Corvette C6 (04-) 6.0 2dr Convertible review

Your say

Corvette C6 6.0 Road Test

Test date 09 August 2005 Price as tested £53,495

For Great engine, brakes, driving position, innovative head-up display

Against Ride quality, exhaust note too quiet, steering response

For over 40 years the Corvette has flown the flag for the old fashioned, all-American sports car. And for over 40 years it has defined the way we Europeans have tended to think about American cars. Which, if we're being brutally and genuinely honest, has never contained all that much respect.

During that time the Corvette has been many things to many men and women; fast, powerful, on occasions breathtakingly beautiful and, compared with its European opposition, often exceptionally good value. But at the same time it has also been thirsty, overweight, under-achieving in terms of suspension composure and decidedly non-cutting edge technically compared with its Euro rivals. Worse still, it has only ever been available in wrong hand drive, and this more than any other factor has curtailed its appeal to just a handful of enthusiasts prepared to import their Corvettes to the UK.

Despite rumours a year or so ago that the all-new sixth generation 'Vette might become avaiable in right hand drive, the reality is that it isn't. And almost certainly never will be. Truth is, demand at home for the car (still made in Bowling Green, Kentucky by the way) far outweighs any desire to spend money tooling up to make it in right hand drive. As ever, then, the all-new Corvette is a left hand drive only experience.

Except this time there are several compelling reasons to sustain your interest the latest Corvette, even if you are a UK based sports car enthusiast with around 50 grand to spend on a new toy. For starters, GM claims genuinely to have gone to town on the car's underpinnings this time around, having reasoned finally that to keep its legend alive it has to enable it compete head on with the very best the Europeans can offer. Hence the new Corvette is lighter, smaller and significantly faster than the model it replaces, not to mention better made, more economical and a great deal more sophisticated beneath the skin.