A few weeks back
Vic Koenig Chevrolet sent me to spend a couple days in Pahrump Nevada, just a short one hour drive west of Las Vegas to the famous
Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Country club. Also known as Ron Fellows Driving school. In order to be certified to sell the Stingray at the dealership, one must be certified by attending this training. For two days I learned everything there is to know about the new
2014 Corvette Stingray. This was one of the most amazing and exciting thrills of my entire life! I had the privilege to drive and race this masterpiece/muscle car at speeds over 100 mph around a track with other drivers. This was like a dream come true!
To better compare the
2014 Corvette Stingray versus it's competitors we were also asked to drive the Porche 911 and the Porche Boxter. As some of you may know the Porche 911 starts at around $100k while the Corvette Stingray starts at around $54k (you can nearly buy 2 Stingrays). The
2014 Corvette Stingray has a 50/50 weight distribution in front and back while the Porche has 60/40 because of the rear engine. I would have never thought this mattered until driving 70mph through the slalom weaving between cones. The Porche felt as if we were dipping as we turned each direction. You had to oversteer just to make the turns which was exhausting. I felt like I was sliding side to side as the seats didn't wrap my body. The Corvette on the other hand took the turns like a champ! It didn't require a workout just to steer the car as the Porche did.
The Corvette is by far the fastest car in it's segment at a whopping 3.8 seconds 0-60mph! Wow is that fast! We also drove the 2014 Corvette Stingray through the "wet track" which is a figure 8 track with water. The Stingray has 5 different modes that you can use for handling. Eco, Touring, Weather, Sport and Track. When we spun the driving mode to to Weather mode and zip through the turns it was nearly impossible to spin the wheels as the active handling is so responsive. Once we switched over to sport it was a different story and we easily spun out. I could not believe the difference in handling and responsiveness by just spinning a mode selector!
On the last day and the last hour of the training we had the opportunity to ride with a professional race car driver. I thought that I was driving excessively fast around the track until this! On several of the turns the car surpassed 1.03 G-force! Now that is extremely fast! I felt like I had ridden the craziest roller coaster in the world for the first time as a child but only as an adult. The adrenaline rush was absolutely unbelievable!
In closing, we were informed that if someone purchases one of these 2014 Corvette Stingray's they can go attend this driving school for half price. I would highly recommend this if you are thinking of making this purchase. It is well worth the money and the car has so much equipment on it that you almost need it to drive it the way it was meant to be driven.
Thank you Vic for giving me the awesome opportunity and experience!
Drew Choate
Internet Sales Manager
Vic Koenig Chevrolet
Work 618-529-1000
Cell 618-521-2656
www.vickoenig.com
http://www.springmountainmotorsports.com/
