2024 Corvette E-Ray Quick Review

Welcome to Extra Throttle House. I'm Thomas. And I'm James. And this is a Corvette e-ray. It is the e-ray. The question is though, is it e-ray-levant? Because the reception to this has not been as sexy or as warm. Did you say e-relevant? I'm allowed a dad joke. One a video. Okay. That's my one. Yeah. Because the Stingray, when it came, was like, whoa, new CA, absolutely crazy, generation, mid-engine. So cool. Game changer. Boom. In comes the Z06, flat plane crank. Basically a Ferrari. Basically a Ferrari. Wow. The e-ray. Oh, it's the one hybrid one in the middle. Yeah. There's a motor in the front. It's all wheel drive. It's not sexy. No, no. And it's not that cheap. Even though it sort of has the Stingray vibe plus the motor, it is encroaching very closely on Z06 pricing. So close that it has to be real good. Well, I think the pricing, I'm not a mathematician, but proportionally, it's actually as close almost as the power output to the Z06 because this has 655 horsepower. Yes. And the Z06 has 670. Yeah. The difference is, is that the 655 horsepower from this is being created in a completely different philosophy. This has the same engine in the back as the Stingray and transmission, and they haven't touched it really. No, same 495 horsepower. Exactly. Exactly. But what they've done now is they put batteries in the center console there and there's a motor up front driving the front wheels. And that is completely independent. Yes. It's 160 horsepower front wheel drive motor. Yes. So it's a Corolla in the front and a Vette in the back, which if you put it together is Corvette. Oh. Yes, exactly. Well done. I'm going to pretend we didn't just do a synchronous clap there as well. Okay. We've been reading up on this car, haven't we? Yes, we have. And it's quite funny. It is interesting because, well, if you look at the information that they give us, that we can talk about the cars, that they're aiming it at a new type of buyer. Okay. Picture this. Picture this. Ready? E-rate customers are expected to be a new class of Corvette enthusiasts. Exceptionally well off, they want the performance cars to feel as premium as luxury vehicles. So their insights are that it's an affluent and wealthy, well-educated, they want to take their performance vehicle off the track. So they live on the track and then they drive to work. Yeah, so they live on the track and they drive to work. Isn't affluent and wealthy the same thing? I believe it is. They're affluent, they're wealthy, they're rich, they're minted, they're loaded, all of the things. They're really hammering home. But then in the same breath, they really hammer home on the fact that it is not a hybrid. No. Because a hybrid is, according to them... Just give me a favor. Just Google the definition of a hybrid really quickly. Okay, okay. Just throw in the word hybrid in Google. Yeah, I will do that. Just we'll see what happens. Hybrid. It is an offspring of two animals or plants of different races or breeds. Is there a second one? There we go. Hybrid adjective vehicle. Yes. There we go. Used to describe a plant or animal. No, hold on. I'm sorry. A vehicle with an engine that uses both petrol and another type of energy, usually electricity. You know what? By that definition, it's not. What? Because it doesn't have an engine that uses two types of energy. It has an engine that uses one type and a motor that uses one type. All right, so we'll just cut that whole thing out where we were making fun of GM there. They appear to know what they're talking about. Yeah. Anyway, the point is that it's got this absolute buyer thing, but they're really hammering home that it is not a hybrid. It's just there for performance. Because no matter what you do, this is still a Corvette. It isn't a Ferrari. It isn't a Lamborghini. It isn't any of those. So what does the buyer actually look like? I'm picturing like a dark turtleneck, like a blazer. Yeah, yeah. Elizabeth Holmes up top. Yeah, and then like jorts and like new balances. Yeah. On the bottom. Yeah. That must be what it is. It suggests though that if this isn't a track one and it's got the all-wheel drive. Yeah. That it's kind of being presented as the safe, fast one. The safe, fast one. Luxury speed. Luxury speed. Right. However. Yeah. I put it to you that the Stingray at least, with the mid-engine setup. Yeah. Feels way safer than the C7 generation already. Yeah, just because there's a lot of weight over the rear wheels and there's a ton of grip. Also it understeers in street alignment. Yeah. Enough that it doesn't feel dangerous at all. So if this does that, plus the EV motors and assistance. Yeah. It should be really glued to the ground. Let's go. Let's go for a rip off the track. Okay. Should we explain why my pants are dirty? No, that's from a different video. Yeah. Yeah. It's continuity error. That's good. Okay. That's good. You're not the buyer for this car. Clearly not. All right. Well, hold on. Before you do that, I want to talk about the, I'm sorry. I want to talk about the way that it looks because it's actually unique. Yeah, true. First of all, it's debuting Seawolf Gray. It's a cool name. It's a cool name. It's a very nice sort of gloss color. Yeah. It's soft. And a lot of parts on the E-Ray that are not body color are body color. That are not body color on the Z06 are body color on the E-Ray. The wishbone on the side. Wishbone thing, the wing, that sort of stuff. But it does otherwise have the Z06 proportions. Yeah. So it actually has the same rear proportions as the Z06 because they wanted to, they kept the wide body from the Z06 because they wanted to be able to put bigger rubber behind it. Right. For more acceleration. Because there is more acceleration. This is a 2.5 second to 60 car. Listen, I think it looks cool. Also, it looks like it has four, five, eight wheels. They also look very Corvette-y. They do. Yeah. They don't shy away about being baby Ferrari. No, not at all. But they're owning it and you know what, they're doing it. So whatever. So we've lived with this. This isn't a launch event. This isn't a thing. We've garaged it. We've parked it. We've been into town. We've been in the canyons. We've been on the highways. And as expected, the ride is fantastic. Yeah. We're in track right now. If I drop this to tour, it softens up. We've got the MagnaRide. Listen, I can totally see what they're going for because it's got that sense of security, smoothness, efficiency, comfort, the whole thing. That said, I don't think the seats are very comfortable. No? No. I think they're a little bit hard and weird shaped and I'm not a huge fan. But they're surprisingly narrow for the safe Corvette. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But let's talk about the performance for a second because if you put your foot down, it's quick. It's very quick. But is it that much quicker than the regular CA Stingray? I think it is. It is, but I guess it is about 160 horsepower quicker. You can feel the 160. It's a Toyota Corolla quicker. So it's a Corvette. It sounds different. The sound is aggressive. Yeah. Well, they've piped in artificially, I think not only the sound of the V8, but also some like fake futuristic EV sound. Definitely they have. It feels like it's coming from the speakers in front of me. Yeah. I'm not a huge fan of that. I think what if they were leaning towards the hybrid part of it, the hybrid, not a hybrid part of it being just there for power and efficiency. Why not just make it sound like the Stingray? Also, for some reason, I don't know if you've noticed, but on the upshift, the Stingray had like a clap to the upshift. This doesn't seem to do that. Give it a go. Nothing. No, I just, it just kind of shifts. It shifts quickly. Don't get me wrong. It sounds like an i5 up front. It does actually. Yeah. Still not putting the power down, even with the all wheel drive, just spinning the wheels. But they've obviously, what they've done is they've prioritized performance, right? So the battery is always being charged or used and you'll never run out. No. And it doesn't seem to be as electric obsessed, even as like things like the Artura and the 296. Yeah. When we drove those cars in these canyons, they wanted to stay in EV only mode. Yes. That's not the case with this car. No. And the whole like, oh, you'll start up quietly and then leave your neighborhood and then rip around. By default, this car roars on startup. Yeah. Well, I suppose you could choose it, but they, they want that ability to be there, right? They want that. Yeah. There's no bang on that upshift. That'd be nice. No, anyways, it's kind of missing. Yeah. But you know what? They've made it sound loud from the outside as well. What are you doing? Are you, are you upgrading? I didn't do it. I'm not even editing. There's no production value in extra throttle house. That's the point of it. Oh my God. There is again. Stop it. Karsten, whoever's editing. Oh, now we've got the fancy black bars. Okay. All right. All right. Sure. Play a couple. Let's listen to it. The guys from throttle house are going to be furious. You've noticed that the steering is better in this, haven't you? Yeah. So this, I said, I don't actually know since this is the latest C8 that I've driven. Obviously the, the GM is constantly tweaking and adjusting as new models go out, because that's what you do with cars. So maybe they have adjusted the C8 in general, but I'm finding that the steering in this feels a little bit more connected than the steering in the Z06 did and the C8. It's like, there's a little bit more weight to it. I feel like I'm, I know a little bit more about those front tires and it could be down to the fact that there is a big old chunk of mass up there that there isn't in the other Corvettes. I see. I see. It's not suddenly brilliant. No, no, no, no, no. It's not. It's not amazing. It's the steering is still the weak point of this from a driver engagement perspective. This is in street alignment as well. It does not feel, it feels very neutral in these corners. Yeah. It's not understeering at all. They're good. These Corvettes. They really, really are good for the price. I worry that I would still want to go with the Z06, but this is, I don't have to worry. I would still go with the Z06. It's a very, very easy choice. Yeah. Because of that scream. Oh, it's just the engine is so special. It's so special. This, and we've said it so many times over the week, we've had it feels like the new modern day NSX Type S. This is Chevy's NSX Type S. This is an NSX Type S, but between this and the NSX Type S, I would take this any day of the week. And you know what? You'd save a bunch of money as well. You would. Yeah. That sounds like a good place to conclude.