If price is no object, of course there are better performing cars than a $50,000 C6. How about a performance comparo with a $60,000 price limit? Then, the only competition becomes the Boxster S which may barely outhandle the C6 but not come close in speed. Comparing a car that approaches $100,000 to a non-Z51 C6 is just stupid. Even then, at almost half the price, any car that achieves even 90% of the 997's performance would have to be considered impressive.

Porsche makes cars that handle great and go fast. If they weren't so overpriced and so uncomfortable for me to drive I might even consider owning one. Those are two really big ifs, though.

 

I find it amusing that they did the test in LA and state that the 997 was getting more looks?!?! Umm, Porsches are about a dime a dozen out here, everybody seems to have one. Also considering the new 997 looks almost exactly like the 996, nobody really seems to notice except the car fans. The C6 is in low numbers out here (since buying one in January I have seen 14 of them not including my own, and not including the Block of Orange meet). My C6 turns heads a hell of a lot, and it's black (one of the most blend-in colors you can get). I get out of my car and people ask me what kind of car it is and are amazed when I tell them it's a Corvette. Plus try doing a Porsche drive with 11+ cars and see how many looks you get (ohh gee look, it's a few Porches, yawn). When we did the Block of Orange drive with that many C6's everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY was stopping what they were doing, pointing, smiling, nodding their heads, giving the thumbs up, doing double takes, everybody was impressed.

In any other city I could buy what they said, but NOT in LA.

 

Straight line performance is not the only criteria most buyers have when they purchase a car. Overall performance, comfort, features, looks, cost, etc. all factor in to a buying decision. Upgrade all those things on your hypothetical vega to match a C6 overall and where do you end up in cost? If you want to beat the 911 in every catagory except subjective (which looks better and so on) and braking, where its rear basis gives it a native advantage, you need only put gears in it and add better tires. Now it holds the performance ground and still costs 30k less. The 911s is in a whole different price point but got beat out on the track in many catagories in most tests. They are swinging the bat at the same level in the same ballpark. They are not in the same price ballpark. Not even close. You cannot ignore cost unless the difference is insignificant to the intended buyers. 35k is not insignificant to the average buyers of these cars. It is more than enough to put them in different catagory based on price. Since they are in different catagories then when comparing them comparitive value must be considered. Like I said, I dont really get the porche comparison thing. You would not compare a house that was fairly valued at 500k with one that was fairly valued at 850k. They should not be comparable. If they are comparable there is something very wrong with the 850k house or something very right with the 500k house. I think these tests get done because they are two cool cars and it gets people to read the magazine, or browse the site.

 

True - but you most also admit that if you put price aside, these two cars are competing closely when considering hp, performance etc etc - thus the comparison. So - bottom line is that the 997 does out-perform it! Like I said - spend a few $$$ on mods, and that won't even be the case!

 

I get what your saying but I dont really agree that out on real world roads it outperforms the C6 since it lost to it out on the road course in almost all the tests I have read. Most of those tests freely admit that the vette pulls it hard and feels stronger out on the road. Automobile mag summed it this way, "The corvette returned every volley the 911s fired its way. By any meaningful measure the two cars are equal in performance. Even though the 911s is sheer joy on wheels, the corvette also plays its power advantage like a pro to seize the fun-to-drive marbles. Factor in the BMW you could buy with the price difference and the sex appeal of alfresco driving on a balmy day and the corvette takes the final ritual step up to the supercar throne.". I freely admit I am biased but I just see no way a 911 finds its way into a garage unless the owner wants the badge or subjectively just flat loves the car because of its looks or whatever. The latter is not a bad reason to buy a car. If you love it, you love it.

 

From what I hear from the Porsche forums the dreaded Rear Main Seal (RMS) leak present in the 996 is also present in the 997. This is a design defect that Porsche has not been able to find a permanet fix. Many car owners keep on coming back to have the same fix only after a few thousand miles at $1000-$1500 a pop. What does this do for resale vaules of late model Porsches? This is why I am planning to buy the C6 rather than a 996 or 997. If Porsche owners are not on a first name bases with their machanic now, they soon will be.

 

From what I have heard the RMS is only an issue for the 3.6 L motors not the 3.8L.

 

My C6 has Kooks headers, Magnaflows, a low temp thermostat and some k and n's.It is a z51 6 speed. A neighbor has a new 911 Carrera. He has been telling me how fast his car is, so I challenged him to 10 mph roll up to 90 mph. His car runs good, mine runs better. We raced 3 times in which I pulled him in gears 1 thru 3 convinsively.
He paid $85000 I paid $50000.
I have always preferred v-8's because of the low end torque. My car has lots of torque and his 6 cylininder has very little.
Moral of the story....The Corvette is the car of the year.......Ask my neighbor.

 

Dude, you need to read these forums more often. Don't bring the Porsche reliability into question. I've never read more people bitch about their cars until I got on this forum. The new C6's DO NOT have a stellar reliability record so far, at least according to this forum.

I have not had any problems with mine and I love it, but Chevy and reliability are not synonomous words.

 

No joke - not only are C6s wrought with problems, they even have most of the problems that the C5s had, and GM never bothered to fix! This is typical GM though - takes them at least 2 years to work all the bugs out - buy a new GM model in its first year and be prepared to be a ginuea pig!

 

Not fair, they compared the Carrera S vs. the Non Z51. Every U.S car magaize like Car&Driver, Road&Track and even Motor Trend found that the Z51 is faster at the track than the Carrera S or No S.

 

Try going to a BMW forum, or worse a Mercedes forum. If you really want to listen to pain hit the VW forum. Even the germans themselves rated VWs quality and reliability as second to last among the top 31 automobile manufactures. I have never browsed the Porche forum but frankly I would be very suprised if there were not just as many complaints as here because all the forums that I have ever browsed for a new car are just like this one.

 

Every forum has people who complain about things wrong about their cars and I see nothing wrong with that. Porsche however, gets the award of having an INTERNAL ENGINEERING DESIGN DEFECT ie. RMS and having years to correct it but hasn't done so. That is special.

 

I understand that every car forum has problems, I was just pointing out that he didn't need to start throwing stones in this glass house.

I've had 4 Porsches from a '98 model to a 2001 turbo and have yet to have any major problems come up, pretty reliable car at least in my personal experience with them. Now I had an '87 928S4 and that is a WHOLE other story... what an expensive lesson in cars that was. But then again, I've had two Vettes and numerous GM products and I really can't complain about them either.
Very good point.

 

Reliability? I've owned 2 C5s and now my first C6 in the last 5 years. I have not had a single mechanical failure. I did have the dreaded column lock problem on the 98 Coupe. The 2000 FRC is still running hard and it is given no mercy. It all depends on what you consider as problems. Gee the radio doesn't work? I didn't buy the Vette for it's radio. I know we expect these things to work perfectly but take it from me- with all the new technology on board these new cars it amazes me we have as few problems as we do. I maintain a multimillion dollar phone system for a living and I have many more problems out of it than I have ever had out of the 6 Corvettes I have owned in the past 13 years.

 

Man, I'm tired of the 911 vs. Corvette debate. Both cars are icons in their respective countries and the hearts of their fans. I think the car mags choose this comparison because no two sports cars have been around as long. I own a C6 convertible and have driven a new Carrera. Both are great, the Porsche is a little more refined (better shifter, more buttoned down handling), the C6 is stronger and more flexible in the engine room and more comfortable (to me). I don't think many folks cross-shop these 2 great cars, so can we call it a draw, Porsche lovers and Corvette lovers, please.

Jimmy