Well I'm finally getting to write this
review. I have a location picked out for better pictures so look for that after the next nice day we have. In the mean time I figured I couldn't get away with the "I'm still evaluating the car" line any longer. After All I've passed 300 miles on the car already.
So I guess the start of this should be on the purchase process. I picked up the car from Kerbeck in Atlantic City. It was a rainy miserable day. In fact the highway was closed in places due to flooding, so yeah... horrible day to pick up a Vette. So I show up to the dealership where outside I'm greeted by the following 2 rows of cars (worth the click):
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Outside sitting, just in from dealer prep, is my car:
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With TA in the background.
My father is with me and he wants to look at cars while I sign papers(and take pictures, honestly these aren't mine because I was so excited I couldn't hold my hands still).
So we walk inside with my salesman. Inside Kerbeck's building is a museum of muscle cars. So in essence I'm greated with this:
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(More pics available from museum on request).
Not only this full room, but they have the oldest
corvette in the world, the prototype from the gm auto show in 1952:
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I'm still not distracted from my task, though partly because this is my second time at Kerbeck. My dad meanwhile is salivating at the mouth and talking about how he had this car when he was 25 and such so we parted ways for a while.
The salesman has me take a seat and offers me coffee. Nothing new here. He then has me fill out some paperwork after asking me how much of the plastic do I want to stay on my car for the drive home. The answer is, I still havent removed the plastic under my floor mats but the doors were off.
He then goes to get the
Corvette Manual and goodies. Well where do I start? He hands me a nice leather carrying pouch with the manual, on star and xm pamphlets, and warrenty information. All standard fair until he hands me a dvd/cd combo. This is a video and audio instruction for the car. I've watched the video, its very how too but still some nice glory shots. Still haven't listened to the audio, but damn impressive a car so complex you need a video. He then says hold on a second. Comes back with a tshirt for myself and dear old dad as well as some
Corvette posters.
At this point Im nearly blind to the salesman, Im just shaking to go see my car. Meanwhile dads outside running his magnifying glass over the car. Who is more excited, me or him? I don't know. He finally got his first drive in the T/A as well so he had quite the day too. So I sign the financial paperwork and hand over 2 large checks, one of my money and one of the banks. Both of these checks were bigger then anything I've ever seen (Even if the car isn't that expensive)... And the car is now mine.
I get a walkthrough of the car, which I hear less then half. He also has me pull the fuse and rev it to show my dad the trick exhaust. Even with a deluge of water fit for the tropics I'm still raring to go. So.. we do.
I put the car in reverse and ease it out of the lot, dad in tow in the t/a. I can't nail it till 500 due to break-in rules, not to mention the rain. Still it sounds fantastic. Down low the car sounds nice and throaty, but once in 6th on the highway it was as quiet as a Cadillac. As stated in my previous
review you don't shift that often either. 4th gear will take you from 8mph to 150mph. So nice comfortable touring is easily achieved.
Since it looked like the second comming of Noah on my first drive I focused my attention on the cars toys and comfort. First the gadgets: XM Radio and an MP3 CD Player to entertain on the drive. Decide you want to make a phone call? Have On star connect you, my car has it's own phone number.. and the calls actually sound clear. Need directions? Again Onstar provides. Accident or car theft? Again call them. Not a bad service and all free for a year.
This car is a gadget fans dream! The keyless start isn't all that revolutionary nor is the auto proximity lock and unlock but it's still cool. The rearview mirror tints, also not new, but so do the driver and passenger side mirrors. Again not revolutionary but it's the little things: Electric seats, dual climate zone, HID lights, rpm sensing audio, nice quality leather (even if the seats are a little thin to be supportive in high performance driving they still are more comfortable then most cars I've driven), a driver information center with just about every type of gauge information you could ever need (oil pressure, level, and temp;mpg (avg and instantaneous); tire pressure; stop watch; elapsed time; etc.). The car even says hello, or whatever message you want, across the DIC as you start it (after it says
Corvette by Chevrolet of course). All of these settings by the way are fob specific. If you have a second driver even the radio presets are driver specific.
I know everyones raring to go on to the driving section, but I want this to be thorough so I'm going to continue with the comfort for just 1 more minute so bare with me. The storage space... Well for a sports car it is freakin phenomenal. 21 sq feet of cargo space below the rear hatch. Can't say much negative about that. All this space, all these gadgets and the car still only weighs 3204 lbs. While certainly up from the sports cars of the 60s, when put in the context of even todays supercars that is pretty damn impressive.
Anyway enough of droning on about the comfort, time for a
review of the drive.. Or at least it will be after this brief post to post break to ensure I don't exceed a post limit