Is the C6 fun to drive at legal speeds?

Jaynen said:

Whatever the automotive equivalent to a supermoto is would probably be the most fun street car ever and it would not be a vette. Small, good visibility, light, quick acceleration but not necessarily high top speed, a suspension that lets you hit bumps/ruts with abandon.

Which is where a Super 7 comes in (Caterham to Locost). It's about the feel of speed without the actual speed. You feel like you're doing 110 at 60. Corners are insane without tripling the speed limit to do it. Most fun I've ever had in a car on the street was in a Caterham, and not even the most powerful one.

In reply to eastsideTim :

You will find a Corvette a fine daily driver that if driven with thought and reason gets very decent fuel mileage. I’ve owned two and found them reliable comfortable ( not in the overstuffed sofa sense but in the cover a lot of ground  without feeling beat). Not a great traffic jam car especially with a manual but for stop and go driving like that a good SUV is called for.  

Hmm, while it's not unanimous, it is sounding like a C6 may not be the best daily for me, if I want my usual driving to be at least a little fun without having to be stupid on the road.  I'm betting it'd be awesome for road trips out west, which I am prone to dreaming about a lot, but they don't happen often in real life. 

Patrick said:

My 02 wrx is way more fun than i ever had in my corvette doing legal things.  I kinda feel meh about anything on the street anymore but the wrx actually makes driving fun if i want it to be.  Corvette was great to get you beyond 100 quickly and making that feel like 65 when you got there, 

I really wish stock, near-rust free 2002-2007 WRXs and WRX STIs were a lot more common.  I am leaning a bit more towards a new WRX now, between having wanted one for a very long time, since they were sold in the US (thanks to GT3 on the PS2, and a test drive of a new 2.5RS back in 2001), and that may be the easy button for getting one that isn't beat half to death.  Not to mention, depreciation on them is pretty nice, so my AADD might not kill my wallet if I get tired of it in a few years.

My '07 STI was fun at the track and fun when I whomped on it.  What it utterly failed at (and quite miserably!) was as a DD.  That car was just a POS as a DD.  Hard, buck board seats, really flinty, crappy ride, with shocks that didn't match the springs, crappy gas mileage and a truly low rent interior that had a myriad of squeeks and rattles after only 4000 miles.  Sold it shortly after that, just couldn't handle it, particularly in comparison to the usual Audi's and BMW's I'd owned.

In my limited experience, the newest WRX is quite a lot different than a 2.5RS. The 2001 2.5RS is listed at 2820lbs and a new WRX is somewhere between 33-3400. Not to say you can't like both, but I don't think they're fun in the same way. The BRZ is much closer spec wise, but without the doors and the AWD of course. 

BRZ would be very tempting.

I’ve driven the Frisbees before, and like them, but am afraid they’d end up with the same problem my NC Miata and Abarth had - too little room.  With either of those cars, I had to think about where I was going in case they wouldn’t have enough room, and they are not so great at longer road trips (even if I did take the little Fiat to the west coast and back).  The Vette would be not good for holding people, but seems to have a decent amount of space in the hatch.  WRX, would be much more practical.  Focus and Fiesta ST would have varying amounts of utility, but more than the really little cars.

Jaynen said:

Whatever the automotive equivalent to a supermoto is would probably be the most fun street car ever and it would not be a vette. Small, good visibility, light, quick acceleration but not necessarily high top speed, a suspension that lets you hit bumps/ruts with abandon.

Not to derail this thread too far, but this very question has been at the front of my mind a lot lately. My supermotos are soooo much fun on the street I don't want to ride/drive anything else.

A 323GTX, while fun, doesn't have the suspension travel needed. The four-wheeled supermoto should have true off-road travel with big grippy street tires and next to no weight. Here's what I keep thinking of:

It seems like the fast car slow/slow car fast thing, and I've been a slow car guy forever, but I'm telling you, this C5 is a great DD.

323GTXes actually feel like they have loads of suspension travel. Just like the 2.5RS, it's designed and tuned to swallow bad roads at speed. Which is why people take out the stock suspension and slam them down to get rid of body movement and thus spoil the car.

As for the Caterham on the road - they're exhilarating for a short period, but they do extract a toll on you. They're a bit overwhelming and leave you buzzed. Also, because their cornering speeds are so high, you do end up being a bit of a nut compared to other traffic because your 3/10ths cornering speed is equivalent to about 9/10ths of theirs.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In my limited experience, the newest WRX is quite a lot different than a 2.5RS. The 2001 2.5RS is listed at 2820lbs and a new WRX is somewhere between 33-3400. Not to say you can't like both, but I don't think they're fun in the same way. The BRZ is much closer spec wise, but without the doors and the AWD of course. 

I drove the new WRX back to back with a Toyota 86 a couple months back, and while i havent driven a 2.5rs, i would tend to agree. I drove the 86 first and i honestly think that's what killed the WRX for me. Sure it was faster, and made turbo-ey noises, but it just felt so dull compared to the Twins, like a boring old appliance with the wick turned up, just didnt feel special to me. The Toyoburu was like a boisterous puppy, always demanding to play and encouraging fun. FWIW, I also liked the FoST i had driven previously better than the WRX. I bought my FRS a couple weeks later.

Now interestingly, i was catching up with my best car buddy from college in the time between those test drives and my purchase, and he was solidly of the opposite opinion, having also driven both. He found the Twins to be slow and boring and ended up with a new WRX. In discussing this, we surmised this was largely a product of our driving environments. He's out in the Seattle area and deals with a lot of urban and highway driving, where the playfulness of the Frisbee's chassis is somewhat useless and the punch of the WRX's turbo motor was of more value, whereas the majority of my miles are on twisty, 2 lane PA back roads.

Have you thought about an AMG of some sort?  Or a CTS-V?  Comfy and quiet for cruising, plenty of space for luggage and whatnot, but they can explode when you step on the loud pedal.

In reply to Furious_E :

That difference of opinion is what makes the "what car" threads both maddening and fun. Even on an individual level my opinions change over time and as my family/life changes. On the other hand, life would be kind of boring if I found my perfect car in my teens and just drove that for the rest of my life. I like cars. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Yup, in spite of us calling the Miata "The Answer" there really is no one-size-fits-all solution, everyone has different interests and parameters. I always find it interesting seeing what the OP ends up with in these threads.

First. Go test drive a c6 take it on your normal daily route then make a determination. A bunch of internet opinions shouldn't be the deciders. 

With that said, here's my internet opinion. C63 AMG....

In reply to yupididit :

 What are we going to do when everyone decides that they're going to go test drive cars to form their own opinions and "what car" threads are a thing of the past? I don't think you're thinking this all the way through. 

Ask, test drive, then report back. The board has a sickness, automotive-add. "What car" threads will never go away.

yupididit said:

First. Go test drive a c6 take it on your normal daily route then make a determination. A bunch of internet opinions shouldn't be the deciders. 

With that said, here's my internet opinion. C63 AMG....

Funny that you mention the C63 AMG, and that wae mentioned AMG in general.  I really like the looks of the C63 AMG coupe.  Not sure I want to deal with the potential maintenance issues and the depreciation.  Still, it does look good.

In reply to eastsideTim :

The c63 (especially coupes) don't depreciate like AMG's of the past. Good luck finding many under $30k with less than 100k miles

Can't be too bad as there are many that do it daily. Regular normal folks. In other words, not us. I've come to the conclusion that there are 2 types of Corvette owners. Old men that drive them like an economy car and those that use it for what it was designed for, in other words us. Mustangs are a different story. After all they do have a reputation to uphold.

Furious_E said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Yup, in spite of us calling the Miata "The Answer" there really is no one-size-fits-all solution, everyone has different interests and parameters. I always find it interesting seeing what the OP ends up with in these threads.

I enjoy seeing what happens, too.  Right now, I’m trying to convince myself to stick with what I have, but it’s gotten tempting to clear out most of the fleet, and start over with something newish and fun (thus this thread), and something else to fill in where a nicer car couldn’t, like rallycross and parts hauling.

Not every c6 is 'crazy fast'. Depends what you end up with. 

Driving a fast car can still be fun at low speeds depending on how it delivers its power. For example, i just put a clutch in an 8200rpm Corolla XRS. That car is mostly fun when you're above 6000rpm. I'm also doing some work on a 1995 SN95 5.0/5spd Mustang. This mustang would get STOMPED royally by the Corolla in any race that exceeded 50mph, but it is fun from 1700-3200ish rpm because of the torque/weight ratio and sound, and that rpm range is happening constantly. So, it's constantly giving some low level of pleasure because it gives you something 'special' under normal use. 

So, maybe you value the general responsiveness of having a lot of torque at low rpm in a light car and a decent soundtrack along with it. Corvettes will do that. 

I haven't owned a c6 but I did own a c5z with a pretty radical LS7 so kind of a hybrid c5/c6.

In some regards the car was very entertaining as a street car, you can idle along in almost any gear and still have ample power to pass without requiring a downshift. When you weren't flogging it the car would regularly return high 20 low 30mpg. The AC was some of the coldest in any car I've ever owned which I loved in the summer and overall it's quiet/supple enough to not bother you as a daily. Rev matching downshifts on the rare occasion you needed them was enjoyable and so was sitting at stop lights both things let you hear rumbly v8 noises (if you're into that, I totally am)

The things that made the car not so ideal of a daily driver were the same things that made it so much fun on the track/autox. The massive 315/335 sticky tires caused the car to hunt and tramline around on the highway/backroads and my track oriented alignment made it twitchy. It was ok to drive to work on a sunny Friday when you're wide awake and ready for the weekend but it was a bit unnerving at times when you were just a touch less focused (like on your way home Friday after a long day at work) 

Those same tires also took any joy out of twisty roads on the street. As Seth said, you're playing at a different level than anyone else, even ignoring those suggested speed limit signs and instead going the posted speed limit you could negotiate any corner you encounter with 1 hand on the wheel and a coffee in the other. Heck, you can darn near take 90 degree right handers onto a different road at the posted 55mph without drama. So fun driving roads really became nothing more than scenic routes, Conversely my TDI takes lots of work to come anywhere close to maintaining the speed limit on those roads and is kind of fun.

Lastly the power. OOOOO this was by far my favorite and most useless part of the car. I've never before or since owned anything with that raw glue your head to the headrest thrust in any gear at any RPM of the vette. It was intoxicating, it was fun, but even if you tickled it for just a moment you would be doing triple digits, The reality of the car is a WOT pull in 1st gear to redline is all it takes to exceed every speed limit in Ohio, everyone familiar with a manual transmission knows 2nd/3rd gear is where a lot of the fun is, but you never get to play there because you've already broken the speed limit in 1st.

All of that aside I still want a stock worn beater c5 as a daily driver because I think you could argue it's a perfect MI daily driver, the aluminum suspension/fiberglass body won't rust in the salt. It returns acceptable fuel economy, it's similar to maintaining a chevy truck, parts are cheap and available, and if you jack the suspension up to it's highest setting it has plenty of ground clearance for winter except for those 2 snow storms we get each year.

I think you have to drive one and decide for yourself, they do lots of things well and the power is fun, daily driving something faster than most other people certainly makes long commutes less stressful than the TDI where I have to actively plan my pass for miles.

It's definitely still fun to drive something quick on a daily basis, but it can get frustrating to not be able to unleash it. 

I had a '13 GT Mustang track pack, super quick car, would bark fourth going up an onramp. 

I love the 135i I have now. It's still super quick, sub 5 sec 0-60, great interior and comfy, HK stereo is really good for an OEM setup.

I definitely do not miss dailying the BRZ. Loud, crummy stereo, but the seating position/ergos were good. 

Depends on how you register fun. 

For handling, ride quality, and general usefullness, I say pretty poor at low (legal) speeds. Plenty of gut when you punch it, and that always brings a smile. But there are increasingly less places to safe to punch it on the street without looking full grandma-call-the-cops hooligan.

I too subscribe to the 'slow-car fast' philosophy of fun daily drivers, so well expounded by keith. Any car that's only fun after 100mph is just a showboat, or flirting with felonies in my (highly biased) opinion. 

The weird middle ground is where you drive straight highways and 'need' a GT car, but 'want' something with grunt and handling. And then you just start opening your wallet...