Hi Guys and Gals...
A while ago I posted a thread asking if anyone could point me in the right direction of hiring something a lilttle special in LA so I figured I would post a thread about the result (sorry it is so long but I hope you enjoy it),
Well after hunting around and finding a lot of things outside of my budget (Veyron for $25k US a day anyone?!!) I found this through Hertz:
A 2009 ZHZ C6 Corvette....yes its convertible but not by choice as the coupes had all been booked. Specs are:
Engine: LS3 6.2L V8
Power: 436HP (320KW) @ 5,000 RPM
Torque: 424 lb ft (575 Nm) @ 4,600 RPM
Acceleration: 0-60 MPH in 4.3 secs
Top Speed: 190 MPH (306 KPH)
Like most (if not all!) American cars, your only option is an auto but thankfully it has the addition of a paddle shift. The car is also fitted with magnetic selective ride control.
First impressions - Despite a 14+ hour flight the thought of picking up the Vette was better than any coffee I could've had in the morning. After the usual paperwork and a little mix up with the keys, I was shown to the car - despite the glaring yellow + LA sunlight it was a welcome sight . After checking the rear tyres and looking for existing scratches etc, I started loading my bags into the car. Word of warning here - depsite the boot being bigger than expected it isn't exactly deep. I was travelling alone and therefore had a medium sized piece of luggage and it JUST fit. Plus the roof takes up space in the boot so the trips with the large bag had to be with the roof up. Settling into the car was easy - all the controls were intuative, traction control button was easy to locate and the seats were comfortable.
Time to go and I fired her up via the start button - nice sound but a little muffled (we'll get to that later). Figuring I was in a bright yellow attention grabber I thought it best to stick to speed limits on the freeways......WRONG......going the posted limit (55-65MPH depending on the freeway) I was getting passed by litteraly everyone as most people seemed to be travelling between 70-80MPH. Appears that most Americans believe the posted limit is a mere suggestion. Well as they say 'when in Rome...' so stomped on the loud pedal - as I was in 'D' for dadaway the auto kicked down, the rears spun (at 65MPH!), and I was transported to lightspeed in a blink of an eye. Outright accel was on par with a good launch in my GTR but the instant (or close to) throttle response was nothing like hitting the loud pedal in the GTR....no turbo lag, just an instant increase in noise and speed It was fair to say that right there and then I cam.....I mean....bonded with the car
Despite being common in the US, the Vette does attract a lot of attention..esp a bright yellow one. It didn't matter if I was pulling up at the parking at Santa Monica beach, handing the keys to the hotel valet, or simply driving around town, it seemed to ellicit positive comments from the locals . Unfortunately it also seems to attract a lot of the same attention the GTR gets here in Melb - namely every man and their dog wants to race you from the lights.
After 3 days of general driving around to touristy places, including one loooong drive (around 200miles) to see an SR-71,
my impressions were good. Visability was great except for a large blind spot over your shoulders with the roof up. The view out the front windscreen was great thanks to those bulges over the front wheels and the seats were comfortable. In fact it seemed to be the perfect weapon to have when involved in the urban warfare that is the LA freeway system! The only drawback was realizing how wide the Vette actually is and this happened twice. Once was parking at the Santa Monica beach carpark - it was a beautiful day and spots were hard to come by. After driving around the carpark for about 10mins I came across a free spot with two MASSIVE SUVs (like F150 style but bigger!) parked in the spots either side - I had to squeeze my way through the gap left between the door and the body....holy sh1t lucky I'm thin 'cause there would've been no way to get out of the car otherwise!! The other was driving up crazy winding, one prius wide, residential roads to see the hollywood sign - there was more than one occasion I had to breathe in to get past two parked cars or oncoming traffic.
As I got more confident with the car, the paddles started to come into play together with turning the traction control off - if theres one thing the Vette knows what to do its skids! Traction control has three 'levels' - on, completely off (my fav) and 'competition mode' which allows for a bit of slip before activating. It was no surpise to learn that the traction control is a bit crude...I was impressed by the slip it allowed the driver but not the way it activated (appeared to be simply cutting power). The paddle shift was also a little crude - no cluncks to speak of but changes weren't exactly smooth. I also could'vve done with the led dash display showing the current gear. It seemed to display this at one point but I think turning the traction control off changed the display to something else. There was more than one occasion I accidently selected 1st existing a corner to be greeted with a V8 bouncing off of the limiter and tyre smoke (Brisby would be so proud ).
However, there were two drives I will remember for a long time. The first was the night I drove to Malibu along the pacific coast highway from Santa Monica. About halfway there a bike cruised past and the rest of the drive was spent baiting the female rider at every opportunity.
One thing I should note here is that the cops are well aware of how this road is used, and on this night I passed two patrol cars by the side of the highway. One I passed around the limit and the other is a story for another place The other was my last day with the car and I couldn't resist giving it a good send off. After doing a little research before the trip I was recommend to the Angeles Highway in the hills to the north of the city basin. The description was that this it is a facimile of the burger ring....how could I resist?!! Unfortunately I was just getting started on a spirited drive along it (and it was looking VERY promising ) when I came across a sign saying the road was closed - turns out the road had collapsed the week prior to my visit So I duely turned around and drove to Mulholland Drive
which was looking a little disappointing due to traffic and road surface until I stumbled upon an awesome canyon road running between Mulholland and the pacific coast highway. It was a fantastic road with a mix of tight and sweeping turns, elevation change, and best of all, good gaps in traffic. I strapped my video camera in between the seats and the result is on a memory card 2-3 hours later (I did a couple of runs) and over 1/2 a tank of fuel later I had made plenty of good memories.
Final 'on the limit' impressions of the Vette - awesome throttle response and accel, good brakes (never faded on me once) and you are constantly aware of what the rear tyres are up to as you are sitting right above them. The biggest let down was the front end - put simply, I just couldn't trust what it was doing ( I guess a big lump of V8 over the front end will do that). Feedback from the front end was almost nonexistant and you never knew whether it would grip or not. Again, it is probably the engine up front, but you are also aware that a lot of weight transfer is taking place making the Vette feel heavier than it actually is and not as nimble. At the end of the day you learn to trust whether the car will grip or not, but it was nothing like what I experience in the GTR and that gets critisim as well! The balance of the car is fairly neutral with a little touch of understeer but go in with too much gas and the lively rear end steps out everytime (with TC off!) - that being said it is very controllable with the loud pedal
Oh and on a final note - loud noise. A bit of research before I left resulted in me learning that the Vette is fitted with an electronic butterfly valve to control echaust noise. This was proven to work well on my first day when I realized the difference between over and under around 4,500RPM. Luckily my research also resulted in a solution - find the fuse box, locate the correct fuse and simply pull that fuse out which results in that butterfly valve failing open...hello beautiful V8 rumble from the get go...just remember to put the fuse back in before returning the car.
I would highly recommend the experience to anyone, just don't turn the TC off until you are confident with the car and your abilities!
