2seats

For the past decade I have been driving Porsche and Ferrari. Porsche 996,997,991,9924s, 718 GT4. Ferrari 458, Roma, F8.

I have been observing the C8 from afar since launch. I always said as soon as these cars are at dealers for MSRP I’ll try one. Until that happened I just studied And watched every video about the engineering that went into it. I was very impressed with what I learned about the car.

Before I had a chance to drive it, I had a lot of criticisms. It’s too big. It doesn’t need a rear trunk. The back end is kind of ugly. I don’t like the way the interior looks.

well, after driving this car for a month and putting a lot of miles on it, this is my opinion. I feel like when I’m pushing the car, hard, driving, spiritedly, throwing myself into a corner it’s not as fun as a Ferrari, or even a 992, in my opinion. I would chalk this up to both cars just being a little bit smaller and a little bit lighter. The Ferrari in question cost $400,000 and my C8 cost less than 80,000. Is the Ferrari five times better? Not even close. The truth is the Corvette is almost as much fun, but not quite as much fun as the Ferrari. I am saying “almost as fun” not “almost as good” because I’m not racing and this is just subjective.

Let’s talk about the much discussed understeer. The first time I tried to go ham into a corner or just throw it into a corner. I felt it. I thought oh there it is. This is somewhat valid I guess. If every single reviewer is mentioning it, maybe it’s there. Then I thought to myself well just because the other car let me do it and let me get the rear end out a little bit to feel cool. It doesn’t mean it was the best way to drive. So then I started experimenting. I made it a point to break before the corner not give the car inputs in the middle of the corner. Make sure I was not giving the car anything other than light throttle until I was coming out of the turn. Basically what I’m saying, as I started paying attention to my break, zones, and how early I would put on the throttle and how I would modulate the throttle coming out of the turn. Once I started driving better, I no longer noticed understeer.

so that’s my performance review. To me, the Corvette is almost as fun to drive like an idiot as a Ferrari, but not quite.

now let’s talk about where the Corvette decimates every other car this car. I think this might be the best daily driver supercar. I think for a long time that title has gone to the Porsche 911, but I think that the Corvette has knocked the Porsche off the top of the hill.

To me the Corvette feels like a big 458. I’ve spent so much time driving mid Ferrari when I sit in the Corvette. It feels like I’m sitting in a Ferrari that’s a little bit bigger. as a driver, it kills the Ferrari in pretty much every category. The radio controls and Apple CarPlay controls are practically useless in a mid engine Ferrari. Almost every Ferrari owner that I know refuses to touch the radio when driving a mid Ferrari. The user interface of the stereo is so bad that if you try to do anything on it, you’re probably gonna crash the car and die. So my number one thought when driving around in the C8 is I’m driving a big Ferrari with Apple CarPlay and a big touchscreen right by the steering wheel. I think I could stop at the review right here. That automatically makes us the greatest car ever.

as I drive the car more and more, the things that I questioned before owning it all seem to make sense. They are all compromises. I thought the car was compromised, but all these compromises make it the best daily driver. It’s a little bit too big. “OK it’s probably safer” “It’s a little bit too heavy”. Again “it’s probably safer. I guess GM made the car a little bit bigger and a bit heavier and made it understeer if you botch the corner because they didn’t want Dad to die on the way to the golf course. OK that’s fine. I used to think that the interior looked funny. I didn’t like the center tunnel or the way the screen looked. If you drive this car for a while, that layout is pretty close to perfect. I guess some people don’t like the way the interior looks but it sure does work well. So pretty much everything that I didn’t like beforehand, I understand why it is this way now. I still don’t think it needs a rear trunk. Everything I put back there gets extremely warm and it smells like engine when you open the trunk.

I happen to have summer tires on all my other cars. I do not have the Z 51 package on this car. This car has all season tires and the newest wiper blades. This has been my go to car on rainy and cold days.

So in conclusion, it’s a big Ferrari with Apple CarPlay and you won’t feel bad about driving in the rain or putting miles on it.

Seriously, this might be the best daily driver I’ve ever had. The best advice I would give someone that was looking at one of these would be drive it as much as you can.

DrewK769

Great review. I’d be interested to see how you would have evaluated the handling of the car if it had the Z51 package and mag ride. From my perspective, still an amazing daily driver but with world class handling. Aligned and corner balanced to the GM track spec, it’s sublime. The Corvette all seasons, though, are spectacular tires in the cold and wet. I can see the appeal of the base car as a daily.

Lawdogg

Trail brake into the corners and the car will turn in with no drama and you can go heavy on the gas by mid corner.

JerryU

Thanks, good read! Bet with your history you'd agree with the "Father of MRC" who helped develop the handling with Z51 suspension adding, MAG ride, Summer tires and I'll add eSLD (working all the time versus 1960's Positraction on the Base C8) makes a significant difference.

Bluehinder

Good to know it's a safe buy.

24RiptideBlue

Great review. Much appreciated. Before the C8 my mid engine target was an F430 Scuderia that I drove on one of those Supercar drives. But based on pricing of the F430 and the later 458/488 my sights got shifted to an early 90’s 348. Nice sports car but not the performer the 430 and later are.

I thought the same thing about the C8. A little too big a little too heavy but wow is an amazing car to drive. I never messed with the radio in the F430. The C8 radio and CarPlay may be better but to me it’s crap because on my 2024 most of the stuff doesn’t work without a subscription which isn’t happening at any price. I really don’t care about connecting my phone and with no Nav I basically have a touch screen FM radio. So to me that’s a miss… but what I bought the car for. Flying down back roads. Wow. It does that in spades. And comfortably…

Hope to take your advice and drive the wheels off…. As soon as Spring comes. Right now its 24 degrees with snow and ice on the ground and the roads have been salted several times for various storms. So the C8 rests on it tender. Waiting…

C5racecar

Great review. Thanks for your honest opinion.
I don't own a Ferrari but I do agree that fun per dollar factor with the C8 is off the charts compared to the European cars.

You may get a good sense of handling on city streets, but sustained cornering on a race track at race speeds is another world.
The big and wide corners on a track approached at high speed really amplify the handling characteristics, and the understeer may disappear.

I hope you get a chance to take your C8 to the track to test it out. I am really curious as to how it handles on the track compared to what you are experiencing.

switchlanez

Great impartial take. I've never driven a 458 but, based on various material I've consumed about it, my presumptions match your conclusions about its size/weight/hoon factor relative to the C8. The C8 is my proxy for the 458 and, depending on my future finances, it may replace my Mustang as my daily driver.

I coincidentally heard this today about Ferrari vs Corvette styling on Regular Car Review's latest upload that features a Ferrari 308:

"One of [Ferrari's] great skills is building cars that draw attention to the driver. Their automotive designs are about the human inside, not the car itself . . . Corvette styling is about a Corvette. It's not about the person inside."

Yeah, I can see that. Ferraris have a docile but stylized design. Neither evil nor innocent or overtly aggressive nor timid. Its attitude gets deferred to the driver. If the driver is an *******, then it becomes an *******'s car. If the driver is classy, then it's a classy car. Unlike Lamborghinis which exude an initial bias of bravado before you even see its driver. Ferrari designs don't lead you on with prejudices about its driver but invite you to be curious about its owner.

The C8's design is aggressive and expressive. Neither good nor evil but dangerous like an inanimate weapon (guns don't kill people, people kill people). Or a stealth war machine like the F-35 fighter jet that inspired its design. And its driver just becomes an anonymous pilot. Its driver don't matter because 'MURICA lol

Ron_Attleboro_MA

Thank you 2seats for giving an honest review.
Maybe someday give an update on maintenance costs and reliability between all the sports cars you owned.
Are you thinking you want to try a Z06?

gajin

I've never owned a "full size" Ferrari. I do admire their styling and have a few of the 1:18 scale diecast models. On the other hand, I've owned Porsches too for the past 30 years. My main attraction to Porsches have been their engineering. Styling is a hit and miss with the Stuttgart cars. I've also owned a number of Corvettes. The first one was a 1985 Z51. Corvette offers the best bang for the money. Yes. Some of the Porsches I've owned where total screaming beasts like my 1979 Porsche 930 Turbo. Scary at high speeds and challenging to drive. The most recent Porsche I've owned was a 996 Turbo. It was ***** cat with all-wheel drive and nannies available during the mid-90s. All seven Corvette including my current C8 are RPO Z51 equipped. One exception was my 1990 ZR-1/LT5 but it was alike to a RPO Z51 but more so. Z51 to me even at the todays prices is one of the best value in Corvettes. The extra cooling and big brakes alone are what leads me to this option. The C8 now evens adds aero package with their Z51 option. For as long as I can and will own a car, there will always be a Corvette in the garage. Best performance package for the price!

2seats

A few replies to the comments:

Ferrari cars are actually extremely reliable with reasonable service costs once you get to 360 and newer. 458 is one of the most bullet proof cars ever built. There is a tiny chance you will one day need a 40k dollar dct unit, but now they actually started swapping out internal parts, sensors for maybe 10k. There are a plethora of warranties you can carry to mitigate this minute chance. Other than that, the car is extremely well built and extremely reliable. The 488 and the FA are also extremely reliable. The most annoying thing about these cars to me is the parasitic draw. I was daily driving an F8 a 100 miles a day and still had to plug it into the trickle charger. I live on a high rise so this is hard sometimes.

as far as drawing attention, two different worlds. If you like a lot of attention and you like everyone to kiss your *** and congratulate you for being alive, then get a Ferrari. You can’t even imagine how it makes other people react. Let’s say you’re a very chill, laid-back humble person who just really likes exotic cars and you’re driving around every day in a Ferrari. It draws a reaction from everyone. Some people will kiss your ***. Some people will automatically hate you because you drive a gerrari. it’s a weird experience.

as far as Z51 and magna ride. My 458 and F8 and Roma all had magna. The system in the 458 was good and the system in the F8 was brilliant. so I would imagine that having Z 51 and magna ride on the C8 would definitely make it better. I could not pass up the allure of getting a car that was just over $70,000. I bought an LT1 non z51. it actually has the competition seats. Weird combo. Strangely enough, it works kind of well. I don’t mind a softly sprung, mid engine, sports car. I enjoyed my Ferrari way more than my Porsche GT cars because they were more softly sprung. Gordon Murray believes in his cars softly sprung, and Magri would be better, but I also get the benefit of having a fixed suspension that I always know what it’s going to do, it not necessarily but it’s enjoyable and its own way. I do miss the hand of God helping me out a little bit. I could’ve got a car with everything I wanted on it for around 94 but I weighed that against getting a basic car for 74 and decided to go that way. I am driving the car on a long commute averaging about 80 miles a day. This will end up being a very high mileage car very fast.

Mrchen

Great review, I agree with your thoughts ont he interior, and I approve of the wall, I know the passenger feels cut off but this car isnt built for them and this interior just works very well for spirited driving while being able to full function and accesss features

johnodrake

Nice review

billclerm

Great review . Thank you for Posting.

undecided1965

The car is tremendous. The only Ferrari I've driven (on an actual road course) was a F430 Modena. There are two things that the C8 could do better. Lighter of course and steering. The F430 steering was telepathic. The C8 has great steering but you don't 'feel' it. Some other things that the C8 does that are different and perhaps better or worse depending on your use case is that the car is very quiet until you really push the motor, then it sounds quite good. The F430 sounded more racey even when going slow. The lack of noise detracts from driving pleasure but also makes the C8 a better daily for a lot of people.

2007yellow430

from a F430 owner you got it exactly right, however I do have a 296 on order.

Art

THX_ZORA

I too enjoyed the OP's review-very much.....One item I am interested in; how much do they miss that glorious whine of a Ferrari sitting right behind your head.......compared to the C8 where it's mostly crickets in the cabin, from an engine sound standpoint.

Vetteman Jack

Thanks for your review and enjoy that C8.

RKCRLR

I open my back window for engine sound...

4thC4at60

I am oh, so jealous, in a good way...