Hertz are now renting Stingrays :)
Discussion
As there's often queries about renting US sports cars in here I guess this is the place for this post. I assume the folks in the Corvette section know most of this...
As it was just the wife and I on holiday last week, I'd booked up a Corvette for the trip (pick up at Orlando). And the tale begins... On the regular Hertz site there was no availability of Corvettes of any shape or form for the time we wanted. But logged in with my Hertz Gold account on the app there was availability on C6 Convertibles. I've had C6s before (coupe and convertible) from Hertz and was a perfectly happy bunny - great cars. BTW I don't think there's any minimum level you need to get a Hertz Gold card...certainly when I got mine (which was a good few years ago) it was just a fill-in-the-web-form exercise. But for sure there's more availability on the app with a Gold account than on the regular web site.
Anyway - arrived duly expecting a C6...and there in all its glory was a C7 Stingray in yellow. Does life get any better? Only 2000 miles on the clock and that new-car smell. The wee badge on the dashboard says Hertz Edition 43/75, so there's not going to be too many of these around though I guess spread over all the rental locations.
I'm not actually sure what makes the car a 'Hertz Edition' apart from the yellow paint and black stripe. All the driving modes are enabled including Sport and Track, and traction control can be disabled as normal (the Hertz Shelby Mustangs had traction control permanently enabled...but there was a workaround
). And with full leather, head-up display and performance recorder it looks like the top 3LT trim. I'm guessing there's nothing of the Z51 performance package as certainly it doesn't have the bigger brakes or aero.
Like all US rental fodder it was an auto, and a 6-speeder...so I guess that makes it a 2014 spec as the 2015 specs are 8 speeds in auto I believe.
But a very very fine car indeed - almost faultless in my book (but then I'm a sucker for big V8s). As a sporty road car, what can I criticise? Only trivial stuff really - the field of view from the side mirrors was narrow; and there was no pull-out cover thingy to cover luggage; and, erm that's it really.
Handling (on all surfaces), grip, braking, sound
, comfort - yes COMFORT, touchy-feelyness and everything else really was faultless. And of course a great looker too. So many thumbs-up from other drivers, pedestrians, parking attendants etc...
As to the auto box - I can't criticise it for being an auto box - it is what it is. So as auto boxes go it's a pretty good one (good? OK, the best I've driven). Maybe a bit too eager to downchange given there's enough power not to in many cases, but on the other hand you could leave it in manual and use the paddle-shifts and it would hold the gears you wanted. And maybe not locking-up quickly enough? But on the other hand it let the motor hit its power-band before locking so maybe a performnce advantage in there. And in praise of the auto, the shifts were lightning fast under power in auto and manual...accompanied by a satisfying backfire. Yup...I could actually live with this auto. On a private road, of course, we did a few full-bore runs and the way it puts the power down and instantly hits the next gear right on the red-line was mighty impressive.
So for a road-car, I'd have to say faultless in my book. I'd often pondered selling the Tuscan, and the Masser, and the Jeep and just getting a Corvette to do it all...but even the C6 wasn't quite the car I needed, even ignoring the LHD. But on the C7 even the wife suggested I sell the Tuscan and Masser and get the Stingray! Sooooo tempted.
Moving off the topic of car as a rental option, and instead an ownership proposition the only thing I'd say is I'm not sure how it would hold up as a track tool. Obviously no opportunity to find a track, and you just can't reach the same limits on the road. It's a quick car in anybody's book, but not rip-your-head-off powerful [like my humble LS-engined Tuscan....when it runs!]. The motor sounds amazing and promises massive power given how it feel on lighter throttles, but in truth the massive power isn't there. I gather it's 460hp and wiki says 1475Kg. But I'm seeing road tests with mighty impressive lap times from just the standard car, so it has to be the handling that's helping it through as it's not just making time up on power.
Since the Tuscan is 500+hp in 1000Kg I guess I'm a little spoilt, but I gather there's a Z07 option with 640hp...so that would tick all the boxes
Also while it sports big calipers, the disks just don't look beefy enough for track work...but then again there's the Z51 option with bigger disks, and I gather there's a carbon disk option on the Z07.
Right...if I sell the Tuscan, Masser, Jeep, Kawasaki and everything else that's not bolted down (apart from the Indian)...how many organs would I have to sell to get a Z07? Hertz did a very bad thing in giving me a Stingray. It has me smitten me like no other
As it was just the wife and I on holiday last week, I'd booked up a Corvette for the trip (pick up at Orlando). And the tale begins... On the regular Hertz site there was no availability of Corvettes of any shape or form for the time we wanted. But logged in with my Hertz Gold account on the app there was availability on C6 Convertibles. I've had C6s before (coupe and convertible) from Hertz and was a perfectly happy bunny - great cars. BTW I don't think there's any minimum level you need to get a Hertz Gold card...certainly when I got mine (which was a good few years ago) it was just a fill-in-the-web-form exercise. But for sure there's more availability on the app with a Gold account than on the regular web site.
Anyway - arrived duly expecting a C6...and there in all its glory was a C7 Stingray in yellow. Does life get any better? Only 2000 miles on the clock and that new-car smell. The wee badge on the dashboard says Hertz Edition 43/75, so there's not going to be too many of these around though I guess spread over all the rental locations.
I'm not actually sure what makes the car a 'Hertz Edition' apart from the yellow paint and black stripe. All the driving modes are enabled including Sport and Track, and traction control can be disabled as normal (the Hertz Shelby Mustangs had traction control permanently enabled...but there was a workaround
). And with full leather, head-up display and performance recorder it looks like the top 3LT trim. I'm guessing there's nothing of the Z51 performance package as certainly it doesn't have the bigger brakes or aero.Like all US rental fodder it was an auto, and a 6-speeder...so I guess that makes it a 2014 spec as the 2015 specs are 8 speeds in auto I believe.
But a very very fine car indeed - almost faultless in my book (but then I'm a sucker for big V8s). As a sporty road car, what can I criticise? Only trivial stuff really - the field of view from the side mirrors was narrow; and there was no pull-out cover thingy to cover luggage; and, erm that's it really.
Handling (on all surfaces), grip, braking, sound
, comfort - yes COMFORT, touchy-feelyness and everything else really was faultless. And of course a great looker too. So many thumbs-up from other drivers, pedestrians, parking attendants etc...As to the auto box - I can't criticise it for being an auto box - it is what it is. So as auto boxes go it's a pretty good one (good? OK, the best I've driven). Maybe a bit too eager to downchange given there's enough power not to in many cases, but on the other hand you could leave it in manual and use the paddle-shifts and it would hold the gears you wanted. And maybe not locking-up quickly enough? But on the other hand it let the motor hit its power-band before locking so maybe a performnce advantage in there. And in praise of the auto, the shifts were lightning fast under power in auto and manual...accompanied by a satisfying backfire. Yup...I could actually live with this auto. On a private road, of course, we did a few full-bore runs and the way it puts the power down and instantly hits the next gear right on the red-line was mighty impressive.
So for a road-car, I'd have to say faultless in my book. I'd often pondered selling the Tuscan, and the Masser, and the Jeep and just getting a Corvette to do it all...but even the C6 wasn't quite the car I needed, even ignoring the LHD. But on the C7 even the wife suggested I sell the Tuscan and Masser and get the Stingray! Sooooo tempted.
Moving off the topic of car as a rental option, and instead an ownership proposition the only thing I'd say is I'm not sure how it would hold up as a track tool. Obviously no opportunity to find a track, and you just can't reach the same limits on the road. It's a quick car in anybody's book, but not rip-your-head-off powerful [like my humble LS-engined Tuscan....when it runs!]. The motor sounds amazing and promises massive power given how it feel on lighter throttles, but in truth the massive power isn't there. I gather it's 460hp and wiki says 1475Kg. But I'm seeing road tests with mighty impressive lap times from just the standard car, so it has to be the handling that's helping it through as it's not just making time up on power.
Since the Tuscan is 500+hp in 1000Kg I guess I'm a little spoilt, but I gather there's a Z07 option with 640hp...so that would tick all the boxes
Also while it sports big calipers, the disks just don't look beefy enough for track work...but then again there's the Z51 option with bigger disks, and I gather there's a carbon disk option on the Z07.
Right...if I sell the Tuscan, Masser, Jeep, Kawasaki and everything else that's not bolted down (apart from the Indian)...how many organs would I have to sell to get a Z07? Hertz did a very bad thing in giving me a Stingray. It has me smitten me like no other
Interesting, last time I was at hertz in vegas they had the regular C6 as a "corvette" rental, the stingray was considerably more, they did say it would drop down in time, but interesting nevertheless... You didn't see any C6's lying around did you? I'm wondering if its standard for a corvette now, or if you got lucky and they ran out of C6s
Freddie328 said:
Check out the licence plate - we had that car after you!
I trust I left in in good fettle foorr you Edited by Freddie328 on Tuesday 28th October 20:59
What did you think of it? I was mighty impressed - quite a lot better than the C6. I've been looking at the costs of getting one here, but really waiting to see where they pitch the Z06 price-wise.
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