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I had the privilege of driving the new C8 at Spring Mountain last month. The dealership I work for sent me there to learn about the new beast under the guidance of Corvette Academy training. All I can say is WOW!! I fell in love instantly!!! I also can't wait to see what this thing will do at the races. I'm hoping to get to the Sebring race in March to see how the C8R is going to perform. Cheers y'all
Last edited by jkellerC8; 01-16-2020 at 11:40 PM.
Reason: New member
^^^ So you're the guy that made GM put tape over all our phones last week. Haha. They told us that one guy took a selfie of him in front of the cars during a previous week of the training, causing them to tape up our camera lenses last week.
I just went last Thursday and Friday. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about the car. The track sessions were fun and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the car handled. The previous comments from a car magazine were in the back of my mind as we headed out on track. I didn't drive the car at the limit, but I was nearly 3 seconds faster than the previous fastest lap they'd seen at the training over the last 5 weeks. At 9/10ths (and only a few laps on a totally unfamiliar track) I thought the car turned in better than the C7 and the forward bite off the corner was significantly better. I carried a little more speed into the corners each lap and also got on the throttle sooner and harder each lap. I never found the limit of how early I could start putting power down or what the limit was at the rate we were driving. It'll be interesting to get mine on track in couple months and really get to push the car where I'm familiar.
I will add that the DCT is so much F'ing better and it's about time we have a proper transmission in these cars. While the C8 isn't as nasty as a McLaren 650s, 600lt or a Ferrari 488, the transmission acted the same and made the C8 feel a lot more like it's more expensive competition.
Was it your first time on the track? Most people fall in love with any performance car their first time laying it all out, legally. Interesting first post though. Could use a little color... like what it compared to or something. What performed good? What the braking was like? Anything?
I had the privilege of driving the new C8 at Spring Mountain last month. The dealership I work for sent me there to learn about the new beast under the guidance of Corvette Academy training. All I can say is WOW!! I fell in love instantly!
I had the privilege of driving the new C8 at Spring Mountain last month. The dealership I work for sent me there to learn about the new beast under the guidance of Corvette Academy training. All I can say is WOW!! I fell in love instantly!!! I also can't wait to see what this thing will do at the races. I'm hoping to get to the Sebring race in March to see how the C8R is going to perform. Cheers y'all
You were really blessed. When I contacted them three weeks ago about booking for the two day C8 school I was told they didn’t have their cars yet. Maybe they meant the cars that will be used for the GM two day school. Really looking forward to the experience.
Forget the embargo, The car I drove had less than 300 miles it was only at 75% power. The car felt very at home at the track and the overall experience with mind blowing!
I really can’t compare it to anything but a supercar
^^^ So you're the guy that made GM put tape over all our phones last week. Haha. They told us that one guy took a selfie of him in front of the cars during a previous week of the training, causing them to tape up our camera lenses last week.
I just went last Thursday and Friday. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about the car. The track sessions were fun and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the car handled. The previous comments from a car magazine were in the back of my mind as we headed out on track. I didn't drive the car at the limit, but I was nearly 3 seconds faster than the previous fastest lap they'd seen at the training over the last 5 weeks. At 9/10ths (and only a few laps on a totally unfamiliar track) I thought the car turned in better than the C7 and the forward bite off the corner was significantly better. I carried a little more speed into the corners each lap and also got on the throttle sooner and harder each lap. I never found the limit of how early I could start putting power down or what the limit was at the rate we were driving. It'll be interesting to get mine on track in couple months and really get to push the car where I'm familiar.
I will add that the DCT is so much F'ing better and it's about time we have a proper transmission in these cars. While the C8 isn't as nasty as a McLaren 650s, 600lt or a Ferrari 488, the transmission acted the same and made the C8 feel a lot more like it's more expensive competition.
Last edited by Steve Garrett; 01-17-2020 at 01:42 PM.
So you're the guy that made GM put tape over all our phones last week. Haha. They told us that one guy took a selfie of him in front of the cars during a previous week of the training, causing them to tape up our camera lenses last week.
I just went last Thursday and Friday. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about the car. The track sessions were fun and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the car handled. The previous comments from a car magazine were in the back of my mind as we headed out on track. I didn't drive the car at the limit, but I was nearly 3 seconds faster than the previous fastest lap they'd seen at the training over the last 5 weeks. At 9/10ths (and only a few laps on a totally unfamiliar track) I thought the car turned in better than the C7 and the forward bite off the corner was significantly better. I carried a little more speed into the corners each lap and also got on the throttle sooner and harder each lap. I never found the limit of how early I could start putting power down or what the limit was at the rate we were driving. It'll be interesting to get mine on track in couple months and really get to push the car where I'm familiar.
I will add that the DCT is so much F'ing better and it's about time we have a proper transmission in these cars. While the C8 isn't as nasty as a McLaren 650s, 600lt or a Ferrari 488, the transmission acted the same and made the C8 feel a lot more like it's more expensive competition.
@RichieRichZ06 Now this is the feedback I want to hear Go on.. what'd you think about the brake boost feel? How about the OEM Z51 pad compound? I'm done racing for awhile and just going to HPDE and instruct in the car. I'd like to truly HPDE it with nothing... just a mild alignment. No separate track wheels/tires, no track pads, no trackday seat, no more truck and trailer. If an advanced driver were trying to just have fun at 8/10ths is can the car do it as delivered?
@RichieRichZ06 Now this is the feedback I want to hear Go on.. what'd you think about the brake boost feel? How about the OEM Z51 pad compound? I'm done racing for awhile and just going to HPDE and instruct in the car. I'd like to truly HPDE it with nothing... just a mild alignment. No separate track wheels/tires, no track pads, no trackday seat, no more truck and trailer. If an advanced driver were trying to just have fun at 8/10ths is can the car do it as delivered?
I didn't notice any feedback issues on the brakes or anything, but again, I was only driving is semi-hard for 5 ish laps each time. I did question them on how the system would let the driver know there was brake fade. Not having a mechanical connection between the brake pedal and master cylinder had me worried about that. Apparently the car uses brake fluid and pad/rotor temps to determine if there is a probability of brake fade. When the computer determines there is likely to be brake fade, a message will be displayed on the DIC for brake fade warning #1. That message can be cleared and the driver can slow down or the message can be cleared and ignored by the driver. If the car continues to be pushed hard (they wouldn't give me specifics on how hard) there is a brake fade warning #2. That warning will create a latched code in the EBCM and it will have to be inspected/cleared by the dealer. We were told that code also limits the car to 55 MPH until it's cleared with GDS 2 software at the dealer. I wanted to know more about that specifically, but they wouldn't get too far into it.
Regarding compound, I didn't have any issues with the car and I assumed there was some brake burnishing done because of how good they felt. The car I was driving showed about 2,500 miles on the odometer and I assume many of those were at Spring Mountain. The day we arrived they received 13 more cars for the GM training and they sent 13 instructors out to get miles on them. Apparently the class sizes were going up a couple weeks later and they needed more cars.
I think this car will be a HPDE dream come true. A proper transmission, really good handling and significantly better forward bite. I think it will take a little getting used to the new car because I felt like I needed a couple more sessions to even get close to feeling totally comfortable, but I think people will find it easier to drive close to the limit. I was tossing the car around pretty good and never had TC/AH slap my hand in Sport 1.
Similar track prep is required on these so make sure to go over that when you pick the car up. The DCT requires 2 additional quarts of fluid before track use and it uses a secondary fill hole on the top of the trans. You have to remove some of the trunk carpet and paneling to get to it, but once you've added the fluid, it can stay in forever. Of course brake fluid is required and they recommend an alignment. I'm curious to see if/how SRF will effect that brake fade warning system. I will let you know when we get our car, do the track prep and get it on track. I think you'd be perfectly happy driving this thing at 8/10 or 9/10 wit just those simple prep items and you'd be surprising some people that spent a lot more on their cars.
I also think you'll like the seats. They had a mix of the GT2 and comp seats in the cars being used on track. I felt like both were an improvement and the comp seat was significantly better than the C7 version.
Thank you RichieRichZ06 for a very thorough and exciting report on the C8. I didn't pick up on anything to be concerned about in the least, only things to get even more excited about. Glad to hear the DCT was so good also. Thanks again!
01-16-2020, 10:03 PM
New Member here
Go on.. what'd you think about the brake boost feel? How about the OEM Z51 pad compound? I'm done racing for awhile and just going to HPDE and instruct in the car. I'd like to truly HPDE it with nothing... just a mild alignment. No separate track wheels/tires, no track pads, no trackday seat, no more truck and trailer. If an advanced driver were trying to just have fun at 8/10ths is can the car do it as delivered?