[VIDEO] This is the One! Top Gear Pits the C8 Corvette Z06 Against the 911 GT3 and Ferrari 458

What do you get when you turn a 2023 Corvette Z06 loose on both road AND road course with the Ferrari that inspired it and a new Porsche 911 GT3 along for the ride, then throw in the best automotive video production crew…In The World, for good measure? Well, friends, the blokes from Top Gear (magazine) came pretty dang close to achieving perfection with this video!

Ollie (who you might remember from this fantastic C8Z intro video) and his mates have once again come across the pond and landed in the Southwest corner of these United States, but this time, they’ve secured some actual seat time in America’s halo car. Refreshingly, they’ve chosen to give the base-aero droptop model some love after so much ink has – rightfully – been spilled over the hardcore Z07 coupe. Unless the light is playing tricks on us, the other big news here is the Corvette’s use of the new Riptide Blue exterior paint option. It was tough to decipher in the E-Ray configurator and under the auto show spotlights, but at first glance, here, it shows darker than the Elkhart Lake Blue that it is replacing, but, when in motion under the Arizona sun, it shines with a teal and almost-Nassau Blue quality. This light-from-dark contrast is challenging to pull off in the paint game, but when it works, it is stunning in practice!

The 992 GT3 and its 9,000-rpm 4.0 flat-six have, quite literally, been the Z06’s only natural competitor from the on-set, and the example on hand makes a strong case with a 500-lb. lighter fighting weight and a surgical six-speed manual transmission all draped in an impeccable Guards Red wrapper. The 458 (on chromes!) is a classy silver-over-tan example, and every time we see/hear one of these driven in anger, we know that the Corvette team 100% chose the right car to benchmark for their flat-plane wonder!

After a quick “skate-around” spec review, the Z gets first honors on the road. The LT6 continues to blow us away with its sheer awesomeness. However, as we’ve been trained to expect, reviewers from the UK tend to grade American metal – especially if it doesn’t wear a Blue Oval – on a quite harsh scale, and this video is no exception. The presenter can’t hide his excitement at winding out the ‘Vette’s historic powerplant to the redline, but he can’t help but take a few digs along the way. If we’re honest, though, most of his admittedly minor gripes do hold some water. We are beyond thrilled that, against all odds, the C8 Z06 returned to its naturally aspirated roots, but we agree that it would have been nice to see it adhere closer to the C5/C6 versions’ lightweight focus.

Next, it is the turn of the Ferrari, and it’s hard not to share Ollie’s enthusiasm as he revisits the joys of driving one of the all-time greats! Every off-the-cuff statement from behind the wheel of the Prancing Horse’s highwater mark perfectly echoes our own inner “driver’s” sentiment about the current power-chasing state of the industry and the soul that most enthusiast cars have left at the altar of on-paper gains over the past decade or so. Then, it is revealed that the GT3 was picked up in LA days earlier and then road-tripped through Joshua Tree to meet with its mid-engine foes. It is a great ride that culminates with the “graceful” dismissal of the old Ferrari, which, soul or not, wasn’t going to stand much of a chance against its modern rivals at the track!

After the ceremonial retirement, the young guns from Germany and Kentucky head to Arizona Motorsports Park for a reenactment of WWII. The Porsche steps up first and is repeatedly treated to the highest praise in the British lexicon, with “brilliant” and “proper” being thrown around like poo in a chimp habitat during courting season. Even after that, though, the base Z06 is able to shock and awe the stubbornly skeptical Ollie into a true believer that even turns the phrase “bloody thunderous” as he hits speeds that equal the $250,000 GT3’s… PLUS 10 MPH on the straights! After some beautifully shot track time that includes a good deal of waffling between complaints and genuine – and loud! – praise, Ollie sums things up. He admits what we knew all along, that he’d take the GT3 if he could have either car, but he goes on to say that the addition of the Z07 package might change his tune. He also confesses that even while it is the faster of the two, the Corvette is also the superior road car between the two! At any rate, we suggest you carve a 23-minute break into your day to take this one in; it is well worth it!

Source:
Top Gear Magazine / YouTube

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