Chevrolet Corvette C8 review

The magnetorheological dampers, which our road test subject had, are a £1580 option on UK cars, but Chevrolet’s Z51 upgrade package is standard. This adds stiffened coil suspension, uprated Brembo brakes, high-performance Michelin tyres, a performance exhaust system, a shortened axle ratio and the active torque-vectoring rear differential.

The Corvette is both large and heavy by mid-engined sports car standards. At 4634mm, it’s more than 220mm longer than a Lotus Emira and almost 100mm longer than a McLaren Artura. Tipping our scales at 1679kg fuelled and in running order, it’s about 230kg and 180kg heavier than each respectively.

The exterior design has plenty of impact, with sharply drawn features. It’s the new cabin-forward body profile that will take the most getting used to and makes those visual references to predecessors seem somewhat misplaced.

There are obvious shades of Lamborghini Aventador about the bonnet styling, and of the Ferrari F430 elsewhere. This is a little like generic supercar design done for a Disney Pixar movie: cheery and likeable, if a bit simplistic.

Comfort and Isolation

The Corvette covers ground very comfortably at motorway speeds, albeit rather noisily. Our cabin noise measurements were taken with the removable roof on, needless to say – and they place the car a couple of decibels noisier than even the current Porsche 911 (not a car that has ever been known for quiet cruising) at both 30mph and 70mph.

The discrepancy grows to fully 5dBA at maximum revs in fourth gear. But then Chevrolet’s NVH engineers would no doubt describe what emanates from the C8’s engine bay at high revs not as noise but sound, there to be enjoyed. They clearly weren’t shy of it – and neither should they have been.

If you do want to drink in that V8 rumble, it’s advisable to actually keep the roof panel in place. The ‘Targa top’ makes the cabin feel a little exposed when it’s stowed, and engine noise can be drowned out by the whistling of passing air.

The ride is usefully absorptive in Tour mode, which allows the body to roll and breathe with the road surface enough to show some character but not too much. Thus set, the C8 doesn’t turn so crisply as it can at other times but has a lovely way of settling into a line and attitude around a long arcing bend or slip road.

Track notes

No doubt expecting some stark dynamic transformation from their new mid-engined hero, parts of the American press criticised the C8 for a tendency towards understeer at the limit of grip: in our view, quite unfairly.

Sure, this is no Ferrari 458 Speciale for outright handling poise and control on the circuit. It’s large and heavy by sports car standards. It moves on its contact patches a little at fast track speeds, communicating the physical forces it’s subject to – and, because of the car’s mass and its performance potential, those forces are significant.

But the C8 can certainly lap quickly and accurately, and with confidence, commitment and plenty of staying power. While it is usually the front axle that communicates the margins of its adhesion by starting to miss apices, that doesn’t stop you finding a decent chassis balance, along with fairly benign adjustability in the dry – although that rearward weight bias and active diff make the C8 trickier to drive quickly at the limit in the wet.