I am in Oregon for a conference and decided to treat myself (for my birthday) to a new Corvette rental from Hertz. It is running about $200/day but... I am having a blast!

I am running around all the mountain roads near Mount Hood. The 'Vette is a special model that Hertz ordered in volume. It is NOT a strippy. It has the sports package, Performance Exhaust (Wow!), paddle shifters, navi, Sirius radio, polished chrome wheels, adjustable shocks, etc. and only comes in yellow with a black stripe down the middle.

I have driven lots of Corvettes; my brother-in-law has a C5. But this one blew my socks off. With the 6-speed, it gets it on big time. All the computerized stuff works as designed and you can disable all the nanny stuff and put it in Full Competition Mode. You KNOW I did.

Alas, I have to take it back tomorrow. But before, I was kind of luke-warm toward the Corvette. Now, I'm a believer. I'm actually considering one.

On the down side: it snaps, crackles, and pops when whooshing down mountain roads at 150 MPH. Sounds like the T-top. Next time, I'll take it off more often and wear a jacket.

 

That sounds like a blast! Much cheaper then buying one for a few days but now you're going to have that itch.

 

Sounds much better than the Hertz edition Mustangs.

 

I remember hearing about a bunch of them having issues with the roofs flying off. Had to do with the glue used to assemble the panel.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/corvette...-blow-off.html

 

Sounds like fun. I've always thought about treating myself when I'm travelling for work, but never got around to it. Maybe one day.

 

It happened to a friend of mine... The roof blew right off while he was traveling 80 MPH up the highway. Pretty scary.

 

I remember reading about one of those, supposedly its part of Hertz's "fun collection" \

The C6 is of course better than the C5.... the roof panel falling off was on the Z06s, apparently they used a different composite roof panel on the C6Z which didn't adhere very well, which is why the roofs went flying off. They switched back to the same composite they used for the C5 (which didn't have any incidents of roof panels coming off) or something like that, and the problem was fixed.

Not something I'd worry about too much, though if I had an 05-06 C6Z you bet I'd check to see if the roof panel was replaced. Its not a structural component or anything, its more like a cover.

 

Pretty sweet. They have them at the Hertz here in Charlotte (at the airport) and I've been toying with renting one for shits and giggles.

Nice to hear they are worth the money =)

 

Sounds like fun! I've always wondered how much they are to rent. $200 a day sounds about right.

 

the roof panel came off. A non structural part. Not the entire roof looking at the sky roof came off.

 

^ And I think only the Z06 had those problems.

BTW, I went to Hertz's site to check to see how much they rent for in Charlotte, but it was not listed. Very odd b/c I know just the other day they had 6 sitting there. Plus, just today my wife saw one on the way home from work. I then checked Philly b/c we're going up this weekend and I was contemplating changing my reservation to the Vette... but none there either. Both sites listed the Mustang only.

Very strange...

 

Nice! Too bad you can't rent a manual tranny.

 

Much better rental than the taurus's i get when I travel for work

 

Pics!

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2008/07...-mistakes.html

 

Funny story, I was at a stop light when I saw one of these come around a turn w/ the driver trying to swing the ass out and he failed miserably. Sure enough we pull up side by side at the next light. He's got his windows down and his wife/girlfriend in the passenger seat when he starts revving me. I roll down my window and say "nice rental" the girl started laughing

 

How many ponies in this special edition? No speed governor at all?

 

^
436 hp!

 

Wow, less than 50 cents per pony per day!

 

That black stripe is hideous. I've seen red corvettes with that black stripe (red...so I guess it's not this edition), and words can't describe how much a single stripe ruins an otherwise good looking car.

 

I am assuming that the HP is the same as for other 'Vettes with the performance exhaust system: 436. But, it feels like much more. There was NO speed limiter but I did hit the rev limiter a couple of times in manual mode. It will NOT shift when you are using the manual mode like our TLs do when you hit the red line. It also rev matches beautifully on down shifts.

Scott: You can't really hang the tail out unless you turn off the nanny stuff. It will a little but then corrects and pulls it back in. But you can put it in Full Competition Mode and find a parking lot for donuts if you want.

I was maxed out in 4th gear at 150-160 coming down a mountain road before I decided I liked life too much to keep going. But, it had lots left and two more gears.

Strange thing is that it got 27 MPG in regular brisk driving. Then, I took it in and traded for a new Cadillac SRX (SUV) and damned if I can coax that 3.6L V6 to more than 17-18 MPG on the same roads.

But, the 'Vette was $200/day and the SRX is $85 for 4 days on a weekend special.

They had three at the Portland Airport. They all had less than 7k miles and the tags were consecutive so they got them all at once.

First thing I did was to detail it. Waxing a 'Vette is a sexual experience.

 

I have a similar story and I loved it as well. I was in San Diego about 6 months ago for work and one weekend I decided to treat myself and I rented a 2008 Corvette convertible from Hertz. It had the 6.2L V8 with the 6-speed auto, but it was missing the performance exhaust yours had.

I remember I left the lot and pulled onto a main road. I decided to floor it to see what it had under the hood and the thing downshifted like 3 gears, pinned me back in my seat and made a huge roar. It seriously scared the shit out of me as I'm not used to cars with that much power under the hood.

Best rental car I've ever had by far

It was painful when I had to return it the next day, much like you have to as well.

 

You actually detailed a rental car? lol I bet Hertz was surprised when you returned it

 

Yeah... I'm anal about clean cars. My 04 TL is still showroom cherry.

D.