Stingray Precision Drive - South Florida

[OldJedi]

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Corvette Precision Drive held this weekend at Palm Beach International Raceway. My day started with an early morning drive and was the first one to arrive before the sun came up. I pulled up and was greeted by a new Laguna Blue Vette with a black stinger to match my Marina Blue with a black stinger hood.

At about 7:30am there were approximately 90 cars lined up and anxious to get inside the fence. The Laguna Blue car led in the caravan that consisted of Porsches, BMW's, Corvettes and a couple of Ferrari's along with an assortment of other cars. After parking, we signed in using our preregistered email address. Warning: make sure that your driver's license has not expired. Chevrolet will not let you drive their cars with an expired license. I watched one guy get turned away for an expired DL, that had to be a long ride home.

Chevrolet had new Corvettes in static displays all around the main tent. Inside the tent was a nice breakfast for all of us put on by Bon Appetite. John Fitzpatrick, Corvette and Camaro Marketing Manager, gave us a welcome address telling us what to expect for the morning and to have a fun day.

Following the address we were split up into different color groups and went to three different areas of the race track. My yellow Stingray group had fifteen members and we walked over to the Go Kart Track. Helmets and head socks were provided for those of us that needed them. All of the driving sessions were set up as lead - follow events. Following the instructor around the tight Go Kart track in the much larger Corvette showed off its ability to handle sharp decreasing radius curves. The instructors all drove new Camaros and we followed behind in Corvettes.

[OldJedi]

Each driving session had classroom session to go with it. Our first class talked about the new technology in the redesigned Vette. We then went to our second driving session which was driving around the main track. We followed the Camaro around the track hitting the late apexes around the course. The back straight yielded speeds of over 130MPH followed by hard braking into the turn. This car accelerates so fast out of the turns! No matter how good or bad I entered a curve the Vette was always poised and in control. The car just builds confidence with each successive lap. The high speed laps were followed by a classroom session with Adam Andretti of the famous Andretti Racing family. He talked about driving techniques and how to be faster in and out turns.

The last driving session was on an autocross track which was set up to demonstrate the different driving modes between Touring, Sport and Track. You can definitely feel the difference in steering and the increase in sound and handling as you progressed through each mode. After the last driving session we went back to main tent for a question and answer session with John Fitzpatrick. When I mentioned the Z06 Corvette he responded with "What Z06?"

It was able to spend a lot of time in the static displays with attending product specialists. I took the roof panels off the car and learned the correct way to install it in the back. The stereo sounds great with a lot of bass and the ability to change the center point of the sound. I also learned that the engine converts from Eco Mode (4 Cylinders) to 8 cylinders in two revolutions of the engine.

Overall I had a wonderful time and learned a great deal about the new car. Besides how bad can it be to be away from work and be driving a new Vette at over 130 MPH. Chevy had over 30 new Corvettes to drive and in static displays. John was nice enough to pull up a static display car and let me take pictures of it next to my car. It is interesting to see the 50 years of design changes. Obviously a huge 'Thank You' to John Fitzpatrick and the entire crew that made the Corvette Precision Drive a great experience for all of us. If you get an email from Chevrolet asking you to attend an event, drop everything you are doing and sign up right away. This is NOT something that you want to miss.

[Stingray]

Suweeet! I'm in tomorrow's 7:30am group. I hope I can get good sleep tonight.

[OldJedi]

Some more pictures from the Stingray Precision Drive. Interestingly, one of the members in my group drove a Ferrari 458 Spyder to the event. When I asked him if he would trade his Ferrari for the new Corvette he said "Never". However he also said that he paid over $250,000.oo for his car and that there was no other car in the same price range that could compete with the new Corvette.

[OldJedi]

Originally Posted by Stingray

Suweeet! I'm in tomorrow's 7:30am group. I hope I can get good sleep tonight.

Have fun tomorrow and post your pictures when you can.

[Buildbright]

I went to Fridays 12:30 slot.

I have to say the event was not what I expected. I expected to drive the new C7 corvette for longer then 20 mins total all day. The best part was module 3 which made up for the other two modules which were under whelming to say the least. Everything was rushing through the driving parts so you could sit and wait in the luxury lounge.

Module 3 was a lot of fun which was doing 2 laps around PBIR. I talked to my lead follow instructor 17 time Indy 500 driver Poncho Carter!! so I could drive directly behind him because the other drivers were very timid and slow. I got over 140 on the back stretch. Also talking with Adam Andretti was a blast, what a nice guy.

[Steven Bell]

Wow, I'm envious. It looks and sounds like a fantastic event.

[AZCamaroFan]

looks like lots of fun

[Stingray]

Just finished. Can't describe in words! Topnotch well-organized event and 5-star hospitality from GM. Harlan Charles and John Fitzpatrick and all their crew did a great job!! Oh... and driving these C7's on the track was the best! The kart track runs were also a blast!

[Stingray]

I stayed behind Poncho (lead car) on the high speed track... easily over 130s on the long stretch! Z51's are so well balanced even at or near the limits. Wow!