schappy

I currently have a '16 Miata and last weekend I took a test drive in a Corvette Grand Sport convertible. I did this for two reasons. First, I have never driven a Corvette (even though I have owned two Z/28's in the distant past, one of which could do low 12's in the quarter) and I felt I owed it to myself to consider one. Second, I have been very seriously considering doing the LS swap in my Miata from Flyin Miata.

Well, after driving the Corvette, I think I just cured my desire to do an LS swap, as I felt the Grand Sport had a totally ridiculous amount of power for the street. There was no way you can ever drive that car flat out often enough, on the street, to get comfortable with how it reacts at the limit. It also wanted to light up the tires from a rolling start in first gear when I put the pedal down.

What was really interesting was how fast things happen when gunning it. Time and distance seem to contract and I really questioned whether I could react fast enough if I a car next to me decided to do something unexpected.

I can only assume that a Miata with similar power would be even more ridiculous.

After the test drive, I got back into my Miata and, while certainly slower, the difference didn't feel as stark. I attribute this to the fact that I could give myself a feeling of "driving" the car, given the lower power level, a lot more than just feathering around in the Corvette. Yes, at WOT, the Corvette was a totally different experience, but one that could only be enjoyed in small bites.

Put simply, I feel like I would have more fun driving my Miata flat out all the time than I would driving the Corvette around most of the time at 20%. I guess for me I would rather have a huge cheeseburger as opposed to just a fork of filet mignon.

I plan to take another drive in a C7 convertible, just to see if I feel the same after another test drive.

Am I just getting old? Have you ever had these thoughts with your car?

Again, this is purely driving on the street. Obviously track driving is a totally different environment and one where the Corvette is at home.

I would really like to get some feedback from the owners here to see if they ever feel this way. Perhaps it is just my preferred driving style that is not necessarily conducive to driving a Corvette?

lakemg

What was the ambient temperature during your test drive? When the roads get sub 60 degrees, I find that my Z51 will annihilate the tires at will. When the temps get warmer, much better traction. Just saying in case your experience was flawed due to the temps...

schappy

Temps were in the mid-70's, so that was not an issue. However, it was a used one with 8K miles on it. I forgot to check the tires to see how worn they were. But more to the point of my post is that I felt like if I had one, I would be holding back most of the time I drove it as opposed to being able to enjoy winding the car out and going through the gears.

FLEXjs

Sounds like it.

No.


I'm kinda new here but this is the most ridiculous thread I've seen so far. I can't even believe you took the time to create an account to post this. You clearly don't want a C7 so......I has a confused????

schappy

I pretty much expected at least one person to take this post as being negative. Thanks for being open minded and welcoming.

Pineapple

sTz

schappy

Mine is the exact same spec as yours and everything you said I agree with, and I think that might be what I love about the car, you always feel like you are going faster than you really are, which makes it very satisfying to drive. Of course, once you have to pass that Accord V6 in the merging lane next to you, that is when I start to feel like I want more power.

And the stark difference between the ND and the Corvette, like you said, makes the two cars feel very different. I do have to say, there is also nothing like the sound of a small block Chevy and I do miss that!

PatternDayTrader

Sometimes its more fun to drive a slow car fast, then it is to drive a fast car slow. Its also a bit less risk if you are trying to develop your driving skills.

TXshaggy

dvilin

I can not think of too many cars you can drive flat out on the street. As for the Vette my 2019 Z06 Convertible is a pleasure to drive whether using 20% of its power or in selected spots 100% of its power. Sometimes just a taste of its power is enough to make your day.
Using your filet mignon/cheeseburger analogy with the Vette you get both and as much of each whenever you want.

EvanZR1

What you experienced is true of most modern high performance cars. Flooring a C7 in 2nd will quickly exceed most speed limits, and doing it in 3rd will quickly take you into "go directly to jail" territory. And yes, the manual is harder to put down power in versus the automatic, and does lead to a constant feeling of having to hold back to keep traction. That's part of the big cubic inch OHV engine with loads of low end torque. I've got a 91 Corvette ZR-1 with a built 391 cubic inch motor that's easier to floor it in because it's a DOHC motor and doesn't have a ton of low end torque.

I've thought many times that for pure "street" driving something like the Miata or a previous gen BMW Z4M (owned one for several years) is a great street car because it doesn't have as much HP, and you can rev it to redline everytime you pull away from a light. Other alternative is an AWD vehicle. I recently got rid of a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT, which was an absolute blast to drive on the street because you could drop the hammer from a stop and it just hooked and launched, sub 4.5sec 0-60 every time, whether dry, wet, hot or cold.

As to things happening really fast (time and distance contracting), yes. However the more you do it, the more you get used to it and react faster and think further ahead. It certainly leads to thinking before you go full throttle: how much clear road do I have, watching what other cars are doing more closely, being ready to swerve or jump on the brakes if needed, etc.

AceG

From what i heard, on a track all you see is miatas flying past you being so small nimble

lakemg

I get what he's saying which is why I am totally happy with the Z51. If I hammer on it, I'm at 70 mph before I know it and have to shut things down unless I want a ticket. Z06 would make the thrill even shorter in duration...

KenHorse

wrloomis

I owned a street Miata a couple years ago (and raced spec miata for many years) and am on my sixth corvette. It sounds like you were intimidated by the car which is very understandable. If you really want to own a high horsepower car, you should do a driving school like Spring Mountain so you can be safer on the road. It was this school that got me into racing (back when it was Bragg-Smith).

I think if you do Spring Mountain and push the car under their close supervision and on a closed course you will be hooked on the vette and understand why one would daily drive it.

bimmerborn

Miatas are fun to drive. And so are all Corvettes. Obviously we are comparing apples and oranges.
Answering OP's original question, believe me or not, we have many members here in this forum who use all the power of their Corvette engine. Some even opted for higher models with more powerful engine. Some even modify their engines for even more power. You are correct, not necessarily for the street, but if I have a Corvette, I have a use for it.

schappy

It is interesting that you mention AWD vehicles as my last two were both AWD (Golf R & Audi S4) and both were obviously less powerful than a Corvette. I think I really need to take another test drive and perhaps even rent one for a weekend to really get a feel for it.

themonk

100 km/h is 100 km/h whether you're driving a Miata or Corvette, the only difference is how long it takes for you to get to that speed so why someone would say "it has way too much power for the street" I have no idea.

bimmerborn

Usually at Auto-X. Depends on the track layout thought.