JustinStrife

The C7 and C7 z51 will have the same width tires as the C6 and C6 Z51 had. Still wider than what the C5 base and Z51 had. Only now, these tires have more grip than 325/30/19 Goodyears that were on the C6 Z06 and GrandSport. For a starting point, I'd say that's plenty damn good.

You want wider tires? Go buy them. Or wait until the higher performance C7 comes out in a year or two. Otherwise you are being completely unreasonable for a car that will not see track time by 99% of it's owners.

Besides. Serious track junkies aren't going to use OEM wheels and tires anyway.

Guibo

I didn't see much BS. And as mentioned, the base C7 tires are not skinnier than the base C6 tires. They do offer better, more consistent performance than the base C6 tires while maintaining

• lower cost
• better fuel economy
• lower noise
• better resistance to tramlining
• better wet performance
• better steering response
• better feel

compared to a comparable but much wider tire.

Why is this a problem to you?

Oh, so you list a paltry few cars of all types (not even a dent in the 200k brand new C6's sold, nevermind the millions of all the others sold). How do you know all of these people bought these cars brand new? You don't. GM doesn't need to make a business case based on sloppy seconds. That is a list of different drivers with different cars with different parts. I don't see your time for your car in bone stock trim, and then with the only change being the front tires swapped for 335s. Yeah, let's see how well those listed Hoosiers work on a gnarly, bumpy, cambered, or crowned road. Or through standing water.

It may be slow, but it may also be fun. I would argue that that is the point of a street stock sports car. What you're describing seems to fall into the category of race car. The two are not one and the same.
If you can kill yourself with power-on oversteer in the Corvette, then that's not a problem (aside from the problem of finding rear traction in cold, wet, or damp conditions; which I would argue is more of a problem than the Corvette being "slow" on a bone dry track).
PTM does not determine your braking point, nor when you initiate a turn, nor when you apply the gas. Driving from the pits with an X box controller is not the same at all. You have no sense of g's, you have no real-time wide-angle hi-def view of what is actually happening, you don't have the real sound of the engine, etc.

Hardly. I would argue that the Big Three getting caugh flat-footed without fuel efficient vehicles was partially a result of them fighting tooth and nail against CAFE mandates.
You don't think competing manufacturers have to contend with their own government mandates of emissions and safety? You think pedestrian safety legislation or CO2 tax brackets or displacement taxes originated from the US? Think again. Tell me what you think of government-mandated 3-4 weeks of paid vacation.

And who has said the base C7 and its equipment is the end all be all of performance? Nobody. You think the purpose of Caterham, Lotus, Porsche, Radical, Dodge, Gumpert, etc is to produce track cars for people out of the goodness of their hearts? No, it's not. Those cars have a purpose to make money, and we can see what happens when they stray too heavily toward the track side of things (Viper was not profitable and was floated to the highest bidder, for which there were no takers; Lotus tried to revamp its lineup because the paltry sales of Elise, Exiges, and Evoras wasn't enough to sustain it without heavy funding from its Malaysian backers; Gumpert, who set a 7:11 on the Nordschleife, is bankrupt).

theseal

Please take your keyboard off of 'random voluminous moronery' setting.

JustinStrife

In all seriousness, it sounds like the Corvette isn't for you. So enjoy whatever car forums have what you want and need.

rcallen484

When I see that someone has gone on the kamikaze inspired course of non-stop C7 bashing, I have started putting them on my ignore list and I have found that to be a welcome relief. Now if everyone would quit quoting such trolls it would be even better and no one whatsoever, other than other trolls, would be reading their nonsense.

Reciprocal

Ramey,
Congratulations on the track record and times from SCCA competition! Hope you make the rounds at our track, High Plains Raceway just east of Byers in Colorado, 15 turns, 2.5 miles with elevation changes. Always enjoy meeting people who track. (You too JoeC5).

The people who are arguing with you are posers, so you are right, it is a waste of time.

JustinStrife

People just have extremely unrealistic ideals, and reality doesn't play too kindly to them. It's sad really.

ZeekDuff

Well, trying to ignore the bashers and make sense of the science, I read 6 pages before anyone mentioned "Contact Patch," and IMHO this is the single most important characteristic to consider when choosing a tire for a given purpose. As was explained by GM (thanks to whomever for posting the GM statement), the idea is to get the best all-around performance from the "base model," and the new tires & sizes were designed for that model's build/engineering, specifically. A Contact Patch can only do a few things in terms of "better," and wider is definitely not better all-around. I'm not gonna go off on a long rant, there are enough of those here, but suffice it to say the best choices for the new C7 base have been made. For other purposes, there are other choices, different shapes to the Contact Patch, and science to show what shapes up best for what situation. I think for example, it's been shown clearly, wide MT Drag Radials are NOT the best tires for The Texas Mile.

Best regards,
...z

Guibo

Ramey, so instead of answering the question as to why this is such a problem for you, you resort to name-calling? Perhaps you need to review the rules for this forum:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c7-g...-and-heed.html
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/foru...rd-others.html

If you want to have a mature, civil debate, I'm all for that. We can start with why you think it's so imperative that GM make the C7 completely and wholly attentive to the relatively few who attack cones around a flat, dry vacant parking lot on a weekend.
Your remote-controlled Xbox example raises an important point: If all-out speed is so important (and is thus what defines a "performance car"), do you think GM should make a track killer that is remote-controlled, rather than a slower car that involves the driver and gives him direct feedback as to what it's doing? After all, you seem to think that 10/10ths lap times should be the #1 priority and is what defines a "performance car." You never said the driver had to be in it.

Bill17601

It is amazing to me that highly educated automotive engineers can not design a car that will fit every sports car owners needs. All GM needs to do is hire the experts on Forums , depending on model, and have them pick tires and rim sizes. Etc. (Sarcasm).

ZL-1

Thank you. Finally a logical post. Thanks for reminding us that we're talking about the BASE corvette here. Serious performance comes next year.

sam90lx

They need to stop hiring guys from the old Pontiac division!

sam90lx

And with a wider tire!

Kappa

If they move to a 255-265/295 setup like the C5Z will that really make that much of a difference to you? Because there's a good chance that's what's going to happen.

sam90lx

Michelin already said at the bash the tire was over a 300. Im thinking a 305 at the very least.