Used Chevrolet Corvette C6 2004-2013 review

The moment the engine catches and settles into its purposeful idle, the Corvette's more obvious characteristics start to shine through. And mostly they are characteristics you'll like.

Blip the throttle and you notice two things; how sharp the throttle response is, and how violent the twist action is from the engine, so much so that the whole car reacts with an authentic muscle-car shimmy.

The steering is amazingly accurate but lacks genuine feel

Matt Saunders

Road test editor

Move away, and again several aspects of the dynamics become instantly apparent; some are welcome, some not. The ride is very hard. It’s also well damped at low speed, quite refined and surprisingly well controlled when you up the pace. But if you expect it to feel like a lazy, softly sprung limo, think again. It's stiffer than an M3 convertible overall, but although it's also less comfortable over more ruptured surfaces, it's better sorted at speed.

The convertible behaves like a true sports car and not like a saloon that's had its roof chopped off. There's little chassis flex to speak of, even when the suspension has to work hard to eradicate interference. Compared with the previous model this is probably the biggest single area of improvement; how taut it feels, and just how well resolved it is in terms of fundamental chassis composure.

That said, its handling is not especially sweet or communicative. The steering, although amazingly accurate, has little in the way of genuine feel, meaning the ‘Vette can be quite a difficult machine to place perfectly on the road. So responsive is the steering immediately off-centre that you can end up rounding corners in awkward bites, applying too much lock, then winding it off, then winding it back on again in minute but clumsy inputs at the wheel.

You get a neurotic reaction from the rear whenever you apply steering lock. You’ll learn to apply lock in very small but smooth amounts, at which point the entire car seems to relax beneath you. It becomes a far more fluid handler.

The ZR-1 is more sophisticated with magnetically controlled dampers on its double-wishbone suspension, which retains carbonfibre leaf springs at the rear. The ride's generally composed, although the 335/25 section rear tyres make a racket.