I wrote this a couple months ago for another forum. Mine's plain, not a Z06. I’ve owned a 1999 C5 Corvette for a year now.
Five things that I haven’t seen so far in the comments.
1) It is immensely reliable and cheap to run. I have spent under $250 on maintenance and repairs so far and haven’t neglected anything. Flush the coolant every five years, change the synthetic oil when the car tells you to, drain the clutch and brake fluid reservoirs with a turkey baster and refill every oil change, change the sparkplugs when you get a misfire. That’s about it. Wait; I had to replace two $4 aftermarket exhaust hangers. It has spent every day in service.
2) A Corvette is a very big car. The nose is miles in front of you, the tail miles behind, and it is over six feet wide. Fortunately, this also goes for the cabin. Anyone shorter than Hakeem Olajuwon will fit before the tracks are all the way back. The cargo area is very large as well.
3) The 346-CID engine plays in a different league from the lesser machinery in this discussion. The throttle travel is long, the power is progressive, and you are still always aware that you have fewer than ten pounds per horsepower. 25 to 75 in second gear takes four seconds – and that is useful on the road. The powerband starts at 2500 and runs to the 6250 rev limiter – and that is useful on the road. It will pull the brutal third gear to 108 MPH – and THAT is useful when somebody tries to block you from overtaking. It sounds right, too, with any decent aftermarket exhaust.
4) For highway cruising it is difficult to beat a car this slick and relaxed, with the twelve-CD changer, the ice-cold GM A/C, and the relaxed engine. It really is only turning 1500 at 70, and I have gotten 35 MPG tank-average once. On the back roads, it is difficult to beat a very well balanced car with a center of gravity that low and tires that wide. Then ye olde boat motor decides it wants to be a part of the show and you get an adjustment – yaw angle – that other cars simply don’t have on the road. It’s friendly, it’s responsive, it’s relaxed, it just happens to be going… well, the statute of limitations in New York State still hasn’t expired on that particular run yet.
5) The instrumentation is the best in any road car by miles and miles. It will take you a week to get used to the HUD and about thirty seconds in another car to wonder why all of them don’t have it. The digital display is also quite useful. You can improve your driving watching your instant and average fuel mileage, and then check your tire pressures. Porsche’s Sport Chrono timer costs $900 and they advertise it as part of their connection to motorsport. The Elapsed Time feature on the Corvette is the fifth menu item on the “Trip” button and merits two lines in the owner’s manual.
They do the same thing, and that I think sums up this car very well. It does things very few other cars can, intimidates novice drivers into driving it safely, rewards expert driving, and is relaxed and unassuming about all of it.
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