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The car is utterly ridiculous. The dumbest thing I hear is when people look at me crestfallen and say 'yours isn' a Z06?' as if a Z51 Stingray isn't fast enough. What a face palm. As if. I can't open up my car on public roads, it's like a race car for crissake.
WOW!!!!
As much as I hear you guys cry about speeding on public roads.......
1st-4th gear well over 100 mph, but nothing from the guys who never go past 65 mph except for on a "Professional Track" Hmmmmmm, very interesting!!!
When I do acceleration demos with uninitiated passengers I now give them notice, like "I'm going to punch it for three seconds, so don't freak out." In the past some have looked genuinely shocked and terrified with no warning, so I've adjusted my procedure accordingly. Since then I usually get a "OMG!" or similar, rather than a conniption.
The best reactions are the deceleration ones when you are coming down from 150 mph to go around a 50 mph turn. That is when people get green and light headed as they absolutely know you are going too fast to slow down for that corner and then the G Force caused by the brakes throws them forward into the belts giving them even more motion sickness. Braking G force is always higher than acceleration G force because the brakes are far stronger than the engine. When you stop a lot of the uninitiated need help getting out of the car and some actually need help walking for a few minutes after getting out. Of course there are some that just keep saying faster, faster, faster like a State Department employee that I took for a ride. She had survived the bombing of an embassy and nothing seemed to bother her.
My wife won't even sit in my Corvette.
If your wife/girlfriend enjoyed the spirited driving, the next step would be to get her a ride along at a local track day.
As Bill Dearborn describes it, that's how you can tell if she was really enjoying it or just faking it..... just talking about the spirited driving!
Last edited by blueray16; May 2, 2018 at 08:34 PM.
my wife on my new c7: "oh, it doesn't seem as fast as your old z06! (c6) " 45 more horsepower.... REALLY, a difference? Naw. Still thumbs up for the best, the C7!
Last edited by SilverGhost; May 2, 2018 at 11:04 PM.
I mostly drive speed limit and cautious. I appreciate the rare few moments to accelerate or take an onramp / offramp circle at a moderate speed and feel sucked into the seat. My wife is actually the bad influence. We were on a very light freeway the other night, and she wanted me to slow the car to 50 and then accelerate. I dropped the speed to 50, put her in second gear, and then was at 90 so quick it was ridiculous (then back to 70-75 of course). And, that's with a GS. I don't even know what people would do with ZR1 power!
I definitely want more opportunities to work on the acceleration though. The automatic transmission in manual mode has that annoying lag, and I always seem to screw up 1st -> 2nd.
I have had at least one Corvette the whole time I have known my wife, 27 years.
Only once did I scare / **** her off in one of them. It was shortly after putting a 3:73 rear gear, Art Car built 200R4, custom stall converter and a ZZ4 HO in my 1980. We were on a country road near the house doing 45 mph when I punched it. The car got a bit side ways. It was pretty quick with the new set up. Well over 100 before she fully straitened out. I was promptly told to slow the Fu.. down and take me home right now! She never got in that car again in the 7 more years I owned it.
I bought the 14 3LT, Z51 7 speed manual. She said if you want me to ride in your car, no stupid stuff or it will be just like your 80. That said I did several hard accelerations to over 100 with her in the car, but she did not get up set. Car stayed straighter and feels safer. Could be she also took the Ron Fellows course with me right after we got the 14. So now if I'm push to much she will just say, think a minute.
Haven't opened up the 18 Grand Sport with her in it yet.
