2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51! Testing the New High Tech Vette! - Ignition Ep. 77 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

Finally! On this episode of Ignition

Transcript

00:00 [ENGINE REVVING]

00:14 Here we have the C7 Corvette Stingray, the latest

00:18 iteration of America's sports car.

00:20 And it's definitely one of the year's most hotly anticipated

00:23 cars for myself, too.

00:25 Why?

00:26 Well, it's because it's a sports car.

00:28 Why?

00:30 Well, it has a dramatic departure in styling

00:31 that ushers it into a new era.

00:34 We have more power, more grip, better braking performance,

00:37 so it's faster, too.

00:40 But crucially, there's an unprecedented amount

00:42 of technology that promises a new level of driving

00:45 sophistication.

00:47 But without any further ado, let's get behind the wheel.

00:50 [ENGINE REVVING]

01:02 Around the figure eight, the C7 drives very differently

01:05 than its predecessor.

01:07 [TIRES SCREECHING]

01:11 It likes slip angle.

01:12 It likes sliding.

01:13 And it put down a very impressive lap time

01:16 in lateral G result.

01:17 [TIRES SCREECHING]

01:33 While the Corvette's launch control is very effective,

01:36 our best acceleration was achieved without it.

01:38 [ENGINE REVVING]

01:50 Large rotors and sticky tires led to a very impressive

01:53 stopping distance.

01:54 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:15 [MUSIC PLAYING]

02:42 So the new C7 Corvette is a car.

02:46 But it's a very interesting car,

02:48 and one that has so much inside of it, so much to talk about,

02:52 I honestly don't know where to start.

02:54 So let's begin with the question I most like answering,

02:57 and that is how it drives.

03:00 It drives very well.

03:02 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:09 Woo-hoo.

03:11 So this Corvette Stingray has the Z51 package.

03:15 And that adds a number of things--

03:16 bigger brakes, bigger wheels and tires,

03:19 cooling for the transmission and the differential,

03:22 a couple other items, and also an electronically controlled

03:24 differential.

03:25 We also have dual mode exhaust, which

03:28 gives us 5 horsepower, 5 torque, kind of negligible,

03:31 but also a really nice sound when

03:33 you get on the throttle hard.

03:35 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:40 But the thing that I'm finding most impressive

03:43 about the Corvette is how it ties all these things together.

03:47 And we'll get to that by talking about this drive mode

03:49 selector here.

03:50 You have five drive modes.

03:52 You have economical, you have touring, you have sport,

03:55 you have track, and you also have a wet weather mode.

03:59 Now, these, in effect, control all kinds

04:01 of sub-settings that tailor the car to drive a specific way.

04:05 But it isn't just those modes, because there's customization

04:08 further in.

04:09 You have performance traction management, a very smart

04:12 and very capable traction control system

04:13 that we've seen on the ZR1 and the Z06.

04:17 And it's very advanced here, now incorporating the differential

04:20 and how it works.

04:21 You can adjust the steering response,

04:23 and you can configure it to either change

04:26 with your drive mode or to just have it at one setting

04:29 the entire time.

04:30 [ENGINE REVVING]

04:35 When you really push this car at the limit,

04:37 as we found out during testing, it's

04:39 working all around your inputs.

04:41 That differential, that electronically controlled

04:43 differential, allows the engineers

04:46 to tailor the behavior of this car to any driving situation.

04:50 And it's really fascinating how it works in effect.

04:53 It's talking to the ABS sensors.

04:55 So it's looking for what the brakes are doing

04:57 and trying to help them accomplish their goal.

04:59 It's talking to the magnetic ride.

05:01 It's talking to your throttle input.

05:03 It's listening to the yaw input of the car.

05:05 There is a system monitoring the tire temperature,

05:08 reading the temperature off the valve stems, doing some math,

05:10 and then figure out what state the tires are in.

05:12 And then the differential will change its behavior

05:14 depending on what temperature the tires are at.

05:17 It is absolutely fascinating the level of technology

05:20 in this car.

05:21 [ENGINE REVVING]

05:25 But the thing is, the crucial thing

05:26 is, unless you're pushing this thing at the limit,

05:29 you don't really notice that.

05:32 That stuff sort of just blends into the background.

05:35 The really cool thing is, when you're charging up this road

05:37 like we are now, it feels like a very capable, very well set up

05:44 rear wheel drive sports car.

05:45 [ENGINE REVVING]

05:50 You can get a connection between both axles in this car,

05:53 from the front with your steering,

05:54 to the rear with your throttle, that you feel really in tune

05:58 with what they're doing.

05:59 And that's quite a new thing with Corvettes.

06:02 I've never really enjoyed pushing Corvettes hard

06:04 because I never felt like I really understood

06:07 what the axles were doing.

06:10 This car talks to you much more clearly

06:13 about what the car's intentions are and what it wants to do.

06:16 That's very admirable.

06:17 [ENGINE REVVING]

06:20 I just got to add something about the engine really quick.

06:22 This is a direct injected, variable valve timing engine

06:25 that has push rods.

06:27 Love that.

06:28 Just absolutely love that.

06:30 [ENGINE REVVING]

06:34 You have a nice, broad power band

06:36 with early torque delivery that seems

06:38 to last all the way to red line, maybe a little bit before then.

06:42 But it gives this car a flexibility

06:45 that allows you to really push it when you're driving hard.

06:48 [ENGINE REVVING]

06:56 We also have a seven speed transmission,

06:59 which seems weird on paper, but in practice

07:03 is just like a manual six speed with another cog.

07:06 When you're on the freeway, you just throw it in seventh.

07:09 [ENGINE REVVING]

07:11 And this car actually pulls decently from 1,000 RPM

07:15 in seventh gear when you're going 50 miles an hour.

07:17 It's pretty nice what torque can do.

07:19 [ENGINE REVVING]

07:22 One other system we have to talk about is the rev matching

07:25 system.

07:25 You have to turn it on every single time you drive the car,

07:28 but it works brilliantly, especially on this road

07:31 like we're driving right now.

07:33 You will never get a downshift as clean doing it yourself.

07:38 That simple.

07:38 [ENGINE REVVING]

07:40 One oddity about it, though, is that they've

07:42 mounted the on and off buttons like shift paddles

07:46 behind the steering wheel.

07:48 And that's just kind of weird.

07:50 As I've been driving this car, I keep putting my fingers on them,

07:52 expecting them to be upshift and downshift paddles,

07:55 even though obviously I have a gear lever right here.

08:00 I just don't get why.

08:01 But still, they're there.

08:03 They work.

08:03 It's something you'll get used to.

08:07 And we haven't even touched on the interior yet,

08:10 which is a dramatic, dramatic improvement over the C6.

08:15 It's completely different and every bit better because of it.

08:20 This car has some options attached to it.

08:23 We have a carbon fiber dash.

08:24 We have some microfiber suede.

08:26 And they're all really nice things to look at.

08:28 But the functionality of it seems to work really well.

08:32 We have this infotainment system,

08:33 which I'm still adapting to and learning.

08:35 But so far, it seems clever enough and useful enough

08:38 to be very nice to use in long trips or drives

08:41 or when you own the car.

08:43 This center display, which is all digital and extremely

08:46 customizable and tailorable, is really easy to read,

08:51 really clear, and has a lot of nice little neat little

08:53 features in it.

08:54 It'll tell you more than you could ever

08:56 want to know about your car, too,

08:57 including how many revs it's had and its lifespan, which

09:01 is kind of crazy but cool as well.

09:04 The Corvette has always been a very strong dollar

09:07 to performance bargain.

09:09 And this car continues that trend.

09:12 It's incredible the amount of power and performance

09:14 you can get out of this car for not a lot of money.

09:17 But beyond that, I'm looking at the level of technology

09:20 and sophistication and just general cleverness

09:23 from the interior to the engine to the differential and so on

09:27 and how little money it takes to get all that.

09:29 And I'm honestly surprised that they've

09:31 been able to do it for so cheap.

09:34 [ENGINE REVVING]

09:38 This is a car that, again, I want

09:42 to spend a lot more time with.

09:44 I want to spend time on a track with

09:45 to learn its characteristics and quirks, just exactly what

09:49 it's capable of.

09:51 I feel like this is a car you could get along

09:53 with for quite a bit of time.

09:56 And it seems a bit more multifaceted

09:59 than Corvettes of previous.

10:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]

10:04 The Corvette is, in many ways, overwhelming,

10:17 spilling over with numerous technological innovations

10:20 and clever little details.

10:22 It was such that at the end of the day,

10:23 when the cameras were turned off,

10:25 I still couldn't wrap my head around the car as a whole.

10:28 There was simply too much to take in, the majority of it

10:31 good, and the car begged to be driven further.

10:34 Our first taste wasn't enough.

10:37 As unsatisfying as that may be, it

10:39 is a very good indicator of the type of car

10:41 the Corvette is, one you'll want to drive for a long time.

10:45 And you can expect to see a lot more of it

10:47 on this channel in the near future.

10:49 [ENGINE REVVING]

10:51 [ENGINE REVVING]

10:56 [TIRES SCREECHING]

10:59 [ENGINE REVVING]

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11:58 you

2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51! Testing the New High Tech Vette! - Ignition Ep. 77

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