2003 Chevy Corvette Base Engine & Drive Test

Automatic or stick, the C5 is fast traffic. It's quick at the starting gate, beautifully balanced, surprisingly comfortable, and built to a far higher standard than any Corvette in history. While we prefer the six-speed, we have to admit that the automatic rams its shifts home with authority, and there's enough muscle in the LS1 V8 to cover the performance penalties associated with auto-shifters. Miss one shift with the manual the and the automatic in the lane next door will clean your clock.

Unlike most ragtops, the Corvette convertible weighs about the same as the coupe, so its acceleration is undiluted: 0-to-60 mph in less than 5 seconds with the six-speed manual transmission, about 0.4 seconds slower with the automatic. The only performance penalty that goes with the convertible version is top speed. The ragtop doesn't share the coupe's aerodynamic efficiency, so it tops out at a mere 162 mph versus 175 mph for the coupe. Put the top and there's even more drag and a correspondingly lower top speed. Still, that kind of speed will get you to the drive-in in a pretty big hurry, and in the local slammer even faster.

From a handling and acceleration standpoint, it's tough to perceive any performance distinctions between the coupe and convertible. Chevrolet claims that the structural design for the C5 began with the convertible, and as a consequence no shoring-up measures were required for the soft-top chassis. You hear the same song from almost every purveyor of convertibles, but in this application it seems to be true. Significantly, we didn't see a hint of cowl shake, the time-honored malady of convertibles (wherein the dashboard and the outside of the car oscillate at different rates). If there is any distinction to be made between the agility and stability of the Corvette coupe and convertible, it would be all but impossible to discern on public roads.

Ride quality is decidedly stiff. You don't get a sports car's ability to change directions without snubbing body roll and limiting up-and-down suspension motions, and when you do those things you're obliged to accept some tradeoff in comfort. Potholes are easily identifiable in the Corvette. Yet they are not uncomfortably harsh. You hear them and feel them, but they aren't jarring, and they don't unduly upset the handling balance.

Even with the base suspension settings, responses are surgically precise if you can imagine a surgical instrument with 350 horsepower and great gobs of torque. The Corvette offers sharp reflexes while driving down rural roads. It provides a superb blend of muscle and finesse, with a high tolerance for mistakes of the enthusiastic variety. Its brakes are nothing short of race-worthy.

Chevrolet's second-generation Active Handling is standard equipment; it's a magical system that gets you out of slides before trouble strikes by applying braking to the individual corners as needed. It uses on-board sensors to measure yaw, lateral acceleration and steering wheel position, then brings into play the capabilities of Corvette's standard ABS and traction-control systems to smoothly help the driver maintain control when the chassis would rather oversteer or understeer. Some such systems have been criticized lately for their eagerness to aggressively assist before the driver wants or needs assistance. Corvette engineers say that they've carefully calibrated this system to limit such intrusiveness. Aside from an "Active Handling" message on the instrument panel, drivers might not even realize they've been assisted.

This remains true on the racetrack. We found the Z06 to be rock-steady, precise, consistent, and fast at a 2.2-mile circuit near Las Vegas. This car proved to be an absolute joy to drive fast. The brakes didn't fade. The transmission and shift linkage were solid and tight, shifting perfectly each time, whether up or down. The Corvette didn't understeer unless the driver forced it to. It only oversteered in response to deliberately crude throttle application, and then the Active Handling brought it back into line by applying the brakes to the outside front wheel. There was one spot on the track where the suspension gave a mighty twitch, full on the throttle in third gear exiting a turn, but it stopped at that one twitch. It's a new circuit, and still smooth; a bumpy circuit might have brought different results. But it must be kept in mind that this is a road car, not a racing car. Its performance for a road car was beyond impressive. And wildly enjoyable.