themonk

You see you just proved my point, the Viper did win based on performance, that's what a sports car should be be based on, not price, or interior fit and finish or cargo room. You buy a sports car for what it can do, not how much it can carry.

Think about it, isn't this what you do everyday (on nice days) to maybe a lesser extent:

0-60 - green light acceleration.
1/4 mile - freeway on ramp merging.
cornering - clover leafs
braking - sometimes we panic brake (no word of a lie, I did in my Explorer today as not to run over a f'kn rabbit).

I don't expect the Corvette to win every competition, nor will it, but I will tell you this much, to not pick it as a winner because the db's in the interior is slightly higher or rear visibility isn't quite as good for a 5"4' munchkin who has his seat so close to the steering wheel he can barely steer is total BS.

As for what the professional journalists think about this car and that one is of no consequence to me, I really don't care what they think, if I did I wouldn't be buying a C7. My Grand National handles like crap, brakes like crap, straight line by todays standards isn't all that great (although it can handle it's own) but it's not always about how the car feels, it's how I, Me, Myself feels when driving it, not a journalist.

Reciprocal

I don't see how confident you can feel if you are participating in a performance activity with the knowledge you will have to take a slower car to victory. If you are competing, beating the other guy is the confidence builder. Getting rewarded with 2nd place for a car that is giving you all its got is just a reminder your car is slower. In that case, you can only be confident in the absence of the other.

wishihad1-2

This video might help explain why the C6R uses coils.

What you see is a machine that can turn springs. Note that their is no mold. The fiberglass spring requires a mold. The reason why that maters is that the machine in the video can quickly change from a Corvette spring to a Toyota spring just with a few changes in the software that runs the arms. Thus a very small run of springs, say the number of springs needed for a race car, is very cheap since there is basically no tooling cost.

It's also important to remember that the cycle life of the C6R springs is not 200,000+ miles.

There is simply no validity to the notion that coils make the suspension "more" independent. Remember that roll bar thing? Also, remember that chassis thing? Independent means geometrically independent, not independent force. In actuality we want/need interconnection between the sides of the car to make it handle correctly.

Guibo

Did it? Read it again:
Viper vs Vette convertible with other sports cars, R&T 7/98
...
Points before price consideration (including all objective performance and subjective points factored in): 266.9 vs 270.2

You buy a sports car for what it can do...is that why so few sports cars are actually tracked? Maybe people buy a sports car for how it makes them feel.

But to even get to the green light, freeway ramp or clover leaf, what are you doing if not driving and interacting with the car? See, steering feel and overall precision can be enjoyed at any speed, if it is there. A nice interior can be enjoyed when the car isn't even moving. Panic braking happens very rarely, but feeling how the brakes work happens all the time (if the brakes communicate). There's not a huge difference in freeway ramp merging between a 12.0-second car vs a 12.3 second car. If you're merging at 114+ mph, you're looking at instant incarceration and/or impounding of the vehicle in some places.

And in which test between a Corvette or Porsche did this actually happen?

I didn't say you should care. You asked what makes their opinions valuable. I gave some reasons, many of which (to me, and to the manufacturers themselves) seemed fairly valid.

Ah, so that's the crux of it: It is purely subjective, after all. Thanks for playing.

Guibo

Primary words of importance highlighted.
Victory...Where is this victory, and what have you won? Money? Endorsements? Sounds to me like there is still some confusion going on between what a luxury sports car for the road should be, and what a race car should be.
And if there is nobody else around to even compare (which it often is), then the absence of the other means your car has no value, correct? Because if value is determined by fractional objective differences, to the exclusion of everything else that makes up a road car, and if there is no one else even around by which to measure...

Reciprocal

So what confidence should the slower car inspire? Less powerful cars are inherently easier to drive at the limits because the limits are lower. This should be obvious.

Guibo

The slower car should inspire the same confidence, that what you put into it, in terms of braking, steering, and throttle, should be met with a desired and predictable response. For a long time, the less powerful Porsche was not easier to drive than front-engined cars with more power. If the manufacturer cannot achieve that, then perhaps they are right to be criticized for putting more power than can safely (or intuitively, as jawnathin said in another thread) be used, even by a seasoned racing veteran like Randy Pobst (as appears to be the case with the F12).
I'm not sure the limits of the 911 were that much lower than the Corvette's. It pulled an average of 0.88g around the figure-8, compared to 0.82g for the C7.