Foreign car guys can be a funny bunch. They’re pretty darn confident they’ve got the automotive world by the tail, but when you actually hear them talk, they’re not necessarily up to speed on current automotive events, much less a Chevrolet Corvette.
They say perception is reality and if you listen to these two twenty-something talking heads you’d think that up until last year, the Corvette had a Blue Flame-six and wide-whitewall tires. The long and short of this video is the guy’s talking about how the Vette had “a lot of growing up to do,” but now is finally a worthy competitor to the BMW M3. Huh? Where have these guys been? Under a rock in “Portlandia?”

Hey BMW dudes, you might not want to talk about image problems and Corvettes…Just sayin’ . Photo Courtesy – SNL/NBC
Arguably, the Corvette entered the modern era with the C5 in 1997. The fifth-gen Vette really dispelled all the old Vette myths (big, brutal,unrefined,) once and for all. The C5 was a modern sports car that really put the Europeans on notice, almost 20 friggin’ years ago.
The C6 and all its iterations including the Z06 and the ZR1 propelled the new-era Vette even further. It got to the point that the only thing folks could gripe about was floppy seats and a low rent steering wheel. Then the BMW guy dusts off an old stand-by dig. The Corvette is built by “A guy named Chuck in Kentucky!” It’s funny hearing a hipster guy talk about style and image when he looks like “Deiter” from Saturday Night Live’s “Sprockets” parody.
And then there’s the British guy. We don’t know about you, but a droll Limey in a Yank tank extolling that it’s no longer a big, bad, old school Vette is boring to say the least. Ultimately, the C7 is these guys’ worst nightmare come true. A no-excuse Corvette that kicks German booty and is built by the company they love to hate.
Just because they weren’t paying attention doesn’t lessen the impact of the C7. To hear them gush about how much they like the new Vette is good fun. Welcome to the party guys!