[VIDEO] Former Top Gear/Grand Tour Presenter Richard Hammond Reviews the Brit-Spec C8 Corvette Z06

“This thing breathes the air exactly as God intended, it’s as naturally aspirated as a willow tree… or a T-Rex.” Try as they might, nobody does a car review like former Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, or James May. They’re the Beatles of cinematic automotive evaluation, and even though the band broke up a few years back, it’s still appointment viewing when any of them makes time to put out a solo record.

The accompaniment for Ringo Hammond’s latest video for Drive Tribe comes from the top-notch 5.5L American vocals – slightly edited for sensitive European ears – of the C8 Corvette Z06. The Hamster, known as the TG/GT trio’s “resident redneck,” enthusiastically, while trying not to be too enthusiastic after earning multiple speeding tickets over the Summer, pilots the flat-plane beast down one of his favorite roads, extols its virtues and makes all sane people desperately want one. That is, until he gets to the Z’s “but.”

Not to start a heated discussion in the comments, but tariffs have been all the rage in the US for the last couple of years. It makes sense; nobody wants to pay more for their Swiss watches, Japanese electronics, or even their maple syrup from Canada, but the Hammond clip puts the shoe on the other table, which has turned, so we can see firsthand how harshly American goods are taxed by one of our closest allies. Even with the neutered corner-exit exhaust, Hammond goes on and on about how much he loves the Competition Yellow Z06 coupe he’s sitting in before finally admitting that he probably wouldn’t buy one. Why? Because in the UK, it would cost him a staggering 222,000 pounds to do so, which, at Wednesday’s exchange rate comes out to 297,000 American greenbacks!

Customers on the ‘Vette’s home turf could get a 1,250-horsepower ZR1X* and a 535-horse Stingray for that astounding sum. Even with the deck stacked against it, we still like how the free breathing, high-revving 670 pony American exotic stacks up against the Euro price comps he mentions – the 502 HP 911 GT3 and the definitely not midengined, as stated in the vid, Ferrari Amalfi that twin-turbos its way to 631 HP – but on principle, it’s difficult to fault the man who nearly died on set multiple times for not wanting to drop almost double the manufacturer’s suggested retail price on a car just because he lives on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

With all of that out of the way, the Drive Tribe bit is certainly worth a click. Check it out below and be prepared to skip from the 2:22 mark until around 3:42 unless you want to be subjected to an irritating home-market British ad that, our government should probably look into taxing.

*1LZ, if they could find one, and if it’s offered at MSRP

Source:
DriveTribe

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