2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray: Finishing School For America's Sports Car

There was once a time when the sports car world could have been evenly divided between those who preferred the drama and bombast of the muscle-bound Chevrolet Corvette and those who instead satisfied their thirst for high speed at the more elegant fountain of the Porsche 911.  The all-new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray dances across the line that used to separate these two models and fills the floor with the sound of its rumbling quad exhaust pipes – a battle cry to those who once decried the Vette’s more provincial manners.

This is the Corvette that will make disciples out of hardcore Europhiles, the Corvette that can take you to the track and back and then treat your mother to a nice steak dinner out on the town and not have her complaining about sharp pieces of hard plastic offending her delicate sensibilities.  It’s also the Corvette that won’t burn a hole in your bank account while offering you world-class performance.

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L7 + C7 = Controversy

Let’s get this out of the way right up front: I don’t care that the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray has square tail light instead of round ones, and you shouldn’t either.  Part of loving a car is learning to let go of the past and accept the changes that have to be made in order to keep a design language fresh and vital.  The C7 Corvette Stingray (the seventh generation of the American coupe / convertible) hasn’t left its heritage behind by dropping the familiar ovals from its hindquarters – it has merely stepped into the modern age and freed its stylists from the chains of tradition.

This goes for the sharp creases and numerous vents that dominate the C7’s exterior composite body work, as well.  All of those lines and openings have practical purposes, be they cooling various aspects of the Corvette Stingray’s hard-working mechanical bits or channelling air around or even through its body to help improve the car’s aerodynamics.  From every angle, the C7 is still immediately identifiable as a Corvette, and that’s what’s important.

It’s What’s Inside That Counts

Once you’re past the startlingly aggressive shape of the 2014 Corvette Stingray and you’ve opened the driver’s door, you’re in for an extremely pleasant surprise.  Gone is the sea of stiff, unyielding plastic and bulky buttons that looked as though they had been lifted from the center stack of one of Chevrolet’s lesser cars.  In their place is a well-appointed, comfortable, and premium-feeling passenger compartment that wouldn’t look out of place standing in for the interior of any number of the Corvette’s trans-Atlantic competitors.  This is true even for the base car, which has not been ignored by Chevrolet’s designers and which gains many of the upgrades that make the top-tier edition of the Stingray such a pleasure to spend time in.  Of particular note are the Corvette’s seats, a weak spot on the previous version of the car that has been transformed into one of its strengths.  Technological gear is also front and center in the 2014 Stingray, what with a full-color, multi-mode head-up display, Chevrolet MyLink touchscreen infotainment system, and a digital dashboard display that offers up various configurations and a wealth of vehicle information directly tied into the car’s drive mode.

A Supremely-Honed Scalpel

Driving the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray reveals just how much effort has been put into sanding off the coupe’s rough edges and providing it with a newfound grace that has not been part and parcel of the traditional Corvette experience.  The base model Corvette Stingray is a rocket ship, able to leap from zero to 100 km/h in 4.3 seconds thanks to the woken fury of its 6.2-liter, 455 horsepower V8 engine.  Also capable of generating 460 lb-ft of torque (and with more power on tap when the vehicle’s optional sport exhaust is installed), the engine is well-match to either its seven-speed manual transmission (with automatic rev-matching on downshifts) or its available six-speed automatic transmission.

When equipped with the very affordable Z51 Performance Package and optional Magnetic Ride Control adaptive suspension system, the Corvette Stingray becomes even tighter, providing more control when pushed hard at high speeds and benefiting fully from its five-stage Performance Traction Management system (which is accessed via turning the console-mounted knob  from Touring, past Sport, to Track).  In addition to more aggressive suspension settings and an electronically-locking limited slip differential, the Z51 version of the car also adds grabbier brakes that do a better job of hauling the car down from 200 km/h-plus.

Putting It All Together

The 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray rises above the sum of its parts to present a challenge to Porsche and BMW in addition to levelling a heavy stare at competitors like Nissan and SRT.  This is a $53,000 car that can keep up with models priced at many tens of thousands of dollars more both in terms of on-track performance and on-street comfort.  Never before has a Corvette been able to make that claim, and although it has taken us 60 years to get to this point, there is no doubt in my mind that the future for America’s sweetheart sports car is very bright, indeed.