Test Drive: On and Off Track, the 2014 C7 Corvette is George Clooney

I sat around on a Friday morning, quickly stomping on the keyboard, punching out news stories for Complex Rides, knowing I had big plans for my press car for the weekend. It was a 2014 C7 Corvette Stingray, and I had scheduled some time at Putnam Park Road Course, a track and country club outside of Indianapolis, to put the car through proper conditioning and max sets. It was the ultimate play date.

When I got the call that the car was waiting outside, I hurried to greet the driver from the fleet company and find out what color it was going to be. "Douchebag yellow!" I exclaimed gleefully. The driver didn't seem to think this was very funny, judging by the extremely dead pan delivery of his next words "velocity yellow."

I'm not a fan of yellow cars, for the most part, they seem to often be driven by attention-starved assholes who have never heard of turn signals and are often seen whistling at girls who could be their daughters. The C7, however, was weirdly charismatic in yellow. I wouldn't personally buy it, but it really did suit this car.

We've covered the C7's design before, but it bears repeating that this is the most exciting and best-looking Corvette since the C2, and in person it looks even more striking and exotic.

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The C6 Corvette drove well enough, but like its predecessors its interior seemed to share more in common with a Power Wheels Corvette's of the same year than another $50,000 car's of the same year. Yes, the seats were leather, but everything else was hard, cheap-feeling plastic that scratched easily. People were willing to put up with the interior to get at the engine.

For 2014 things have changed. Drastically. Now almost everything feels nice. Yes, there's still some hard plastic, but it's not as cheap-feeling, and almost every surface of our tricked-out, $72k Corvette was either fantastic leather or carbon fiber. Hell, it even looked good. The Corvette started out as an awkward but fun kid (C1), aged into a crazy but amusing young adult (C2 and C3), fell into that post college funk like so many people, living in mom and dad's basement (C4), then got a real job as a race car (C5-R and C6.R), and has now decided that it's time to take a bit more care in what it does.

Between this, and the much more refined new exterior, the Corvette is like a guy in a new suit. This new suit has done the same wonders for the Corvette's image that it does for a man's. The people who have always loved the 'vette still do — except the pedants who won't shut up about the tail-lights — and most of the former haters have found a new respect for it.

Short version: Yes.

So after admiring the 'vette's stunning new design, I grabbed my helmet and started on my way to Putnam Park. This is when the attention started. Exactly four minutes after driving a cable service van pulled up next to me so that the driver and passenger could each give me two thumbs up, because steering is secondary when the new Corvette looks so cool. By the end of the hour-long cruise, I had lost count with how many thumbs I had seen pointed skyward. I couldn't even make it down the track's driveway without being stopped by a bright-eyed, grinning man in a C6 Grand Sport saying "So, this is it!"

At the track it was just me and a small F1600 team tuning its car taking half hour turns, meaning that I got a ton of time to play with the car all alone. This is when the grown up essence of this car really started to sink in. Corvettes have always been fast, but they usually have been a bit unrefined and wild. That can be fun, but they're not always the most precise devices (ZR1 not withstanding).

This new one is razor sharp and very predictable. It is, of course, tuned for oversteeer, but it doesn't surprise you like it sometimes did on older 'vettes. The result is that it's not at all worrysome to explore the limits of this car safely, and that's something we're very happy to see.

The 460 hp engine is, of course, also brilliant, launching the car to 60 mph in only 3.8 seconds and providing a mountain of torque virtually everywhere through the rev range all while miraculously returning 29 mpg highway due to cylinder deactivation.

Our only complaint was with brake fade, which wasn't terrible, but was definitely the performance bottleneck. Granted, this may have been due to this car already having been thrashed pretty hard by other journalists. The tires certainly looked like they'd had a bit of fun when the car arrived.

Once my track day was over, and I had to come to terms that I wasn't going to get to drive 138 mph in this car again, and very much had to make a run to the gas station. That's where I finally understood what it's like to be a target on TMZ's radar, as I was promptly mobbed by no less than four self-described hillbillies. They didn't know each other, and they bombarded me with questions like "can I touch it?" or "can we see the engine?" Fifteen minutes later I managed to escape, revving the engine for the cheering crowd.

Later that day, in a parking lot, a cop followed me so he could excitedly ask me questions about the car for 10 minutes, before finally remembering that he was a uniformed officer of the law and saying "uhhh... don't drive too fast out there, or something."

While I was sad to know that I wouldn't get to push the limit in this car again, it was time to see how it did in real life, but first, a confession.

Like most people who write things about cars on the internet, I was initially dismissive of down-shift rev-matching on manual transmissions when I first heard of it. What was the point of buying a manual if you don't want to do that kind of stuff yourself?

I take it all back. When it's 2:13 am and a grocery run is desparately needed, rev-matching makes those roundabouts the brainless and skill-free activity that's desired. As much as I like having an engaging car to drive, sometimes I just want an appliance that will get me from Point Home to Point Food with as little effort as possible. Amazingly, the Corvette is that car.

The clutch had a smooth and progressive feel that made coralling 460 horses an easy task, and the seven speed gear-box meant there was never a moment where it lacked for a gear. Due to the layout, finding 5th took a bit of practice, but after a few days that was easy.

It wasn't difficult to drive in a manner befitting the open road, but it was always as engaging as I wanted it to be. In fact, my wife and I found ourselves going out for a drive almost every night, just because the car was so lovely.

Wife Note: While she liked the seats and the aesthetics and the car in general, her favorite feature was certainly the secret compartment behind the nav screen. Stashing something there does make you feel a little Bond-esque.

The new Corvette draws massive amount of attention everywhere it goes, is incredibly capable, looks stunning, is aging better than we could have imagined, and is distinctly American and homegrown without sacrificing sophistication. The Corvette is following George Clooney's career path of simply just looking better and being more loved by all with each passing year.

When I was at the Rolls-Royce Wraith launch I was dropped off at the airport in a Phantom, and some people were assuming I was a celebrity of some sort and taking photos of me. In the Corvette nobody cared who I was, because the Stingray itself was the celebrity. The previous generations were more like Chuck Norris, cool and famous, but not necessarily someone you want to associate with too closely. The C7 is something different. It's cool and sexy and interesting. You want to have this Corvette over for dinner, and the analogy might be breaking down a bit here, but you also want to keep it in your garage so that it's always there to hang out with.