This Chevrolet Corvette 427 Convertible 2013 is the Z06 convertible in everything but name. So on a gorgeous morning I felt it was required to open up the roof and commute in from the far reaches of the suburbs surrounding One Autoweek Tower. The drive is as good as you would expect, so I won't belabor the open-air experience. But the sounds and feel of the power, heck even the smells of the open road, are all intoxicating.
I'm a fan of this six-speed. It's intense yet purposeful, which is a fitting microcosm of the Corvette 427. The gearbox and this car demand your full attention, but the throws are tight, rewarding and fun. Downshifting produces a fierce sound that's intoxicating. Sonorous and arousing, it is proof positive the American V8 is alive and well. The steering offers ample weight, though is a bit light on-center. There is excellent response and feel at speed and through curves. The chassis is solid and the pilot sits just over the pavement, which makes for a concentrated, hovercraft experience.
Looking out over the long, curvaceous hood flanked by the bulging fenders, you are struck by a clear thought: This is a lot of car. It's light but has gravitas and guts. With these options, the cabin is indeed handsome, accented by the carbon-fiber trim and stitching. With this upgrade, the cabin is competitive. From a personal perspective, I like the silhouette of the hardtop—but it's hard to match the open-air execution of the 427 convertible.
EXECUTIVE EDITOR ROGER HART: I felt very fortunate to have been able to slip behind the wheel and drop the top on this Corvette 427 and enjoy a great day. With all respect to Kid Rock, this is the American badass: loud, proud and outrageously fast. This car had me thinking of robbing the kid's college fund to get one of these in my garage. The horsepower is intoxicating, as is the awesome, and I mean awesome, V8 rumble that comes through the active exhaust system. Once this V8 gets wound up and hits 4,000 revs, all hell breaks loose. Neighbors run for cover, dogs cowl with fear and mothers grab their children. It is loud. And with the top down, it is all the better to hear the V8 let loose.
I love the 427 badge on the hood as 427 is exactly what should be on a Vette. This is basically a Z06 convertible, and with the options list heavily executed here, you get a car that is more than just the big engine. The interior is as nice as any Vette ever coming from the factory. The top-stitched leather trim looks terrific, and while I liked the seats and Alcantara covered wheel on the anniversary hardtop model we had in here a while back, the overall comfort level in this Vette is terrific. The radio interface is old, and it looks it. But this is the last year for this model, and things like that will, I'm sure, be taken care of.
But the new car will have some big, big performance shoes to fill. This 427 is a beast that is simply one of the most fun cars I've driven in a while. Riding on those Cup-style wheels and with the red paint, the badass attitude extends far beyond the fire-breathing V8.
My daughter can work her way through school, I'm sure.
SENIOR ONLINE EDITOR RORY CARROLL: Holy hell, what an engine. As someone who is often heard extolling the virtues of slow cars driven fast, as someone who loves the old European sports cars, and as someone who used to root for Porsche and Ferrari in sports car racing, I have to say, this car has changed my perspective.
I'm not a complete Corvette noob, either. I've driven C2 Corvettes, C4s, C5s and a couple of early C6s. They all seemed cool enough, but too creaky and cheap to inspire the kind of admiration I'd given to air-cooled Porsche 911s. Plus, in standard trim, the performance wasn't mind-blowing enough to overcome my little quibbles.
I spend a lot of time complaining about all the little things that automakers do to make modern cars comfortable, quiet and sterile. I do it because all these little doodads remove us from our cars and destroy our ability to connect with them. It all drives me crazy because almost none of it adds anything positive to the experience of being in, or driving, the car. It's mostly complexity for the sake of complexity. Is your car really better because you control your emergency brake by pushing a button? No, it is not.
This car has good seats and an infotainment system that looks dated but actually functions rather well. The interior isn't the best I've ever seen, but I happen to think that incredibly fine leather and infinitely adjustable seats are not critical to the sports-car experience. The seats and the quality of the interior are good enough that it doesn't distract from the driving experience. That's as good as the interior needs to be.
The cabin is remarkably quiet, though not artificially so. You can still hear the engine, transmission and the sound of the tires flicking rocks against the undercarriage, but you can also carry on a conversation and hear the stereo. If you're looking for a sports car that is quieter than that, maybe you should shop for a GT car or a sports sedan instead.
We all know that the LS7 is an incredible engine and the C6 chassis is its perfect match. A lot can be said about the performance of this car, and what it feels like to drive, but at this point in the life of the C6, most of it has already been said.
What you should know is how refreshing it is that it in building the Corvette 427, GM did not try to please everyone. Unlike most modern sports cars, it wasn't built for people who want to look cool but can't stand to sit in anything that doesn't feel like a Rolls-Royce inside. The car was built for people who love sports cars.
DIGITAL EDITOR ANDREW STOY: I think it's finally happened: The old “no replacement for displacement” adage has finally fallen by the wayside, trumped by the irresistible combination of turbo/supercharging and direct fuel injection.
Case in point: The 2013 Chevrolet Corvette 427. With seven liters of rev-happy V8, I was fully expecting this car to rip my face off and feed it back to me. And it kind of did, when the revs were up, but this car ends up being about sheer, unholy speed, not the aforementioned face-removing acceleration. That, I think, was the biggest surprise for me: the fact that most of the 427's excitement is above 3,000 rpm, no doubt due to gearing rather than the LS7's potential. For example, I entered the expressway going 65 mph in second gear, and the engine was just north of loafing.
I know what I was expecting: The supercharged AJ V8 from the Jaguar XKR (or R-S, even better). With instant torque everywhere and a delicious, low, muscle car rumble no matter the situation, the 5.0-liter, 510-hp version is my current benchmark. That's five supercharged, direct-injected liters, mind you—with five more hp than the LS7.
Yeah, the LS7 sounds insane when the exhaust flaps open, and yeah, it'll rev like a twin-cam despite the presence of pushrods. But along with the highway gearing, GM employs exhaust tuning that tones this monster down to Impala SS levels unless you're standing on the throttle.
I also found traces of old GM workmanship throughout the Corvette. There's a hunk of sponge rubber visible in the corner of the instrument binnacle, a dash switch that squeaked like grandma's rocker when pressed and the noise and heat that made it into the cockpit went beyond “character,” falling squarely into “crude” territory.
One thing I'll give 'em: Selective Ride Control is brilliant. But the rest of the Convertible 427 left me kind of flat, a result I really didn't expect.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR JAKE LINGEMAN: The only problem with having a Corvette 427 convertible for the night is getting the keys four hours before you get off work. Needless to say I was giddy from 1-5 p.m.
I was never a big Corvette fan until the C5 debuted. That piqued my interest. And when the C6 came up, with the fixed headlights, I was sold. This is Ferrari speed without the Ferrari price. And I know it's not just about the engine, it's about the engineering.
Of course, all things being equal I'd take the Ferrari any day, but as a realistic expectation, this 'Vette is badass.
Andy is a little bit right, you do have to put the pedal down to get those valves to open up and hear the thing. But I think most owners like it that way. We take these cars for a few days at a time and want max fun. When you own the car, you want some form of civility, sometimes. But, I love the valves, and three grand is a perfect place for them to open up. You can cruise semi-quietly and quickly without spitting flames over the public roads. You want more action? Fine, shift at six grand and it sounds like a GT Le Mans car.
Is it too much to ask that every car should be able to backfire on every shift? The Fiat 500 Abarth, the BMW 335i and this sound so damn good at high-rpm shifts that it's all you want to do, all the time.
Now, I'm no fan of convertibles, but if you have to have one, a manual ragtop is best. After that, I'd request a power ragtop, which is what this Corvette has. Surely it adds weight, but in the pounds-per-pony category, it's like adding deck chairs to the Titanic. And it looks great with the top down, and beautiful with the black wheels. But you do have to put it up sometime, which just looks wrong in every way possible.
The only benefit to this drop-top is the ride. Most of the time we aren't on the track, which means that a tiny bit of extra flex goes a long way. Even in sport mode, which I kept this car in the entire time, I didn't feel beat up after 150 miles. It's been a spell since I drove the hardtop Z06 but I remember it being harsh. Not too harsh for an enthusiast, but definitely bumpier.
Power is laughable at 505 hp. Trust us, it's plenty. That's one thing you won't have to worry about. Mileage for me came in at about 15 mpg, and that's with feet of lead, which is not bad. Speaking of lead feet, the brakes felt extremely strong, even after a week of journalists banging on it; the clampers felt solid as a rock.
Sure the interior is not extremely fashionable, but it's functional. The cup holders are to the side of the shifter so they don't interfere with your elbow. The green LED display on the window is easy to see and cool to use, especially at night. The traction control button sits right on the center console. Also, love it with the xenon headlights.
So, $91,000 is a big chunk of change, especially for a Corvette. But, you could ditch the 1SC package that adds the luxury stuff and walk out of the dealership just $80k lighter. And for a drop-top that will literally compete with the best in the world, I'd say that's a pretty good deal.
SENIOR MOTORSPORTS EDITOR MAC MORRISON: You guys all seem to keep calling this the Z06 convertible, which it is most definitely not. It's as close as you're going to get, but it lacks the Z06's aluminum construction, weighs a couple hundred pounds more and comes without the knife-edged handling that you either love or hate in the Z06.
I'm all for transplanting the Z06's 7.0-liter V8, though, and the use of carbon fiber for the hood, fenders, floor, rocker panels and front splitter are also Z06- and ZR1-like—and much appreciated. The Cup wheels look great, though they become soiled by brake dust quickly, giving them an unappealing brown/orange hue. I'd spend a lot of time detailing my wheels if I owned this car.
As far as end-of-life special editions go, I give Chevrolet and the Corvette engineering boys credit for producing a unique mechanical combination, rather than simply bombarding us with stickers and logos, though you can get those on this car, too. Once again, they've managed to produce a Corvette “first”: the quickest, fastest and most powerful convertible in the model's history.
I do have one complaint, but I preface it by acknowledging that there is no point in continued complaining about outdated center stacks, electronic interfaces and interior trim. The C6 has been on the market for eight years, boys. Go take a look at what, say, Porsche was foisting on its customers eight years ago in terms of interior design and materials, switchgear, electronics—you'll be shocked.
However, what the hell is wrong with this 427's driver's seat? I'm not even complaining about the lack of a true sport seat, well-bolstered option. No, the bottom seat cushion here felt almost nonexistent. I weigh 197 pounds, hardly enough that I should feel the seat cushion bottom out with the springs pushing against my backside. Twenty minutes into my drive, I wanted to get out of this car because of that issue. I was that uncomfortable and I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it. I've driven loads of Corvettes and do not recall ever being so uncomfortable in the driver's seat.
Chevrolet Corvette 427 Convertible 2013
Base Price: $76,900
As-Tested Price: $91,135
Drivetrain: 7.0-liter V8; RWD, six-speed manual
Output: 505 hp @ 6,300 rpm, 470 lb-ft @ 4,800 rpm
Curb Weight: 3,355 lb
Fuel Economy (EPA/AW): 18/16.6 mpg
Options: 1SC package including memory package, seat adjusters, power bolster and power lumbar, leather seats, power convertible top, custom leather wrapped interior, universal home remote ($9,500); carbon fiber package including black-painted carbon fiber front splitter, black-painted carbon fiber rockers, body-colored full-width ZR1 rear spoiler ($2,995); Crystal Red Metallic Tintcoat paint ($850); black cup style wheels, 19-inch front, 20-inch rear ($495); custom red leather stitching ($395)
Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121109/carreviews/121109839#ixzz2CJxFPlH7
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