[VIDEO] Speed Phenom Offers Detailed Review After Racking Up 17,000 Miles on His C8 Corvette

So we all know how great the new mid-engine Corvette is when it’s brand new, but will it prove to be reliable and hold up over time?

Well, Speed Phenom of YouTube fame may be able to answer that question better than anyone else, other than maybe the test drivers who put mega-miles on the early C8 Stingrays.

After about a year of owning his Torch Red coupe, Speed Phenom recently posted a 22-minute video that details his virtually all-positive experiences with the car during his whopping 17,000 miles of driving.

“If I were to summarize the way my opinion has changed with this car,” he says, “this is how I would do it. This car is probably the best all-around sports car you can ever buy, and I mean that looking at every car out there on the market right now. It is the most comfortable. It is the most practical. It looks the best in my opinion, and it’s got acceleration just like a supercar – 0 to 60, sub 3 seconds. And this car still routinely does it even having 17,000 miles put on it. It’s confidence-inspiring and predictable on the racetrack.”

If you’re looking for an all-around sports car that is good at everything but may not be the best to one particular thing, he says, then the new C8 Corvette is the one for you.

“I’m am so happy with my purchase right here,” he says. “This car has changed the way I look at all other vehicles I drive. If this variant is this successful, can you imagine how good what’s coming next is gonna be?”

That doesn’t mean Speed Phenom doesn’t have a few ideas to improve the car, starting with the vulnerable rear rocker panels that jut out at the bottom of the car and pick up a lot of rubber and rocks thrown up by the front tires while on the track. He suggests putting PPF on those areas to protect the paint, and we also noticed he doesn’t have the splash guards on his car, either, so we might suggest he look into adding those.

Like many other C8 owners, he reports slight damage done by flying rocks to the small radiators on both sides of the front fascia, though he seems to discount it mostly as a cosmetic issue that hasn’t affected performance so far. He might want to add those aftermarket mesh grilles to offer more protection.

One expensive concern he has is the way his car has eaten through brake pads during his frequent time on the track. “If you push this car and I mean push it, threshold brake, but before the first few corners at say Laguna Seca, the car is going to be eating through brake pads,” he says, noting that a set of four new pads will set you back a whopping $1,200.

Specific likes include the front end lift that “makes driving this car stress free,” he says, as well as the overall durability of the Torch Red paint and Adrenaline Red leather interior so far, which is good to know considering he’s driven so many miles already.

By the way, not that fuel economy is a major concern of sports car owners, but Speed Phenom reports an impressive high of 36 MPG, better than a lot of economy cars out there.

Overall, he’s been very pleased with the Corvette so far. “I’ve never had one issue with this car,” he says, “no check engine light, no limp mode, nothing like that. The thing’s been rock solid and for that reason, I think Chevy has knocked it out of the park. I can’t tell where the shortcuts are. You know, manufacturers always take shortcuts here and there. No, it doesn’t feel cheap. It feels like the most properly built vehicle I’ve ever had.”

Source:
Speed Phenom

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