drove a 2011 grand sport today...

[IPD]

...but before anyone says anything, i'm not buying a corvette.

i drove it because i wanted a "feel" for what a higher hp car was like. it was the 6-speed auto (yes, and i wouldn't have driven anything else).

decent fit to the car. handled pretty nice. i'd forgotten what it was like to drive a car without having your teeth shaken out of your head by the drone of a catless single-shot. visibility was fair; although the high decklid in the rear is VERY high from the inside. acceleration was good. i was a bit "unimpressed" by it. i was expecting something to snap my neck; but this was just a firm acceleration--nothing spectacular. don't get me wrong, it got to 70mph pretty fast. i just expected a bit more from something that's supposedly got more WHP than my "little ole v6 tt".

unfortunately, i had the dealership guy riding shotgun; so i didn't really bang around the gears with the paddle-shifters too much. i'm sure i could have gotten a bit more "oomph" out of it if i'd flogged it into 2nd and planted it. it's undoubtedly faster than my car; but the distinction is marginal, i feel.

i'm not sure what the drivetrain loss on an atx ls3 vette is, but with 430 crank, it's probably making an easy 350 at the wheels; which is probably 100 more than my car has currently. and my car weighs a lot more. i mainly wanted to gauge how it felt going from what i have to the vette--as i sense that that difference, again, will be the same between the vette and my new build.

it felt good--just not quite good enough. definitely not 54k base price (devaluation to be 30k in 3 years) good. it's probably the turbos. cars without them just don't feel quite the same.

[stealthee]

Acceleration and speed can be deceiving. My Grand Prix is much quicker than my Stealth. With 260 hp and 280 tq it better be. Even with instant boost it doesn't "feel" as fast as my Stealth. Maybe its the gearing, who knows?

[IPD]

i quite agree. i'm sure it IS faster than my car--it just wasn't a "hands down" margin. fyi, the curb weight on the coupe (which i drove) is 3311 lbs. since my car was originally a base-model, i'd guess that makes my car 200-300lbs heavier (current form). unfortunately, since i wasn't "surprised" at all by the car; i don't know what to expect from 16g's and 3.5L. it may be something i feel comfortable with--just more of it. then again, it might scare the bejeezus out of me. i was hoping to get a better gauge for something a little closer to that--performance wise. oh well.

p.s.

the 3-spoke steering wheel looks MUCH better than the pillsbury dough boy ones that they used to have. i may have to reconsider my 3rd gen wheel in my car. i just don't want to lose the horn, airbag, cruise, radio controls, etc.

[TwIzTeD_3kGt]

I wonder what the dyno graph looks like on the ATX Corvette. Could probably tell you why it didn't 'feel' faster just from looking at the dyno graph's side by side with the 3S.

[stealthee]

I have become spoiled with having radio controls in the GP.

[jrod]

ls3 grand sport is a great platform! Almost everything the Z06 has, and a lot more boostable application! The ls3 holds boost so much better than the ls7, plus you dont have to worry about that dry sump bullshit.

Any way, ls3 auto cars are quick. I went 11.8 at 119 with just a intake and headers. Stock ls3 auto cars dyno at 375-390ish. Not that much drive train loss, the auto eats up more power than anything.

[IPD]

guess my car is deceptively slow. it feels much faster than it is.

[IPD]

btw...i've heard rumors that the c7 corvette (due ~sometime in mid 2012) could potentially have a blown v6 in the base models...

i wonder how those guys with the v8's would feel 6 months after purchase when the tuners are putting out 800whp from the "bases".

[92 Stealth TT]

i like the idea of the grandsport, but flat out the zo6 puts to the ground what the base makes in the engine(and about 10k difference in 3yrs). and to be honost salesmen usually allow you to push a vette. the one vette that recently impressed me was the new zr1. 638hp is rediculus. i'm sure it's awesome in a 3S, but with awd it just doesn't feel the same, that commercial said they still build rockets, you damn right they do.

[stealthee]

I've seen nothing of the sorts. The "base" Vette will be the Grand Sport and will have a smaller, but more powerful direct injection V8.