Step back, Europe. America is back with the performance cars to own the road and offer inspiration for dream car savings jars. Road & Track has released its annual Performance Car of the Year list, and three of the four finalist spots were taken up by cars from American automakers, including the 2016 Chevrolet Corvette Z06.
Road & Track started out the rankings with eight performance car contenders. There were no vehicles from Asia, but Europe and the United States were equally represented, with four American models and four from the EU. Cars were subjected to road testing in Tennesee and Kentucky, which included a visit to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. By the end of the trip, each car had travelled about 500 miles of mostly two-lane roads.
The Corvette has a history of performing well for Road & Track, as the 2015 Corvette Z06 drove home with the title of Performance Car of the Year last year. The 2016 Corvette Z06 is ready for the challenge, already inspiring so much envy in other Corvette owners that GM has created parts for Corvette Stingray owners to bring their models up to the Corvette Z06’s performance levels.
This year’s reviewers were impressed with the Chevy Corvette Z06’s dramatic exterior, and remarked that the exterior isn’t compensating for a lack of power by saying “…the V-8 can cash every check the visual package writes, with funds to spare.” Some of the reviewers felt that the car was so energetic that it was almost too powerful for the roads it was tested on, though. To be fair, the reviewers had been driving a Corvette equipped with the Z07 Ultimate Performance Package, which Chevrolet itself bills as an add-on to make the car track capable (and maybe unprepared for the winding hills of Tennesee and Kentucky).
In the end, the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R walked away with the title of 2015 Performance Car of the Year. The Corvette can still hold its head high, though, as it still beat out cars like the 2016 Mercedes-AMG GT S, which costs almost twice as much.
News Source: Road & Track
The News Wheel is a digital auto magazine providing readers with a fresh perspective on the latest car news. We’re located in the heart of America (Dayton, Ohio) and our goal is to deliver an entertaining and informative perspective on what’s trending in the automotive world. See more articles from The News Wheel.