America V Germany: Second Place – 2008 Chevrolet Corvette

William C Montgomery
by William C Montgomery

“Screw you, Steve McQueen and your fancy Mustang! I wanna ‘Vette!” I shouted (to no one) while tearing a rift in the space-time continuum through the peaceful pastoral Texas countryside. Clearly, I was imbibing heartily from a bottle of Chateau Corvette, vintage 2008. But I forgot myself. And my objectivity. I was there to perform a head-to-head comparison between said ’08 Chevy hardtop and an ’08 BMW 335i. Unlikely rivals, to be sure. But both are answers to the same question spoken in the quintessential voice of their respective source countries, America and Germany. Both are powerful sports cars designed to appeal to aging upper middle class drivers that can afford to treat themselves to something sporty and nice, just not too expensive. In this case, both cars were available at CarMax for just under $40K.

The 2008 model refresh does little to distinguish my tester from the original C6 introduced in 2005. In fact, discerning ‘Vetteophiles would need to speak Chevy five-spoke to correctly distinguish the ‘08 from its predecessors. Otherwise, it’s the same clear-headlight, large-radius wheel well, sleek built-for-speed affair.

I hesitate to accuse the Corvette of being outrageously styled; it is appropriate to its purpose. However, it does have a certain officer-come-hither quality that a driver should never forget. Additionally, every wannabe Jeff Gordon wants to challenge you in his homebrew racer. Drive the ‘Vette as intended, and you’d soon pack your glove box with pink slips and speeding tickets.

The two-seat coupe’s black leather clad interior is a comfortable place to spend time. The seats offer terrific lateral support and the enormous transmission tunnel never encroached on my knee or leg room. Just don’t expect the milled aluminum gauges and binnacles you find in [opulently priced] Aston Martins or Jaguar-quality English leather. The placement of the radio buttons was the only real ergonomic disaster; they’re lined above the radio display so that your hand covers the channel readout while you are changing stations.

The noteworthy change for 2008: the replacement of the admirable 6.0-liter LS2 engine with the barbaric 6.2-liter LS3 powerplant. The LS3 utilizes higher flowing intake manifold and cylinder heads, a revised camshaft, offset intake rocker arms and 47 lb/hr fuel injectors– to create a naturally aspirated 436 hp and 428 ft-lb of torque (with optional dual-mode exhaust package).

The result is massive right here, right now raw power. Mash the go pedal and you’ll wish there was a button for Matrix-like slow mo. Flip the traction control off, and you’ll be sideways in a heartbeat [of America] over the protestation of a pair of Eagle F1 P285/35ZR19 run-flat tires. The Corvette and I performed before an audience of curious cattle on abandoned rural farm roads: launch, rage up to speed, hurl through corners, slam of the brakes, rinse, lather, and repeat. Never did I feel that I approached the edges of the car’s performance envelope.

For ’08, Chevy also cinched the slack out of the Vette’s steering to improve feel and accuracy. Although the Vette has greater total lateral grip than the 300 lbs heavier 335i, the BMW remains eminently more flickable and precise. Nonetheless, the Vette makes for an easy daily driver with a surprisingly smooth ride.

While few doubt Corvette’s commitment to performance, the model has suffered a less than sophisticated reputation as a midlife crisis mobile for men with bloated bellies and expanding prostates. To gauge the new Vette’s level of social refinement, I drove the car through Southlake Town Square, an upscale north Texas shopping and dining district.

As I idled past the Apple Store, I wondered what Steve Jobs would think of this machine with its glorious engine. Not much, I suppose. Despite improvements in virtually every regard, the ‘Vette is still a ‘Vette. Every bump in the road is heralded by pronounced popping, like the snapping of a Styrofoam board behind my head. Surely Steve Jobs would wrinkle his nose at any device constructed like a cheap ice chest.

Overall, the ’08 Corvette walks comfortably through the playgrounds of the mass affluent. I perceived only one jaundiced look– and that from a fellow driving a BMW 335i.

When exiting Southlake. a Maserati Quattroporte rolled up behind me. “I own you, sukka,” I thought. “Anywhere you can go I can go faster! And for that matter,” my fevered torque-intoxicated mind continued, surveying the surrounding plethora of BMWs and Mercedes, Audi’s and Porsche’s, Lexus’ and Infiniti’s, “I own you, and you, and you, and you…”

Don’t forget that Chevy’s flagship costs a small fraction of the Maser in my mirror. With a scant 1855 miles on the odometer, my tester rang in at $38,450. Talk about bang for the buck! If it weren’t for the infernal popping noise emanating from the lift back hatch, it might have won this comparison.

[ CarMax provided both vehicles reviewed, insurance and a tank of gas.]

William C Montgomery
William C Montgomery

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  • Baldingfatguy Baldingfatguy on Feb 24, 2009

    As for me, I would love either of these cars, each for its own reasons. But I think the vette would be a gigglefest with all that torque. On the downside, the vette is hard for a baldingfatguy to get in and out of. Not so great for overcoming a midlife crisis when you are embarrassed to get in and out of the car. Kinda shoots down that whole theory of vette=midlife crisis car (unless you are thin and not balding, then it still applies). Yeah, having been a car guy since I was a toddler (just ask my mom), I can say with authority that some guys in thier 40's drive the modern vette platform just because it is a great performance machine. I sure liked it. The beamer is sweet too. Ain't it just awful having to live in an age where you have to choose between so many fast, safe, efficient, clean-burning (my first car had no smog but a pcv valve),precise-handling, reliable, and daily-driveable cars? I sold my '70 mach 1 (351c4v/4spd) because it drove like crap. Oh it was perfectly driveable, properly tuned and in really nice shape. But the steering had no feedback, it understeered like a plowhorse,the brakes faded like a pair of cheap denim jeans and it couldnt get much of that cleveland power to the ground. I'll take that vette or beamer anyday.

  • TTAC - you guys should've let Robert Fandingleberry write this article. He would've given to the Chevy for sure. And the rest of the morons loyal to this site would've toasted him with their Bud-lights.

  • Rochester "better than Vinfast" is a pretty low bar.
  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
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