The new Corvette is a supercar in its own right!
Deanne stands with the all-new 2020 Corvette Stingray as we made a quick stop at Deer Creek Reservoir.
On our Sunday drive up through Park City, we stopped to take some photos of the new Corvette with snow on the ground. Winter is coming.
With the top down on the all-new 2020 Stingray, it almost looks out of place in Park City with snow starting to appear on the ski slopes.
A stop for lunch at Hires Big H as we cruised through Salt Lake had many folks asking questions about the new Corvette.
2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray
By Craig and Deanne Conover
It has been just a little over 10 years since we started reviewing cars way back in the year 2010, as a photo memory popped up for us a couple of weeks ago showing the first Honda Accord that came out for a weeklong test drive. With that tidbit in mind, ever since Craig was a teenager he has always dreamed of having a Corvette as an everyday driver, but of course that has never been the practical solution for a car.
So when we started reviewing cars back then he, could only hope that someday a Stingray would make its way out to Utah for however much time and we would have it in our garage! Over the years, a couple of different Corvettes have come and gone from the fleet, but have never managed to make the Utah connection.
Don’t get us wrong, we have had some great vehicles over those 10 years: a new BMW i8, a new Chevrolet Camaro convertible, a new Toyota Supra and many others. But the Chevy Corvette just never seemed like it would be a reality.
So when it was rumored that the new 2020, completely redesigned from the ground up Corvette might make it to the fleet, we started asking what we could do to get it to Utah if indeed it did come. And then on a magical Friday morning, Craig got a call from Automotive Media Solutions asking if we would be okay to take the all-new Stingray on a limited four-day loan as they were trying to get it to as many journalists as possible before winter weather set in.
Of course we would be happy to take the new Corvette, no matter for how long. Just getting a chance to drive the true American Sports Coupe that is so hard to find right now would be amazing. It just so happened that our time in the new Vette would be on a weekend — even better; now Mother Nature would just need to cooperate.
And cooperate she did, bringing temperatures in the low 70s in late October and a perfect Halloween weekend for us to get some serious time in the new Corvette.
With the new design, Chevy has gone way out of the box to make what we would have to say is one of the best looking Corvettes to date. In fact, most folks who would come up to talk with us about the car we were driving wherever we stopped did not know at first that it was a Corvette.
It definitely has a more supercar-like flavor to it, leaning more to a Lamborghini or Ferrari look. The exaggerated folds and bends in the body are very different than years gone by; however, there is still that unique front end with large flairs on each side that kept to some of the original Corvette DNA.
This year, the engine has moved from the front to a mid-engine design, which has also allowed the front seats to be moved 16.5 inches toward the front of the coupe. This alone put the center of gravity right off the driver’s inside hip, and the Corvette would seemingly turn right around the driver. We fell in love with this new setup and always felt in total control of the car.
The new engine is a 6.2-liter V-8 direct-injected motor with no turbo help at all and produces a whopping 495 horsepower and 470 foot-pounds of torque. All this power and fun is connected to the rear wheels only via an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission that would slide effortlessly through the gears.
Inside the Corvette was like sitting inside of some kind of futuristic fighter jet, with an all-digital driving display and the infotainment screen slanted toward the driver. It was just plain cool. Our test ride even came with a huge full-color heads-up display, which gave it an even more jet-like attitude.
There are three seat choices that can be had in the new Vette. Ours came with the most comfortable of the mix, allowing us to have heated and ventilated surfaces, something we would choose if it were our own car. The other choices were no heat at all or track seats, which would only make sense if that were your only goal for owning the Corvette, or standard seating.
On the track side, the coupe came with some interesting features that included a lap timer and best speed indicators, along with a 0-60 acceleration timer, which we found pretty awesome just running around. Our best time for the 3 days was 3.7 seconds to 60 — in perfect conditions, the Vette should make it there in just 2.8 seconds.
The designers have included many different cameras on the coupe, all of which can be used to record your track day and will download to an SD card where you can keep all those memories intact.
As Chevrolet puts it, the new Corvette has been engineered to be a true supercar for an everyday driver. To this point, after only spending five minutes in our driveway on Friday night, there was a group of future drivers knocking on our door wanting to know if they could look inside our new car.
After showing of the Corvette to the neighborhood, we gave many very excited youngsters a ride around the block in this new supercar. Wherever we went during our four wonderful days in the coupe, it would attract attention and a crowd, which kept us answering questions and telling our tale the whole time.
And did we mention that our test ride came as a hard top convertible that with the press of a button would raise the engine lid and fold itself into that compartment, becoming completely hidden?
The new 2020 Corvette Stingray is definitely the most enticing car we have driven this year and for the money cannot be beat. Our hats are off to Chevy and the choices they have made over the years in keeping the Made in America Sports Coupe one of the best choices in the market.
Base price: $66,400
Price as driven: $85,330
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