The Chevy Corvette has graded the prominent Car and Driver's “10Best” list 25 times, while holding the “season’s greetings” bragging rights of the second all-time leading recipient of the coveted award. It has done so for many thrilling reasons here at Jim Butler Chevy of St Louis, with one of them being its ability to play incredibly hard at the track on weekends, and then cruise it casually into work all week. The 670-horsepower wild child in the form of the Z06 model supplied plenty of inspiration for the hybrid-powered, all-wheel drive E-Ray.
The Car and Driver team made a very educated claim when they realized that the E-Ray’s electrified front axle and mid-mounted 6.2-liter V8 powertrain aren’t really as much about the premise of green energy as some diehards think. It operates in electric-only mode for very short bursts at lower speeds, and only if the driver has manually chosen to do so pre-ignition. Once the battery has run down or you are driving at more than 45 mph, EV mode is left “completely behind in the rearview.”
The 0-60 mph blast all goes down in just 2.5 seconds, rendering it the fastest Corvette that the Car and Driver team had ever tested. The entry-level Stingray is still notorious for turning heads, and you get the choice of a targa or convertible with the Z51 package’s performance upgrade. It offers bona fide All-American pavement-pounding enjoyment courtesy of summer tires, 5-hp increase, brake and suspension upgrades, and 60 mph sprinting capability at just under 3.0 seconds. Even at higher costs, there isn’t a production car in existence that achieves these stats.
Opting for the Magnetorheological dampers offers up an unparalleled ride quality, which proved to be useful for this testing crew on Michigan’s heavily scarred and weathered roads. Time after highly exciting time, the Corvette’s appetite and value proposition bring so many drivers back for seconds. While still originating in the Bowling Green, Kentucky assembly plant, we are now quite positive that the first hybrid Corvette will completely slay the festive duty of warming public perception to the idea of a fully electric supercar.
The E-Ray’s unique personality comes from the mix of a standard Stingray chassis and engine along with the Z06’s wider bodywork and smokin’ tire offerings. The very sweet Z06’s Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes also come standard, along with Chevy’s latest generation of magnetic ride control. Instead of using an electric motor to cut down on fuel use as traditional hybrids do, the E-Ray employs its motor to drastically increase performance. The 6.2-liter V8 Is still the “Ace in the hole” as far as most of the propulsion, and the car is not a plug-in.
Stealth mode does allow for the car to drive on battery power alone at speeds up to 45 mph, along with the gas engine engaging when you demand more torque than the electric motor can dish out on demand. The Motor Trend testing crew excitedly headed out to Pike’s Peak International Raceway with the E-Ray, where they eagerly spent time on the track’s infield road course. With the straight-line speed being downright amazing, cornering duty is where the E-ray really gets a chance to shine. After spending two days and hundreds of miles behind the wheel, they determined that this may be “the perfect real-world Corvette”, courtesy of grand-touring manners and blistering track performance.