drove my first american car today

[John V]

Originally Posted by z12358

You nailed the fiberglass's "rigidity" problem vs unibody right on the head. Drive a Boxster right after driving a Corvette. It feels like it was made of one piece. Drive the Corvette again and the rattles and squeaks become even more obvious -- even in the Coupe (not even talking about the convertible). Fiberglass pieces may have advantages over equivalent steel/aluminum pieces but you cannot weld them to the rest of the car/frame.

Without question, the Corvette is a formidable performance value for $. But free lunches are very rare. Anyway, it was good to learn something about plastic composites today.

Z.

The Corvette's FRP skin isn't exactly fiberglass.

The Corvette's chassis is significantly stiffer in torsional rigidity than the Boxster's. The Boxster is at the low end of the spectrum in terms of torsional rigidity for cars of its ilk (Z4, S2000).

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by John V

The Corvette's FRP skin isn't exactly fiberglass.

The Corvette's chassis is significantly stiffer in torsional rigidity than the Boxster's. The Boxster is at the low end of the spectrum in terms of torsional rigidity for cars of its ilk (Z4, S2000).

Interestingly, a recent issue of C and D had a test where we saw the z06 spank the new GT3 in a straight line AND at the track, and at 40K less in purchase price.

Not bad!

[insite]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

Interestingly, a recent issue of C and D had a test where we saw the z06 spank the new GT3 in a straight line AND at the track, and at 40K less in purchase price.

Not bad!

the new Z06 is absolutely ridiculous. much easier to drive than the old one, too.

[z12358]

Originally Posted by John V

The Corvette's FRP skin isn't exactly fiberglass.

The Corvette's chassis is significantly stiffer in torsional rigidity than the Boxster's. The Boxster is at the low end of the spectrum in terms of torsional rigidity for cars of its ilk (Z4, S2000).

Then, I guess, the rattles and squeaks weren't caused by lack of torsional rigidity.

Z.