Now over 70 years old, the Corvette legend began in late 1951 when renowned General Motors designer Harley Earl created a top-secret performance car project. Two years later the first-generation Corvette (designated the C1) made its public debut at the GM Motorama concept show in 1953 and such was its warm reception that production quickly followed.
Harley Earl is also famous for something else from the early 1950s, he put together the first ever all-female automotive design team in America dubbed “The Damsels of Design.” Earl believed that this 10-member design team could give GM “the feminine touch” and he understood the power of the female buyer even back then. With the C1 Corvette, “The Damsels” introduced the first retractable seat belt, and they also developed other innovations, like glove compartments and light up mirrors.
With the retirement of Earl though, the time of the Damsels came to an end with the man who replaced Earl being far less a visionary than his predecessor. More than seven decades on and women now make up more than a third of GM employees and GM scores full marks for having no overall gender pay gap (less than 3 percent) and for providing equal pay for equal work at all levels within the company. So, the influence of The Damsels appears to have remained over the decades and not just in their design innovations.
The Corvette is now in its eight generation with the angular and bold C8, a design I love particularly the wide rear end of this Red Mist metallic Stingray. All 2LT and 3LT Corvette’s delivered in Australia come with Z51 performance suspension with Magnetic Selective Ride Control and performance traction management, Z51 performance Brembo Brakes, Z51 Front splitter and Rear Spoiler, Performance exhaust, manually adjustable rear suspension, electronic limited slip differential, and 19-inch front, 20-inch rear alloys. These are the 20-spoke bright machined face forged Aluminium wheels and are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S Performance Tyres.
Powered by a naturally aspirated 6.2 litre V8 engine that produces 369kW of power and 637Nm of torque, the Corvette will have you seeing red for all of the right reasons. Push the start button and the engine physically moves the Corvette while the exhaust barks its intent and both emotionally prepare you for the excitement that is about follow. At the end of my week with the Corvette I realised that you can adjust start up exhaust volume and I didn’t even have it set to maximum! The V8 rumbles at idle and sings through the revs to the 6,500rpm hard cut limiter or it can switch to four-cylinder mode when you are cruising on the highway. For my week with this 3LT Convertible Corvette I used 13.5L/100km of 98RON fuel, which I consider to be very good considering the amount of fun I had in the Corvette.
This Corvette has a hard top convertible roof and under hard acceleration it’s a beautiful thing to experience the V8 engine that’s just behind your head without any obstacles between you and it. But I found the roof controls were fiddly to operate and I never really grasped the exact sequence I had to use them to make them work and the roof can only be lowered at a standstill from what I could tell? But I did love watching the process in the digital rear view mirror though. With the roof down the buffeting in the cabin is very acceptable, but on anything other than a warm winter’s day in Australia it’s almost too hot for a prolonged top-down drive. So if you want to listen to the engine with the roof up, then you can also lower the small window between the seats.
The C8 has six drive modes with Tour, Sport, Track, Weather, and My Mode, selected using the rotary dial under the leather covered palm pad with very cool animations displayed on the 12-inch configurable digital driver’s dash when you do so. Z mode is engaged by pressing the Z button on the steering wheel and the Z illuminates red when its engaged. Both My mode and Z mode have adjustable settings for the steering, suspension, engine noise, and brakes and in Z mode there is additional adjustment for Engine/shift, and Traction/stability. On the track you can use the Performance Data Recorder to record and download information to an SD card for further analysis.
Gear selection is made using the angled toggles next to the palm pad and by pressing the M button below these switches enables you to manually change gears on the 8-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission using the metal steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. The gearbox allows for very aggressive downshifts with no computer intervention and on upshifts some exhaust pops as well.
The broad door sills have been scratched from shoes being dragged over it when people are getting in and out of this low-slung supercar. But the Corvette cabin smells nice thanks to the extensive use of leather across the instrument panel, door panels, and seats. These are the GT2 design seats in Jet Black and Sky Cool Grey Nappa leather with suede inserts. Each seat has power adjustment for recline, forward/back, seat height front and rear, side bolster adjustment, lumbar adjustment and two memory positions. You can significantly raise the front part of the seat to get a low race car like driving position, something I liked a lot. The seats are also heated and cooled seats, with cooling working as good as most vehicles with this feature that is average at best and it was noisy when operating. The 3LT also has Suede microfibre wrapped upper interior trim including on the odd oblong shaped heated steering wheel, which I think suits the sharp nature of the Corvette’s design.
The design of the C8 is very cosetting with the spine creating a physical divide between the seats and the 8.0-inch infotainment screen angled towards the driver and full colour head-up display. The dual zone climate controls are located along the spine with the driver’s control towards the top and the passenger controls down the bottom. There’s a Bose 14-speaker system with media sources being AM/FM radio, Bluetooth, USB, and smart phone. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto comes as standard and the latter worked well for me. There’s a wireless phone charging pad between the two seats or the cubby under the arm rest fits your phone and has one USB-C port and one USB-A port. The centre console has two rigid cup holders and the small shallow cubby in the doors is suitable for sunglasses.
Both the front and rear boots can be opened from the key fob or a button in the cabin with ample storage so make the Corvette a daily driver consideration. I love the addition of soft close function so you just have to latch the boot/frunk and it then closes itself. So, you don’t have to slam it or worry about putting a dent by pressing too hard and I think this feature is something all supercars should have.
Fresh inclusions for Stingray models in 2024 include an improved safety offering that adds Forward Collision Warning, Lane-Keep Assist, and Lane Departure Warning, auto lights with auto high beam assist, and low-speed autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection. Other safety features include Rear Cross-Traffic, Side Blind Zone Alert, and adaptive cruise control.
The front and rear parking cameras include an excellent front kerb camera view with distance indicator and front and rear parking sensors and the Corvette also has a Front Lift Suspension System with memory to help avoid scrapes.
The C8 Corvette comes with a 3 years or 100,000 km (whichever comes first) warranty and 3 years roadside assistance. The C8 Corvette has been designed for track use in mind, but before you head to the track it is recommended that you go through the Track Preparation set up for the vehicle. Track events or competitive driving may affect the vehicle warranty. Servicing costs may vary for many reasons such as vehicle use; between Dealers due to labour rates; and transactional parts pricing.
The standout features of this C8 Corvette were the engine noise and the paint colour, but I’m also impressed with the visionary nature of the original Corvette designer, Harley Earl, and what he started at GM with The Damsels of Design. Prices for the C8 Corvette Stingray 3LT Convertible starts at $214,500 plus on-road costs. Visit your preferred GM Specialty Vehicles dealer for me information.
| Pros | Cons |
| Roof down driving in a V8, just delightful | Roof down driving is not compatible with the Australian climate |
| The seat positioning | Operation of the convertible rood mechanism |
| The soft close boot and frunk | Noisy cooled seats |
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.