Opinion: With the Corvette there's no accounting for taste

My name is Andy Enright and I love the C8 Corvette. There, I said it. And I can already feel you judging me.

Let me attempt a little mind-reading. You’ve pigeonholed me as some sort of antipodean analogue of a Floridian dentist, a man unencumbered with anything much by way of refinement and who is blithely unaware that a cheaper BMW M3 Competition does just about everything better. Am I close? I’ll happily take all of those on the chin and admit that these barbs are built around a faint germ of truth.

That said, I have yet to pedal a Vette in socks and sandals, I don’t drive with a Cohiba sticking out of my head, I have no friends called Larry and I don’t own a golf bag, so I’m not a complete overlap on the stereotypical owner Venn.

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I first got my hands on a Stingray at MOTOR for a four-car review ahead of 2022’s Performance Car of the Year.

It beat the Audi RS5, the Jaguar F-Type P450 and the Mercedes-AMG C63 S coupe. It finished a very credible fifth at PCOTY that year, beaten by, yes, an M3, two Porsches and a Lamborghini.

That very same car – BSN 388 – was also compared to the new BMW M2, the Toyota GR Supra and the Lotus Emira at the start of this year. Two hard years on press fleet duties had clearly started to weigh on it.

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The white leather interior felt grubby and worn. The body control felt notably laxer than when we first drove it. It could still entertain but gave that background impression of a bunch of parts flying in close formation.

Thankfully, I’ve just had a chance to drive Corvette’s new 3LT demonstrator. The cabin so red it feels like the aftermath of a Mexican cartel standoff, but the exterior is, thankfully, a far more muted execution.

The Silver Flare paint is complemented by some tasteful alloys. Where its predecessor on fleet was a garish bleach-bottle blue, with stripes and chrome wheels, this one instantly feels a more refined confection. It just goes to show that specifications really do matter. I’m told that forest green with a tan leather interior would have been quite the combo.

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It got me thinking about how we ‘dress’ an individual car can have a profound effect on its perception. There’s certainly a gap in the market for an atelier service that helps manufacturers get this right with their demonstrators. People with taste have clearly been consulted by Bentley to help its clientele.

Jump onto its configurator and you can see a number of pre-set colour and trim combinations to point those who might struggle in the right direction.

Trouble is, there’s likely an element of style-oriented Dunning-Kruger syndrome at play here. Those who have terrible taste are also the ones least equipped to recognise the fact.

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Being someone who is constantly amazed by people who dress impeccably, I have few delusions about my sense of aesthetic. Modestly tease that strand of logic and you might surmise that is part of the reason I’m so enamoured of the Corvette C8.

I’d put it down to the fact that, with typical optioning, for four-cylinder Porsche Cayman money, you’re getting a V8, naturally-aspirated, mid-engined sports car that’s only 6kW down on a 992 GT3.

I might not know which tie knots are in vogue right now or whether caramel dress shoes have had their day, but I know a cracking performance car when I see one. Just tone it back when you get to the colours, hey?