Tuesday, April 21, 2015

An American Dream (Chevrolet Corvette C6) Part 3

How to take off the roof?
There came a moment when we wanted to unfold the roof. The question was "how and where?” We decided to find the answer on the internet. Can you imagine what we found on a forum of Corvette owners? "Hey guys, how does the roof unfold?"


And only thanks to YouTube we managed to figure out where the secret button was.

Chevrolet Corvette left mixed impressions of brutality and, at the same time, effective performance. Fortunately, it's quite loyal to inexperienced drivers, nevertheless develops an understanding that for a proper handling of such vehicle there is still much to learn. Hopefully, I will have a chance to compare the Corvette with the famous Viper, in order to identify the most dangerous metal beast in America.

Monday, April 6, 2015

An American Dream (Chevrolet Corvette C6) Part 2

The ride
At first I took the passenger place and hardly restrained myself from sticking out my hand out of the window to touch the ground ( of course, when the traffic light was red). The Corvette is so pressed to the ground that I had a feeling, as if moving on a sledge.


The noise insulation is weak, the engine is heard all over the rpm range, and the blowing airflow sings along to the engine somewhere in the region of the front suspension.
The suspension is rather stiff (almost to the point of discomfort), although the wheels of the Corvette are smaller than those of the "Camaro" (front- 245/40 ZR18, rear- 285/35 ZR19). In general, everything reaches the required standard for a sports car. Due to little driving experience, a colleague of mine hadn't dared to properly press the gas pedal, and therefore the real potential of the Corvette remained a mystery to me, until it was my turn to take the wheel. And only then I realized how it feels to handle a car which was created without any regard to the driver's convenience! The steering wheel of this Chevrolet turned out to be just too heavy- I hadn't had such an experience since discovering the "VAZ-2106". The process of driving the C6 through the narrow streets of Yerevan in hopes of finding a free parking place is equivalent to working out at the gym- I sweated heavily!


On the highway, the car is dangerous. Of course, I could somehow imagine what the 450HP engine was capable of, but not to such an extent.  I suggest never pressing the gas pedal longer than 6 seconds, otherwise it will lead not only to a fine, but also to a loss of driving license. The Corvette C6 is not even a space devourer...it's just a teleport machine, which, to the accompaniment of thunder and lightning, turns into a tiny dot on the horizon.
The automatic gearbox shifts with violent shakes making your cervical spine crunch at every gear change. The car hysterically trembles at any bump causing a loud crash of the interior details, and the howling wind completes the chaos inside the car.
This car is an immense source of adrenaline!
At the end of the ride, the Corvette miraculously consumed 10.5 liters of petrol per 100 kilometers. We hadn't used the fuel sparingly, though.