I just wanted to share my experience from the Bondurant Racing School’s Advanced Road Racing Course driving a C7, as well as test drives I had in a 991S, a R8 V10, and my own 2012 M3 over the last 2 weeks. I was able to compare these cars, back to back.
(note that this entire review was an Email to a friend of mine who is a Porsche Racer, and car enthusiast)

Total time:
2012 M3- 1.5 hours
2014 R8 V10- 2 hours
2014 991- 40 minutes
2014 C7 Z51- 15 hours

In order of review-

First vehicle was the R8. Pretty rare vehicle. I became known at the dealer as “the R8 guy”. Practically famous. Should have dressed nicer.
Start up; aggressive start up with angry idle. Settles down in 2 minutes or so to a hum. Rep says, “have fun, just bring it back”. Ok, see you later.
R8 c@ckpit is interesting. some wonderful things and some less wonderful. The width of the vehicle is significant. It offers lots of room for the shoulders. The seat feels a little higher than optimal. The feeling could be mostly attributable to the damn thing is so airy and easy to look out of. Dashboard is low too. Seating position can be odd in some ways. The dead pedal is a bit too close to you by about an inch or so. It lines up pretty well with accel. pedal, but you get the feeling they struck the best compromise they could with the cab-forward design, and the wheel arch being there. The driving position is a “ready for action” position that is the blessing and curse of mid-engine cars. With your leg braced against dead pedal, the seat is all the way back and you cannot recline that much. But, you feel connected with the car. I know you like to bend your knees slightly in the seating position. I tend not to like that. The seat itself is not up to the M3 or 911. The lower cushion is the issue. It is one of those designs where there is a rounded 6 inches on the end of the squab. That means there is pressure mid-thigh and then no support down the leg. The 911 and M3 have insanely good lower seat cushions. The rest of the interior is rather nice and worth the price of the car. Very expensive looking and refined. The steering wheel need about another inch of reach adjustment to be perfect for me. But the shape and thickness is really nice. The other issue is there is no real place to put your elbows. There is no right side arm rest, and the door armrest is rather shallow. With the aggressive seating position and lack of arm rests, you keep both hands on the wheel. Again, it puts you into an “action” position. I am not sure if this would get old, but it makes you want to drive fast. The navigation system is from an earlier time, but was actually working well. The B&O stereo had fantastic staging and imaging, but I only heard FM radio, so not a good test. Naturally, I set the bass at -4! All else was pretty spiffy! So, I pull out of the space…nice back-up camera and sensors….and head out on the road. So far feels pretty standard stuff. A little crabbing from the AWD, but otherwise like any other audi that just happened to be super-low and wide. Pull out into traffic and start the adventure. Steering weight is low. It would be the same as the M3 on the non-sport setting. Lighter than 911 by 20% or so. Steering also has the mid engine wobble. That is what I call the first 15 deg, of turning where the nose swings quickly in that direction with no real path-change. For contrast, the M3 literally dives to the side like it was balanced on a top. The R8 does not do that. After the first 15 degrees, it loads up and things start happening. You then get the same progressive load up of g-forces that you would in the 911. Steering feel is closer to M3 than 911. Not tactile or full of feel. More of the accurate/robotic M3 type with a smidge of analog 997 effectiveness.
I key up the S-tronic DSG and set off to my twisties. I get into 3rd gear and go full throttle towards a s-bend with a sweeper as follow up. The car basically leaps into the turn with the Gallardo soundtrack, pivots like it weighs an ounce and zips left/right/left where I bury the throttle on exit. It was perfect, but the performance capabilities were super-car level, so I decided not to repeat the exercise. I figured that I knew that part would be amazing anyway. So, the ride was firm and had a similar damping to the 911. Firm, firm, firm. The nose does jump a tad like the 911 as well. It is very tolerable though and very stable. I then decide to just cruise around for a while. Not very noisy inside, but this example did have an annoying transmission whine while at mild throttle going uphill. Then again, the car was a fleet vehicle with 6000 miles on it. The tires had chunks missing from the sidewalls! Probably was beat to ****. The brakes were ceramic, so you could imagine your eyeballs coming out on a hard stop. Modulation was touchy but insanely effective.
Overall, a dramatic vehicle with some warts. The question is, “are they small issues, or enough to spoil the fun”

The 991S
This car was only 60 miles old. No redline or full throttle.
Step up to the vehicle and it is familiar. If you ever owned a porsche, so you know what I mean. They keep things the same. The seat could have been from a 997.
Anyway, I hop in, adjust the seat and steering wheel and it is pretty close to perfection. The driving position was as I remembered from the 997. Flawless. Materials are just OK, in this model (no full leather). Push the clutch in and realize the M3 has the lightest clutch in any 400BHP car. My leg immediately groaned with effort. The clutch is about twice as heavy. Pull out of the lot and you notice the shifter is way up high, like a rally car. Not sure if that will annoy me over time. The shifter is of course, perfection. Makes the M3 feel like marble soup. So, on our way! Ride is very firm (non-S-pasm car) and rather jarring over the poor road surfaces. I head down the country road and start playing around. The Car feels like a 997 had sex with an M3 and this is the result. They took the antique 997 and put RoboCop M3, mixed it up and you get a 997 that has more direct steering with less feel than 997, slightly inert handling, but with sick limits, and it changes direction almost as well as M3. Ultimate grip is well beyond the M3 though. You felt like a super-hero in the 991. Biggest improvement over older models is the front end grip. It is more reliable and progressive. I trust the front tires without having to load them into corners like the 996/997.
All while the classic flat-6 soundtrack gets fed in. Engine is very “elastic” feeling. Gearing is way too high. Must be a tick the engineers at Stuttgart have. Does nothing for the car.
I remember my promise so I head back to the dealer.

So here is the comparison/summary: The 991 is an Apex product. You know nothing is tuned better. You know it is fully engineered to within an inch of its cheapo stamped steel roots. Complaints……I can’t think of any. Sorta pisses me off, actually. I want to complain about something… Maybe, I could complain that it does feel a little too isolated…even more so than R8. It is also not tactile like the “old days”. Those days are gone for good. The M3 is another car that also garners no complaints from me. Maybe I can ***** about the M3 shifter…but even that is actually a decent product. It is just not as good as it should be! You do get the feeling that the M3 was “last generation”. A new standard is coming, and it is still amazing, but we will need to see the 2015 M4 to get an idea what BMW has in mind.
The R8 is a dramatic product. You simply are attracted to it. It is polarizing. Whereas the 991 has no vices, the R8 has one. It is a combination of the somewhat sub-par seat, the somewhat odd dead-pedal, and the armrests. It is offset by how frigging interesting it is!! You just stare at it. It is like a beautiful girl with a tick. The 991 is like a handsome girl who may be a little boring.

So there it is. A much harder decision than I expected. The R8 is better and worse than I expected. The 991 is peaches and cream but a little mundane. The M3 is much one of those seminal products that comes alone every once in a while….and defines the niche. But it is last-Gen and a bit too Boxy in this racy company.
You have to take this review for what it is though…I did not get to track or autocross or anything like that. I expect them to amaze there, much like the M3 did at the Evo School last year!

So, at Bondurant….I got some interesting points on the C7…..

Each day we are in the vettes for about 4 1/2 hours of track time. It is almost too much for us and the cars. The cars feel great, but are very obviously Beta-versions. Several years ago, we drove the Grandsport vettes. We put 3 hours of track time on them during the 3rd day. Each session was 40 minutes or so. We were in 106 degree heat at that time and rarely had overheating issues or brake fade. On these new C7s, I am getting brake fade, as well as 3 or 4 of them overheating and needing to go away to the garages. They run hotter. Maybe due to the DFI? The brake fade is only occasional but can be scary because of how tight the tracks are. The brakes are very different from car to car and have some odd linearity problems.

They also added understeer as part of the new design. Ugh.

First thing I said to the instructor was, “where did this understeer come from?”. He acknowledged that all the instructors noticed it compared to the C6. It is not bad understeer, but coming from a car that had almost none (C6), this is now noticeable. The car has no understeer until about 7/10ths. Then you have to drive it like a normal car. The vehicle limits are high. Higher than the M3, but the M feels like it is always dancing on its toes. (which is a remarkable feeling!!!) The C7 feels a bit more heavy and locked in. It never dances. It is more “running back” than “wide receiver”….. It trail brakes nicely as well. We were told to drive in comp-mode. It allows you to get way out of shape before stepping in(no, really! almost fully sideways). But, it does save you and the car all sorts of pricey damage. There is quite a bit of squat and dive with the basic shocks too. A lot. These cars move around a lot on their shocks. Get magnetic ride control if you buy one.
The interior: pretty much great. Seats feel awesome. Just like a wider variant of the best porsche seats. They look and feel great. 2 secs to adjust and you are good to go. After that, they disappear. That is about the best compliment seats can get.
Shifter is awesome. Solid, easy to find most ratios (I hung up on the 2-3 shift from time to time) and short throws. Would not change a thing.
Instrument cluster is great. No issues and lots to configure. The only thing is that I never looked down to the tach. I am not sure why. I was always trying to look so far ahead that I just never saw it. The car runs a bit out of steam at 6K, so I suppose I was shifting there. Who knows. I set it up in track mode for the day. If I tracked one, I would have lights on the top of the steering wheel to tell me where redline is.
Note again, that we did not have the magnetic dampers. My feeling is that they probably can’t hold up to the track. I would put some Ohlin shocks on it if I were going to track it.

The few cheap bits: the first cheap thing you note is that the door panel flexes in the inside when you push the lock/unlock button. It moves 1/4 of an inch! Flexy plastic. The armrest is solid but the door needs 3 or 4 more clips to secure it. The center armrest also has storage, but the lid is heavy and just flops closed. No dampers. The door opener button from both inside and outside seems like a gimmick as well. I had to press it twice every time. That was it for the complaints. So, when people tell you “there is no comparison” between porsche interior and vette, they are full of ****. The vettes I sat in were all built well too.
Also, the cars have a strong epoxy/glue smell that is not appealing.

The engine is rock-solid. Good torque everywhere. Smooth and classic V8 sounds. No complaints. The overheating thing is a bummer, but it is a track issue. I blew 3 vettes up due to cooling and one due to a torque tube gone bad. In the end, we actually ran out of running cars. GM does not make torque tubes as a replacement part yet. LOL.

Brakes….well, they do fade and become less uniform as time goes on. One instructor said it best…”that you never know what you are going to exactly get”. I would concur. There were times I thought I would not make a corner, and was full-on brakes. Then, the pedal would drop another half inch and the braking power would increase 20%! Sounds like a boost issue. Who knows. I got to sample 4 or 5 vettes and the brakes were different in each one. They varied on initial bite by about 50%. That is crazy.

So anyway, you can see that the car has some issues. I don’t think any are fatal, but they need more development time. If they did what they did for the C6, then maybe in a year, all will be well. For a street car, I can’t see any of these things really being an issue. So I would say that the car is 60% better as a street car compared to the C6. It is in a whole other class. As a track car, I would say it was a wash with the C6. Better in some ways, worse in others. Better steering feel, offset by understeer and uneven braking. If you put the E-diff on the C6, I can tell you it would wipe the track with the C7’s ****.

My overall grade on the Corvette is a solid B+. This car is no joke and deserves the praise. If only GM would stop sending partially developed cars to market. That being said, I would not buy one. Mostly because I can afford a 911. If I couldn’t, or did not want to, the vette might be in my garage right now. The other issue is the M3. It is arguably more fun on the street than the vette. It also gives certain pleasures that the vette does not. You are greeted by 2 things when you approach a vette; the cheap electronic door handle, and the smell of epoxy. My M3 has a nice pull on the door latch and you sit in a beautiful leather cocoon. GM need to remember that you “shake hands” with your car when you step up to it. For all the gorgeous looks the C7 has, once you shake hands with it, you wipe them on your pants.

Other grades:
991S: A+
M3: A-
R8: A
C7: B+

 

This reminds me of my C6 Z06.

 

Great review, thank you.
Glad I made the right choice (I already knew I did)
Actually considered a used R8 v10, but never found one close (a v10) to test drive and the ones I looked at in person (v8) looked dated to me.
Excellent car, but I felt that the 911S was an all around better choice for me.

I tend to be always spending more $ on my next cars (there's just so many damn good cars), so I will probably never see a brand new M3 (although a track e36 and garage queen e30 may happen some day).
Things would have to go bad for me to buy a Vette
Actually, really bad....dead!

 

I was most surprised that the C7 could not survive the 80 degree heat! It was pretty mild for Arizona.

Loved the 991. I just wish they let me have it for the day like the R8. Plus, I could not wind it out. I understand there is lots of power in the upper revs.

I have some pics of the C7 with smoke trailing out the back, I'll have to post them later!

 

Nice review, and I agree with you about the R8 seats not being as good as the 991's. The problem is that in the US we can't get the R8 sport seats because there are no side airbags, so the standard R8 seats are the same as those in my wife Audi TT. Luckily, my driving position in the R8 is such that I don't feel the lack of support of the lower cushions and I never noticed the arm rest issue.

I test drove a 991 this past weekend - I wanted to drive a stick with PSE and got some miles in this car. As good as the new s-tronic is, I realized how much I miss having a well-sorted manual transmission car. The 991's turn-in is certainly better than the R8's; on the other hand I find the R8 steering is better (still hydraulic). The 911S felt slow to me compared to my V10+, but things do get interesting above 5000 RPM in the Porsche. Low end torque is just not there. No comparison in the engine and exhaust sound even with the PSE at full blast.

For now, I'm happy with my V10+. No real interest in a 991 turbo - I have always found them to be less fun than a C2S. The 991 GTS might bring me back to my roots, if they still offer a stick.

 

"For all the gorgeous looks the C7 has, once you shake hands with it, you wipe them on your pants." Memorized for future use.

 

Very nice review, well written and informative, especially regarding the C7.

 

About the C7 - "Note again, that we did not have the magnetic dampers. My feeling is that they probably can’t hold up to the track."

Audi R8 magnetic dampers are not holding up all that well either. A number of guys who have considered used R8's find that on inspection, the mag shock are leaking. Maybe mag shocks have to be considered a consumable, albeit an expensive one!

 

Very true!

I have a nice set of Ohlin's bookmarked if I ever track the R8!

The pros at Bondurant seemed happy with the C7 but all noted that each one felt different. Not a good sign that they were not similar in handling. There are only something like 20 vettes at the school and they can't even make them drive similarly. One had nose dive like a battleship! I honestly thought it was broken.
Magnetic shocks are like $9,000 a set. Ouch.

 

I have a 991S (c4S cabrio), and a 2011 M3 (with Ohlins and solid bushings/camber plates) and owned a 2014 Z51. I like all three cars but agree with many of your comments. I did find that the navigation system on the Vette is way worse than both BMW and Porsche. It's bad at finding POIs, slow to route, lots of button presses to switch between common functions etc.

I think the V10+ R8 is in a different class, from a pricing perspective. I mean, at the end of the day, some who can afford a high end car won't notice a huge difference between $70k/$120k/$180k... but, I do. I can justify a 911, but can't justify a $2500+ lease payment on an R8 V10+ and the R8 V8 is extremely underwhelming, even slower than my M3.

 

Very nice reveiw. Thanks for taking the time to write and post this. Much appreciated.

 

Thanks for sharing your email. I also considered all three of those cars, although I never had an opportunity to drive a C7, I am a previous C6 owner, and figured that the C7 would be like that, but "better". The R8 is, as a friend of mine put it, more exciting for the people outside looking at it than the folks inside driving it.

 

The C7 was the big surprise. Better by far on the street and worse on the track. That being said, I can see the allure of ownership. Also, I looked at several of the Bondurant cars for paint drips and such and only found orangepeel. At least GM is on the right page and in the hunt. It is just so typical of them to engineer until thursday and take friday off. You can almost hear them, "I think we've done enough guys.....the buyers don't care anyway." If you read the C7 forums, this seems correct. They just don't care about the problems. GM seems to know this!!
I also would have loved to had the track time in all 4 vehicles.
The R8 was plenty exciting. Randy Pobst commented several times that he actually prefers it to the 991S4. The issue is, it has some warts. But they are the same warts that I found on the cayman. So I chalked them up to mid-engine layout. The Evora is far, far worse in design than all the examples I mentioned, though. (I drove one last year..loved the feel, hated the car)
The thing is, all of the cars are Valedictorians of their classes, with different feels. Much of it came down to just how perfect the 991 was. I wish the vette engineers would spend a day in stuttgart getting some lessons on design. The vette would be insane. That being said, when I looked at the sticker prices, the R8 seemed like a bargain at $175K. So did the C7. The M just seemed appropriate, and the 991 seemed overpriced at $130K. As the reviewers keep saying, the porsche is not twice the car of the C7. My real and only critical thought on the 991 was that I read the option sheet and threw up a little in my mouth. basic options that are on the Kia Forte, are 2 to 5 grand on the 991. But, then again, someone has to bear the huge cost of engineering this masterpiece. In the end though, I did not purchase the 991.......my money went elsewhere....

 

Great read, thanks for posting

If you don't mind me asking, what did you end up with?

 

Sorry for the cliffhanger....it was a private joke to one of the forum members that I am friends with!!

I got the R8, Sepang Blue, Gated manual transmission, all options.

It is a 2 year purchase and then on to the 991.2!!

There is no way I can miss either of these cars, and I don't have the resources to own both!