Economy is definitely not the primary concern for potential Corvette Stingray buyers, and in fact, it’s not even close to the middle of the list, despite being an important factor, especially if you plan on putting the newfound (more) comfortable ride on the C7 to the test.
For these longer journeys, done at constant speed on the highway, GM claims the new Corvette hits 29 mpg (8.1 l/100km), with the aid of cylinder deactivation, which is standard on all models.
In town, though, the figure drops considerably, and the car is quoted as having an official rating of only 17 mpg (13.8 l/100km). This is due to the fact that long gearing and running on half of the cylinders only really helps out of town, while inside, you are forced to use the clutch more to get the car up to speed in 1st gear, which seems quite long, if the virtual variant of the car, from Gran Turismo 5, was accurate in all respects.
With these figures, and a combined rating of 21 mpg (11/2 l/100km), the C7 is on par with the Porsche 911, one of its rivals in the US, surpassing it on the highway, but falling behind in town, as the German car does 27 and 19 mpg (8.7 and 12.4 l/100km) respectively.
Furthermore, if you put the American car into “Eco” mode (which apparently actually makes a difference), then the highway figure grows to 30 mpg, as it takes full advantage of the aforementioned cylinder deactivation tech. Keep in mind though, that these numbers are for seven-speed manual transmission-equipped cars only, as the automatic has not yet been rated by the EPA.
By Andrei Nedelea
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