As a retirement present to myself after my second retirement (of three) I gave myself a 2000 Corvette. ‘Only’ 345 horsepower. Fastest I ever had it up to was 130, and it was still accelerating as hard as it was at sixty. Once thought I saw a white vehicle at the end of a long straight (in the early to mid 2000’s our state police vehicles were white). doing over a 100 at the time, which in Louisiana is an automatic jail sentence. Went full on with the brakes. Damn Corvette’s brakes were so strong the downforce so good, that it contorted my face.
Point, that Corvette could eat any 60’s Mustang, Corvette or GTO alive in any area, acceleration cornering, braking, road course times and at the drag strip, run mid 12’s in the quarter mile. (Given they were all running street tires and as delivered, no superstocks or specific drag setups)
EXCEPT. Burnouts. My old 64 Tempest 326 could light up the rears so much it made a 50’s DDT mosquito truck bow with shame. Corvette, the computer would take hold, apply maximum power that those huge rears could hold and take off like a scalded cat. Not a whiff of smoke. I even tried spinning the tires in gravel once. No joy. Love it, but boy was it expensive to maintain.
Drove it to the USGP twice. Felt right at home amongst the Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghini’s that seemed to inhabit the place.
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