The long wait is over. Speculation about the C6 has dominated the Corvette community for the past couple of years. Spy photos of "beta" cars (lightly masked or otherwise disguised prototypes built on factory tooling) fed the frenzy as did the Internet appearance of some photos of a final-configuration C6 coupe taken during an ad filming late last fall in San Francisco. Some members of the automotive media got to see the C6 in November and December, and the wraps came off to the public at the Detroit Auto Show in early January.
Even after seeing the sixth-gen. Corvette and reading over the new car's rather impressive specs, one BIG question remained-would the C6 live up to expectations? The answer to that critical query would have to wait. In late December, at the time I wrote "The Evolutionary C6" for the May '04 issue, I figured The General would give us an opportunity to drive C6s in April or May. That turned out to be the last week of May and the first few days of June. In the third paragraph of "The Evolutionary C6" article I opined "...if the C6 lives up to its claimed power output figures and lives up to the statements of its creators, it will be a very impressive performer." I'm happy to state that it was worth the wait and, more importantly, that the C6 easily lives up to and exceeds the hype. It's good, it's very good.
As of this date (June 7th), just a relative handful of serial-numbered, legal-to-be-sold C6s exist. These are "pilot-line" cars, the first cars built on production tooling and in final-production configuration. Chevrolet and the Corvette team held off on scheduling media driving events until they had built enough "real" C6s, both coupes and convertibles, with a reasonable range of standard and optional equipment (such as base, Magnetic Selective Ride Control, and Z51 Performance Package suspensions) and both six-speed manual and the newly optional (that's right, the six-speed is the standard gearbox in C6s) 4L65-E automatic transmissions, to give the media a representative sampling of C6s to evaluate.
The driving agenda consisted of three "ride-and-drive" sessions of over an hour each on rural country roads west-northwest of the Detroit area, followed by the opportunity to wring out the C6s that afternoon on the new Milford Race Course at GM's Milford Proving Grounds. The "ride and drive" meant that we, the lucky media types, got to drive while accompanied by top members of the Corvette team, including Chief Engineer Dave Hill, C6 Chief Designer Tom Peters, Small-Block V-8 (i.e. LS2) Design Systems Engineer Jordan Lee, Corvette Product Manager Harlan Charles, and Corvette communications guru Bob Tripolsky. In addition to the 8 to 10 C6s, there were several C5s (including a Commemorative Edition '04 Z06) and an '04 Porsche 911 on hand so we could compare and contrast the new Corvette to both its immediate predecessor and some decidedly pricey and capable competition from Germany. I arrived a day early and got to spend most of that "bonus" day driving two of the C6s on my own, wherever and however I wanted. Cool!
This was my first real opportunity to look over a C6 outside of a studio or auto show setting. The Daytona Sunset Orange coupe I examined during last December's Media Briefing was a prototype (final-production design but built on "soft" tools) as was the Precision Red coupe seen in both the infamous spy photos and the "transporter" TV ad and the various C6s seen at the auto shows earlier this year. Chevrolet and the Corvette team had several C6s at the NCM's Birthday Bash in late April, but the cars were usually surrounded hordes of the Corvette faithful.