2024 Chevrolet Corvette Review
Words: Peter Anderson
Images: Matt Garrard
Like the 911 before it, I had never driven a Corvette until this mid-engined monster. There are several reasons for this, chief among them being I'm from Australia, lived my whole life here and the Corvette was not sold here in right-hand drive form.
I didn't know anyone who owned a Corvette of any description – at least, ironically, until 2023 when the right-hook 'Vette arrived – and so it was always going to be this one.
It's just over 70 years since the C1 Corvette was shown at General Motors' Motorama, housed in New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel. It was rushed into production, was hand-made and looked great.
During its nine-year life, you could get it with an in-line six and then a series of V8s, but it came perilously close to cancellation because it wasn't very good. Still, in 2021 someone paid US$825,000 for the fibreglassed wonder, the most anyone has paid for a C1 Corvette.
The car evolved steadily over time, with the most powerful V8, with fuel injection producing 268kW (360hp!) in 1961.
The second-generation was More Like It. Dubbed Stingray – or more accurately Sting Ray – you could have it in convertible or coupe forms and only with a V8, ranging from 5.4-litres (327 ci) to 7.0-litres (427 ci).
And so it went for some time. In 2014, the Corvette C7 arrived. The range had somewhat stagnated over the years, looking a bit ungainly and steadily being considered a bit long in the tooth and plastic fantastic. Buyers were getting old, older than the Corvette's rivals by some margin.
In fact that model arrived two years late so Chevy could make things a little more interesting, with carbon fibre panels, more aluminium in the structure and even public musings about taking it mid-engined. The Stingray name came back, this time as one word as it had been from the late Sixties to the mid-Seventies.
And the ZR1 kicked out a massive 755 horsepower. Pretty casual number there, especially when the rear is held off the ground with leaf springs.
And so we came to 2020 when the C8 arrived. This one hit with a bang because while the Stingray name continued, a whole heap of stuff has changed. It went mid-engined so everything that meant Corvette had to be rethought, recalibrated and rebooted.
Except, of course, for the V8.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT Coupe: $182,000
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT Convertible: $199,500
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 3LT Coupe: $197,000
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 3LT Convertible: $214,500
For your $182,000 the 2LT, you get 20-inch wheels, dual-zone climate control, wireless phone charging, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, head-up display, a 12.0-inch digital dash, heated and cooled leather seats, LED headlights and keyless entry and start.
The 3LT adds a whole lot of leather in the cabin as well as some suede (hopefully not real suede in a convertible...) and a set of frankly excellent GT2 sports seats. The leather and suede, yeah fine – this is about a luxury feel – but the seats are great.
We're lucky people out here in the boondocks. Not only do we now get a proper, factory-fresh right-hand drive Corvette – when the General has abandoned making right-hand drive cars – the ones we get are fitted with the track-appropriate Z51 package.
You'll see details peppered through the story, so I won't list everything here but fundamentally, it's a good thing because folks who buy Corvettes here are probably not going to mess about in them.
For 2024-25 prices are up a long way from when the C8 first reached our shores, and they're up a lot. This is partially offset by two previously optional features now coming as standard, with coloured seatbelts ($1300) and engine lighting ($3000) coming as standard. Let's not kid ourselves, these are outrageously priced options and in the case of the convertible, the engine lighting is a moot point because you can't easily see it.
This isn't a cheap day out at the races but I defy you to find anything remotely similar for the money. And if you say Lotus Emira, you have spotted the flaw in my rhetoric but you're also sort of missing the point. While that's a ripper of a car and mid-engined, it's not got the same vibe as the Corvette. But yes, similar price, an engine in the right place and whole lot of history.
Otherwise you're looking at the Maserati MC20, Ferrari 296GTB, McLaren 750S, that kind of three-times-the-price exotica.
If you're new here (hello!) and looking for something even more spicy, check out the brilliant Z06 and E-Ray track review from legendary Australian motoring journalist Scott Newman right here on The Redline.
Safety
I've always been annoyed by sports car manufacturers claiming they can't fit safety gear to supercars and here we are with a whole bunch of safety gear fitted to a low-volume (by US standards) supercar.
Along with a modest airbag count to go with the two-seat cabin, you get forward AEB, lane departure warning, lane-keep assist and auto high-beam headlights, blind-spot monitoring, front and rear parking sensors, reverse cross-traffic alert and a reversing camera.
Look and feel
I think designer Tom Peters has done a spectacular job translating the Corvette's cab-back, long-bonnet history into the very different packaging of the C8. It's not a jarring, all-out-all-change-please design but picks plenty of Corvette elements to keep it recognisable.
And this is despite having his hands tied to one of the more idiotic automotive memes, the need to have a boot to fit a set of golf clubs. The rear boot swallows the clubs but this has proved contentious to some eyes as the rear of the car is quite elongated. I mean, the C8 isn't small at 4.63 metres and rides on a 2.723-metre wheelbase but it does look long.
An R8 is almost 20cm shorter, a 570S 10cm and a Ferrari Roma is slightly longer. I include the Roma because it's front-mid-engined and so is always going to be longer. Perhaps most incriminatingly – and mildly surprising to me – the C8 is almost 15 cm longer than a front-engined C7 Corvette.
McLaren would call this a longtail and get away with it, so I'm not entirely sure what the controversy is about. But as you will read so often on these pages and in my videos, someone always has to have a big old cry about change because everything has to stay the same forever.
The cabin is quite something. You sit really low and the driver is presented with what Chevy calls a hexagonal wheel but is really just a square wheel. I don't mind a weird wheel so it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Ergonomically, however, this cabin is a bit suspect. There's a long strip of buttons running along the console that all look the same and the flimsy-feeling indicator stalk is a long way from your fingers. That's because the paddles are fixed to the wheel and it reminded me of an Alfa Romeo Giulia QV.
Chassis
So much has changed...well, I was going to say underneath but it's less of a change than a baby/bathwater, whole new baby/fresh bathwater scenario.
The C8 rides on a new aluminium platform that by definition has to be quite different to the old car because the engine is at the other end.
Suspension is by unequal length double forged aluminium wishbones, GM finally turfing the leaf-sprung rear end so beloved of Corvette fans. Shocks are monotubes all round and this car had the lift kit on it to add 40mm to the front ride height.
We also get magnetic dampers, an upgraded traction control program and an electronic limited-slip diff.
Wheels are 19s at the front and 20s at the rear, with 245/35 ZR19s and 305/30 ZR20s respectively, with Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber.
The brakes are lovely Brembos, with four pistons front and rear, measuring 338mm at the front and 351mm at the rear. These are up by 18mm and 6mm front to rear over the standard brakes that we don't get here.
Drivetrain
6.2-litre naturally-aspirated pushrod LT2 V8
369kW at 6450rpm
637Nm at 5150rpm
0-100km/h: 3.4 seconds
The whopping donk – one of the largest engines on sale in Australia, if not the largest outside of the trucking world – is related to our beloved HSV and Holden LS V8s. The C7's LT1 got a light going over for the C8 and is now called, wait for it, the LT2.
At one end of the nerd spectrum is a dry sump lubrication system to combat oil starvation and to allow a lower engine fitment. At the other end is a cylinder deactivation system allowing the LT2 to operate on just four cylinders under light load to reduce fuel usage. Almost unbelievably, it works well.
Cooling is by dual radiators under the front cowling and because we get the Z51 package as standard, a third radiator hides (almost literally) in the wings on the left-hand side. The third rad looks after the transmission and engine oil.
The transmission is an eight-speed dual-clutch sourced from Tremec. There is no manual option on the C8 and if there was, I think it would be mighty uncomfortable given the the way interior is configured. Once again, the Z51 has a different diff ratio to the US entry-level versions.
And finally, the Z51 package adds a little bit of extra racket, with a dual-mode exhaust.
0-100km/h in this configuration is a claimed 2.9 seconds (in the US), but you're probably going to see the number on the Australian website, which is 3.4 seconds.
Oh the humanity, eh? This is up there with McLarens sporting a carbon chassis, a whopping great twin-turbo V8 and even richer rubber, so no need to feel bad. Which you probably won't given you'll have a lazy half-mill still in your pocket.
And that's not to pick on McLaren because even if you snaffled a last-minute Audi R8, you're still up more than two hundred large and faster to 100.
Driving
Settling into the Corvette is pretty easy. Long doors, modest seat bolsters and a sensible layout. Sensible that is until you get to that long strip of buttons to your left.
That's also when you notice that the cockpit is cleft in twain by a very high dividing wall, almost like those old-school racing powerboats. It's an interesting play to make the car so driver-centric. With the roof off it feels less separated but that's obviously restricted to the drop top.
The roof comes off easily and quickly and it's all about holding a button and waiting.
The squared-off wheel looks big and I wondered if it might be a bit awkward but as I soon realised, the speed of the steering rack means there's little chance of you needing to remove your hands from the wheel.
Like the Emira's wheel, I wasn't totally sold on it even after a week. Part of the reason for that was the long reach to the indicator and wiper stalks. The latter is less of a pain but the indicator reach is annoying and made more so by its plasticky feel and snappy action.
I had to giggle about the emphasis put on the lifter. Like an R8, this is a car that doesn't really need it in day-to-day driving as the nose is more than capable of clearing most driveways and speed bumps. My steep-ish driveway didn't even need it and this is the first clue as to just how usable this car is for a two-seat sports car.
The R8's sister car, the Huracan, is diabolical around the burbs so it really is a matter of styling here, specifically the shape and height of the front bumper. If you don't think that's a big deal, after a day or two of tooling around in a car that actually requires a lifter, you get very bored of it. It's nice the Corvette has it, but you won't need it that often.
Right, that's all really boring. You do need to know that the car is extremely comfortable for many shapes and sizes – once again my two-metre-tall friend Stephen provided proof of that with the roof in place. You need to know that pottering around it's perfectly capable of doing normal things and it does it without histrionics.
It's quiet and even refined. Windows up you could be driving just about anything. And for a daily, that's incredibly important and given its price, I reckon a lot of these will be daily drivers. The cylinder deactivation on the freeway was seamless and you only know it's happening when the V4 light comes up in the speedo. Fuel economy is truly not at all bad for a 6.2-litre V8.
Now. Down to business.
Ripping into this car is glorious. The sound of the V8, especially with the roof down, really piles on the sensory delights.
The steering is light almost to the point of delicate but despite a lack of serious feel, you can point the C8 where you want to and it goes. Ride from the double wishbones takes all the terror out of tackling bad roads at pace, with both ends glued down superbly.
As with the Emira, there was no belly scraping down That Road, a feat few cars manage.
Throttle response from V8 is crisp if not razor sharp, but I reckon I can live with that, it offers a level of forgiveness you don't always get in a lot of cars like this. Firing out of a corner is delicious fun, the Pilot Sport 4S rubber digging in hard and squishing you into the seat.
That V8 doesn't rev as hard or high as an Audi V10 but it delivers an almost-as-good soundtrack.
The front end can wander ever-so-slightly wide when you arrive at a corner with speed, but a little pressure modulation on the brakes will bring the nose back in with little drama. It doesn't feel like you have a giant V8 strapped to your back, which is what I was expecting.
Redline Recommendation
I knew the Corvette was good – I've read so many good thing about it. I knew it would be fun but it's not the kind of fun I was expecting. I had it in my head it was going to be a bit unruly and a bit unsophisticated. I don't mind that – a supercharged Mustang is hilarious.
But I got something I didn't think I would from the Corvette, which was a sudden appreciation for the brand. I like old Corvettes for the look but had always considered them off my radar. And, to be fair, they'll stay there.
But this mid-engined one, free of the baggage as I was when I came to it, is a pretty sharp tool. And given the Z06 exists, it's obviously a great start.
So if you're a fan of muscle and sophistication, the Corvette manages both. That's no easy feat.
