@DennisG2014 wait…you want each design to look more like a Corvette?! You’re positing Platonic ideal of Corvettes that isn’t the 1953?! Or…even if it occurred post-‘53, has somehow been lost to modern fingers, clutching, desperately grasping at a sunken Atlantis of Corvetteness that shall never be resurrected?!
Or…maybe I’m reading more into your comment than I should.
@cranky1950@UncleVinny
Ok, ok, I went and looked at all the generations, and I was mistaken.
I thought they had moved the cockpit forward prior to this generation.
That mid-ship cockpit is the main thing that I think makes it look more like every European supercar than a Corvette.
I think of the '70s Vettes as the most iconic design.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The Platonic ‘Vette is, and shall always be, the ’Vette of my childhood and adolescence.
Same with the Platonic ‘Stang.
/No comment
on what geological era that might refer to, or on whether the Platonic ‘Vette and the Platonic ‘Stang shared the planet with living dinosaurs.
If you look closely among the dinos in the background of this completely authentic and unaltered prehistoric pic, you might see a classic ‘Vette and a classic ‘Stang.
@cranky1950@f00l@UncleVinny
I have no idea which Vette Plato would have preferred, though I’d like to think he’d have appreciated the feminine curves of the '70s models.
Using this as a reference:
I think the first generation of Vettes are iconic on their own, a symbol of the '50s.
I think the ones from '63-'82 retain the design elements that most folks think of when they think Corvette.
I think most cars of the '80s through to the '00s were just ugly as sin and cheap looking; especially the Vettes and Mustangs.
The '05-'13 Vettes look too much like Vipers, the '14-18 was starting to look like a Ferrari - attractive cars, but lacking that 'Vette look, IMO.
This latest one, again IMO, looks nothing at all like a Corvette. Looks like something made by Lambo or McLaren or pretty much any modern supercar.
I think the rearward cockpit and ‘fastback’ (if that’s what you call it) are the most important design elements that make a Vette a Vette, even since '53, though not as dramatically.
All of which is to say, while I don’t think the new Vette looks much like a Fiero, I think it looks more like a Fiero than a Vette.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@narfcake The v-6 with the 5sp getrag and improved front suspension solved that. The 1988 was a fun driving car. GM killed it because it was cannibalizing vette sales.
@cranky1950@narfcake First new car I ever bought was a black '85 Fiero SE with the V6. Loved that car.
I know a guy who had a late-model GT with a Buick (?) supercharged 3.8l installed. He says it’s a fucking rocket.
@macromeh@mike808@ruouttaurmind
That’s the one.
The ugliest Mustang ever produced.
Looks like they mated a Chrysler K car with that Toyota MR2.
I knew a few guys who had them and they were all souped up and chipped and powerful as hell, and these guys were real proud to have these super powerful cars, but I always thought, “yeah, it’s fast, but, ew.”
@macromeh@ruouttaurmind I know someone who owns a Ford GT. He owns a tattoo shop in the area.
“Ex-” Pagan, total asshole and a really bad artist. (For those in the Philly area, he used to be the WMMR Tattoosday guy.) But he did take me for a ride one day and it was a blast watching heads swivel as we flew by them. Last I heard he crashed it and spent a fortune fixing it.
Following is my perception of Corvette. For what it is worth, I love the auto industry and high performance vehicles in particular.
The ‘65 Corvette was cool.
The middle aged Corvettes thru the C6 a couple gens back were middle age customer ego restoration symbols.
The last gen C7, with its high tech chassis moved solidly into insecure ego GM/Chevrolet, “see, we can do sophisticated” turf.
The new C8, with its mid-engine, firmly cements that fragile ego GM/Chevrolet, “we can do anything in exotic tech” thing.
So the Corvette moved from fragile ego customers to fragile ego GM.
It’s an amazing and mightily impressive performance machine.
But, like the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Ford GT’s it (C8) is a silly product from a long term health of the corporation perspective.
The domestics are at risk of death for lack of getting serious about electric powertrains. All spare R&D $ should be in electric powertrains and the vastly simplified and modernized chassis they need to be financially viable.
@RedOak the C8 would have made a lot more sense as a plug in electric high performance vehicle (most of them aren’t driven long distances) - or at a minimum, a high performance hybrid.
@RedOak The Chevy Volt & Bolt have been pretty good cars, but they don’t sell that well (for a variety of reasons. Part of the problem is that GM is only half-hearted about producing them.
@mike808 I think it’s a fairly nice looking car.
It’s just not a Corvette. Not at all.
I’d be proud to drive that car, but I’d be embarrassed to tell people it’s a Vette.
@DennisG2014@mike808@cranky1950 Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I’d be embarrassed to drive any high performance vehicle with an automatic transmission, unless it’s electric.
That said, I’m not really one to own a high-performance vehicle, and sink that much money into a depreciating asset, so I’m not exactly the target audience.
@cranky1950@Limewater@mike808
I see flappy paddles, so it’s not strictly automatic.
I think most of these supercars are doing the flappy paddles instead of the stick these days.
And yeah, I’ll never actually own a car like that, but I do think it’s attractive… for a non-Corvette.
@cranky1950@DennisG2014@mike808 Yeah, that’s lame. All the ridiculous complexity (and shame) of an automatic transmission with none of the real feel of a manual transmission.
I’ll probably never buy a GM vehicle anyway, unless it’s a re-badge of a Japanese vehicle, but even that’s unlikely.
It is pretty, though, for a European performance car.
Each new design looks less like a Corvette.
@DennisG2014 wait…you want each design to look more like a Corvette?! You’re positing Platonic ideal of Corvettes that isn’t the 1953?! Or…even if it occurred post-‘53, has somehow been lost to modern fingers, clutching, desperately grasping at a sunken Atlantis of Corvetteness that shall never be resurrected?!
Or…maybe I’m reading more into your comment than I should.
@cranky1950, please advise.
@cranky1950 @UncleVinny
Ok, ok, I went and looked at all the generations, and I was mistaken.
I thought they had moved the cockpit forward prior to this generation.
That mid-ship cockpit is the main thing that I think makes it look more like every European supercar than a Corvette.
I think of the '70s Vettes as the most iconic design.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@cranky1950 @DennisG2014 @UncleVinny
The Platonic ‘Vette is, and shall always be, the ’Vette of my childhood and adolescence.
Same with the Platonic ‘Stang.
/No comment
on what geological era that might refer to, or on whether the Platonic ‘Vette and the Platonic ‘Stang shared the planet with living dinosaurs.
/giphy “platonic corvette”
@cranky1950 @DennisG2014 @UncleVinny
Uh… yeah. That’s pretty Platonic!
@f00l For my tastes, the C3 steel bumper ‘Vette convertible is the most attractive example.
@cranky1950 @DennisG2014 @f00l @UncleVinny
You’re getting confused. It’s the Xenozoic era, but it’s primarily Cadillacs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillacs_and_Dinosaurs_(comics)
@cranky1950 @DennisG2014 @Limewater @UncleVinny
If you look closely among the dinos in the background of this completely authentic and unaltered prehistoric pic, you might see a classic ‘Vette and a classic ‘Stang.
@cranky1950 @f00l @UncleVinny
I have no idea which Vette Plato would have preferred, though I’d like to think he’d have appreciated the feminine curves of the '70s models.
Using this as a reference:
I think the first generation of Vettes are iconic on their own, a symbol of the '50s.
I think the ones from '63-'82 retain the design elements that most folks think of when they think Corvette.
I think most cars of the '80s through to the '00s were just ugly as sin and cheap looking; especially the Vettes and Mustangs.
The '05-'13 Vettes look too much like Vipers, the '14-18 was starting to look like a Ferrari - attractive cars, but lacking that 'Vette look, IMO.
This latest one, again IMO, looks nothing at all like a Corvette. Looks like something made by Lambo or McLaren or pretty much any modern supercar.
I think the rearward cockpit and ‘fastback’ (if that’s what you call it) are the most important design elements that make a Vette a Vette, even since '53, though not as dramatically.
All of which is to say, while I don’t think the new Vette looks much like a Fiero, I think it looks more like a Fiero than a Vette.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@cranky1950 @DennisG2014 @UncleVinny
Supposedly, Plato is way into the ideal forms and primary archetypes?
/image 1955 red corvette
/image 1964 Ford Mustang
@cranky1950 @DennisG2014 @f00l @Limewater @UncleVinny
Is that one of those “made you look” type of bad jokes? (prehistoric picture)
…yeah, I looked. Yeah, feelin stupid!!
@cranky1950 @DennisG2014 @f00l @UncleVinny I’d believe the midengine road-planes were Corvettes if they had just one feature: round tail lights.
Like they do in that historical document from One Million B.C.
@InnocuousFarmer
Haha! Those are some lovely headlights.
With one big distinction: a V8. The Fiero with its Iron Duke isn’t going anywhere fast.
@narfcake The v-6 with the 5sp getrag and improved front suspension solved that. The 1988 was a fun driving car. GM killed it because it was cannibalizing vette sales.
@cranky1950 @narfcake cranky laying down thick swathes of knowledge
@cranky1950 Given what the C4 was like, I would have chosen a Fiero over it as well.
@ruouttaurmind the C4 is a fantastic sports car… you just need to put it on a Diet…and add a cage…
/image roadkill vette cart
@cranky1950 @narfcake First new car I ever bought was a black '85 Fiero SE with the V6. Loved that car.
I know a guy who had a late-model GT with a Buick (?) supercharged 3.8l installed. He says it’s a fucking rocket.
I believe… If whatever you’re talking about isn’t a manual who cares.
I believe… Even if it is it’s probably not in my price range.
It could be worse.
@mike808 I can’t help wondering if there is a bumper sticker on the back that says “My other car is a Prius”
@mike808 I think that still looks more like a Corvette than this newest design…
@mike808
@daveinwarsh @mike808
Well now, that’s stretching it a bit…
Saving people the trouble of Googling this:
And this:
And the Corvette from the Fiero era:
@ruouttaurmind Or maybe this:
@macromeh @ruouttaurmind now that is pretty
@macromeh Never been a Ford guy though. Which is odd because all the hot rods I have built are based on early Fords.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
/image 1927 Ford hot rod
@macromeh @ruouttaurmind
Let’s not forget that Japan wanted in on some of that action too, with the '88 MR2.
@macromeh @ruouttaurmind
And those sweet, sweet '85 Ford Mustangs.
Obligatory for “rollin’ in my 5.0”:
/youtube ice ice baby
@macromeh @ruouttaurmind looks like a elephant dropped its nose on the ground
@macromeh @mike808 @ruouttaurmind
That’s the one.
The ugliest Mustang ever produced.
Looks like they mated a Chrysler K car with that Toyota MR2.
I knew a few guys who had them and they were all souped up and chipped and powerful as hell, and these guys were real proud to have these super powerful cars, but I always thought, “yeah, it’s fast, but, ew.”
@ruouttaurmind /image
New Vette is too McLauren-y.
Ford GT-40 is godlike. Even the new.
@macromeh @ruouttaurmind I know someone who owns a Ford GT. He owns a tattoo shop in the area.
“Ex-” Pagan, total asshole and a really bad artist. (For those in the Philly area, he used to be the WMMR Tattoosday guy.) But he did take me for a ride one day and it was a blast watching heads swivel as we flew by them. Last I heard he crashed it and spent a fortune fixing it.
Following is my perception of Corvette. For what it is worth, I love the auto industry and high performance vehicles in particular.
So the Corvette moved from fragile ego customers to fragile ego GM.
It’s an amazing and mightily impressive performance machine.
But, like the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Ford GT’s it (C8) is a silly product from a long term health of the corporation perspective.
The domestics are at risk of death for lack of getting serious about electric powertrains. All spare R&D $ should be in electric powertrains and the vastly simplified and modernized chassis they need to be financially viable.
@RedOak the C8 would have made a lot more sense as a plug in electric high performance vehicle (most of them aren’t driven long distances) - or at a minimum, a high performance hybrid.
@RedOak The Chevy Volt & Bolt have been pretty good cars, but they don’t sell that well (for a variety of reasons. Part of the problem is that GM is only half-hearted about producing them.
More pics. Still not feeling it.
And that interior dash. Good Lord!
It’s festooned with buttons and switches like fleas on a camel.
@mike808 Shouldda named it Corvette Transport II.
@mike808
@mike808 Yeah, that row of buttons up the middle is pretty much the worst design I’ve ever seen.
@mike808 Let’s compare that to a Ferrari Portofino…
@mike808 I think it’s a fairly nice looking car.
It’s just not a Corvette. Not at all.
I’d be proud to drive that car, but I’d be embarrassed to tell people it’s a Vette.
@DennisG2014 @mike808 @cranky1950 Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I’d be embarrassed to drive any high performance vehicle with an automatic transmission, unless it’s electric.
That said, I’m not really one to own a high-performance vehicle, and sink that much money into a depreciating asset, so I’m not exactly the target audience.
@cranky1950 @Limewater @mike808
I see flappy paddles, so it’s not strictly automatic.
I think most of these supercars are doing the flappy paddles instead of the stick these days.
And yeah, I’ll never actually own a car like that, but I do think it’s attractive… for a non-Corvette.
@cranky1950 @DennisG2014 @mike808 Yeah, that’s lame. All the ridiculous complexity (and shame) of an automatic transmission with none of the real feel of a manual transmission.
I’ll probably never buy a GM vehicle anyway, unless it’s a re-badge of a Japanese vehicle, but even that’s unlikely.
It is pretty, though, for a European performance car.
You’re cranky.
@hems79 you’re punny
@hems79 yes?