of the car or engine type, it IS good to get well into the RPM range at least once and a while.

Like others mentioned, it's all personal. We all want our cars to last, though most would rather get on it a little and do 'over the top' maintainance like oil changes at every 150 miles

I think modern cars, regardless of make do very well in the longevity department.

 

Sorry to be rude, buy you should have bought a Prius. What fun is it to have one of the best sports cars in the world unless you drive it hard occasionally. I regularly take mine up to redline, that's what the engine is built for. The LS2 loves to run from 5,000 to 6,400, you are missing a lot of power. If you are old like me you'll understand this Disneyland analogy, you are taking an E ticket ride and turning it into a B ticket ride.

 

there's a 1700 rpm we can cruise at?? I juice it for all it's worth,baby!!!In a loving kind of way!!It's a race car,not a luxury car!I especially love getting the *** END TO slide out every now and then!With proper maintenance,it should last years and years!!GOOD LUCK!

 

Now there is a fellow who appreciates a corvette!!!!

Man don't baby a vette, don't abuse it either.

But you don't have to punish the equipment to have a lot of fun in a vette. Run it hard now and then, you need to ring that bad boy out every once in a while. A thoroughbred does not like it in the barn, he wants to race.

 

OK guys (and gals) I'll wind her up a little tighter now and then - 1,700 miles now.

I am "coining" a term here and now (if it doesn't already exist) - "Vetsation: an 'E' ride; over the top, to hit 6,500 rpm's in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears - requires a Corvette"

Thanks for all of the input - this forum is EXTREMELY helpful.

 

Much like the popular opinion -- they don't make 'em like they used to.

Granted, I wasn't around then, but my father certainly was, and it scares the crap out of him to watch me wind up both of my sports cars well into the red and right up on the rev limiter on a fairly regular basis. Back in his day, that was a sure recipe for early engine destruction.

Today, the engines are better built and rev limiters are placed so that 'redline' is really more of a 'there's no more power above here, so there's really no point' than a 'significant engine damage happening now' reminder. My 2000 Miata has over 120,000 miles on it with no engine rebuilds and sees at least three track events a year and several autocrosses. It's been beat on, I've banged it off the rev limiter more times than I can count, and the car is still strong. Our 2000 Mustang GT (which was sold to buy the Corvette) was treated much the same way, and while it gave us plenty of problems (chassis twist being one), not one was related to engine or drivetrain. The Corvette has 17,000 miles on it now and four track days at TWS (150+ speeds) without showing any signs of wear, so I suspect it'll be the same as well.

These cars were designed and built to be run and run hard. Perhaps you shouldn't do this all the time -- ours are daily drivers as well as 'race' cars -- but I honestly believe that not doing it is operating the car outside of the parameters it was designed for.

An interesting aside, the Honda S2000 has a 9000 rpm rev limiter, and you absolutely have to take it above 5000 to get any torque or horsepower out of it. I've yet to see premature engine failure in any S2000 racers that I know of, but every track day/autocross, there's at least one person who's terrified that taking it above 5000 is going to grenade the engine. They also tend to be the one who say, "I thought this thing was supposed to be fast." It is, but not when you drive it like an Accord.

 

Enjoy the car driving it as it was intended. This is my 15th Corvette, and I've had only one mechanical failure. After 70,000 miles on a '68 427, it dropped a lobe on the cam. Still ran fine, just lost a little power. I drive every one to enjoy.

 

I don't plan to needlessly beat on my vette but it's going to see its fair share of WOT and close to red line shifts. What's the point of owning a thoroughbred if you don't let it run once in awhile. I haven't installed the CAGS eliminator because it simply hasn't been an issue. It hasn’t interfered with one single shift in over 1000 miles. That tells me I'm not changing gears at low rpm. I really thought that CAGS would be a PITA but it's not! I love feeling the engine torque in around 3000 rpm right to 6 grand! With the corsa exhaust it really sounds sweet winding up through the gears. The older big blocks didn’t like to wind up like this LS2. This is nothing but a fun car to drive at speed. I suppose to each their own and if they don’t feel comfortable driving it hard then they shouldn’t do it.

 

Depends on what you hit

 

You will be going over 100mph if you hit 6,500 rpms in third - - at least that 's what I think might happen