Do you really need a 'fun dial' and multi-configurable driver modes when you've got a 6.2-litre V8 and a manual gearbox? American 'have it your way' fast food culture has come to supposed driver's cars but interestingly
the Corvette C7 Stingray
is actually playing catch-up to the Germans in this regard.
'Weather' setting? Nah, 'Track' all the way, ta
Comparing anything to a TVR is playing with fire in any PH roadtest but the core values of the 'vette - big V8, hairy chested image and unapologetic looks - are as close to Blackpool's finest as anyone's offering these days. Or would be, had Chevrolet not followed the fashion for multi-mode driver settings and electronically enhanced driving. Something PHer s6boy set us right on in typically forthright style.
"Nothing like a TVR and thank f**k for that," he said in the comments thread. "I can't think of a car review that has depressed me more about the way cars are now being developed." He goes on, "It might make you look good to the outside world as you eke out the extra seconds over a lap or a few extra yards out of a corner compared to that analogue TVR you're itching to get past - and you probably will, but what do you say when you get back to the pits? 'Yup well I had the e-diff 20 per cent open, throttle potentiometer at max attack and TC set up so any oppo action I couldn't handle was mopped up by the ecu.' Driving? No, piloting yes."
I have some sympathy with his viewpoint and have railed against it in the past, RS Audis and recent M BMWs particular culprits in this rush to offer a multitude of settings while failing to actually settle on a single combination that works properly. A tip of the hat to AMG, and in particular the C63, for the philosophy of passive dampers, properly set up steering and a true twist the key and enjoy ethos. Leave the engineers alone, they know what they're doing and all that.
Corvette in 'sophistication and subtlety' shocker
Electric steering and other gizmos have given carmakers incredible freedom to offer multiple maps for power assistance, throttle response, gearshift maps and suspension. But just because they can does it mean they should? Certainly before I'd actually driven the Stingray I'd comprehensively baffled myself trying to work my way through the configuration menus and continued to do so as I trundled up the M4. But the single twist action of the aforementioned 'fun dial' does actually make sense of it all and if you don't get too bogged down with the settings and just keep turning it until you reach Track mode you won't go far wrong. Frankly if it was my car I'd just glue the dial into its most extreme setting and be done with it but credit to Chevrolet for doing a better job than most of translating this culture of configurability into something half beneficial.
So, OK, the Stingray is no TVR. We'll agree on that. But compared with a 991 Turbo or GT3, a Jaguar F-Type, a modern BMW M or a Nissan GT-R it's a mainstream sports car where the tech and the person at the wheel are at least an equal partnership sharing a common goal. Far from being dumbed down the 'vette is actually a lot more clever in its balance of technology and raw thrills than most. Yee, and indeed, hah.