[VIDEO] Right Hand Drive 2022 Corvette Receives a Proper Aussie Review

After years of waiting, a very few of our fellow enthusiasts in Australia are finally beginning to enjoy the thrills of owning a new mid-engine Corvette Stingray.

After spending some time behind the wheel of a Rapid Blue coupe, Bruce Newton of carsales.com.au recently offered up a nice appraisal of the 2022 Corvette in this nine-minute video posted on YouTube.

“Has it been worth the wait?” he asks rhetorically. “Damn right it has, and let me tell you why.”

While the minimum $160,500 price tag (plus on-road costs) for a 3LT may seem quite a bit high to Americans used to paying about half that, Newton points out that’s still just a fraction of what other supercars like McLarens, Lambos, and Ferraris cost in “The Land Down Under.”

“So supercar looks and performance claims – 0-100km/h in 3.1 seconds and a 312km/h top speed courtesy of its 6.2-litre V8 engine and eight-speed dual-clutch transmission – but not a supercar price,” he says of the Corvette.

And best of all, particularly to Australians, is the fact that the car leaves the Bowling Green factory already in right-hand drive fashion for the first time ever, eliminating local conversions as in the past.

While Newton is a little upset that there’s an “obvious shortage” of driver assist systems that are common in Australia, he does point out “when it comes to the 2022 Chevrolet Corvette we are really only concerned with one thing, aren’t we? The driving.”

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a big thumbs up,” he says. “Once you get used to how easy it all is…”

Where the C8 can catch you, Newton points out, “is how frenetic it isn’t. The engine is not a quad-cam screamer that requires massive revs or continuous gear changes from the snappy Tremec DCT to deliver its best.”

He says driving the new Stingray requires a change in the thought process – “stop driving it as it looks like it should be driven, and drive it as it is intended to be driven.”

“For instance,” he says, “I developed the habit of short-shifting from third to fourth out of a corner so I could drop back to third and gain some engine braking for the next turn. The alternative was revving hard up the straight and then simply braking for the turn. Dropping to second simply produced an uncomfortable amount of revs.”

Newton labels the C8 as “the most liveable supercar going around,” starting with the cabin that offers easy entry and exit – “higher up than a Porsche 911 and without the low section you have to step over in a McLaren – and generous headroom.

Overall, he praises the new Stingray as “a genuine mid-engined supercar with a scintillating and versatile performance at a price that isn’t cheap, but is an incredible value.”

It is, he concludes, “a great car and one 228 Australians are going to get a lot of enjoyment from.”

Source:
Carsales.com.au / YouTube

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