- The 2024 Chevy Corvette E-Ray posted a 2.5-second 60-mph time in our instrumented efficiency testing—the quickest ever for a Vette.
- On the road, the E-Ray’s mixed 655 horsepower, all-wheel-drive traction, and instantaneous electric-motor torque make it a stoplight hellion, able to brutal launches which can be as straightforward to achieve as flooring the accelerator.
- To see how the E-Ray would fare in a theoretical stoplight drag race, we launched the E-Ray with and with out launch management to see the distinction in acceleration instances.
Welcome to Automobile and Driver’s Testing Hub, the place we zoom in on the check numbers. We have been pushing autos to their limits since 1956 to supply goal knowledge to bolster our subjective impressions (you may see how we check right here).
The time it takes a automobile to go from relaxation to 60 mph is among the most essential, best-understood, and longest-running benchmarks for judging efficiency—and for profitable one-upmanship arguments that erupt between automobile lovers. Our customary array of acceleration assessments unearth that 60-mph time, amongst quite a few different efficiency knowledge factors, as scientifically as attainable with a purpose to extract the quickest acceleration end result.
We check on a closed, flat, proving-ground monitor, make the most of the driving method that may ship the quickest time—that may imply utilizing a automobile’s launch-control system, or not—run our assessments in two instructions to account for the results of wind, after which common the 2 greatest runs and in addition appropriate the outcomes to straightforward climate circumstances. (Temperature and humidity have an effect on horsepower in internal-combustion engines).
No Time for Launch Management?
Thorough as this data-gathering is, the hybrid all-wheel-drive Corvette E-Ray received us pondering: What might it do with out the impact of launch management? Activating launch management within the Corvette is a bit tedious. First, the Efficiency Traction Administration (PTM) system have to be set to Monitor, Race 1, or Race 2. If a burnout is required to scrub off the tires, Race 2 is required. With the right PTM mode chosen, launch management is now obtainable. From there, the customized launch-control interface is accessible by means of the steering wheel controls. The engine rpm may be adjusted to compensate for wheel spin, as can the goal slip share. Or launch management may be left in Auto mode and the E-Ray will work out what’s greatest.
One of many issues we love concerning the E-Ray out on the highway is its brutal, instantaneous, and simply accessible acceleration. Because of the 495-hp 6.2-liter V-8 in its tail pumping energy to the rear wheels, a 160-hp electrical motor driving its entrance wheels, and a 1.1-kWh battery that’s virtually all the time at a 70-percent-or-higher stage of cost on the road, the E-Ray leaps forward from virtually any velocity. And with all-wheel-drive traction it launches from stoplights as if shot out of a Howitzer.
So how fast is it to 60 mph in a real-world driving state of affairs when the sunshine turns inexperienced? What in the event you rolled as much as a stoplight to seek out, say, a 797-hp Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye within the subsequent lane and the E-Ray’s launch management isn’t prepped for battle? Might you continue to beat the Dodge—theoretically, after all—if all you probably did was slam your proper foot to the ground when the sunshine turned inexperienced?
A Stoplight to 60 MPH Takes 2.9 Ticks
Within the curiosity of science we carried out precisely that gas-it-and-go run with our VBox check gear connected to the E-Ray. In a earlier check of a Charger Hellcat Redeye it hurtled to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds with its launch management disengaged; it was barely slower with it on. The E-Ray hit 60 in 2.5 seconds in our monitor testing—the quickest time we’ve ever recorded for a Corvette—with its adjustable launch management on and optimized. Nonetheless, with no assist from launch management, the E-Ray clocked in at 2.9 seconds. So, the Charger driver could be watching the E-Ray’s quad exhaust pipes fade into the gap.
A part of our regular testing features a 5-to-60-mph rolling begin, wherein we creep at 5 mph after which smash the accelerator. This check removes the results of a high-rpm, launch-control begin. The E-Ray completes the rolling begin in 3.1 seconds, simply 0.2-second slower than smashing the throttle from a standstill.
How would the E-Ray fare in a stoplight shootout towards different hypercars just like the Ferrari 296GTB or Lamborghini Huracán STO? That’s query; we don’t have comparative 60 mph knowledge for different supercars, which we just about all the time check with their launch management on.
So be it. This enjoyable foray into a distinct type of check nonetheless underscores our subjective impression of the E-Ray’s efficiency: how straightforward it’s to make the hybrid Corvette hurtle away from virtually the rest on the highway in a stoplight drag race—theoretically, after all.
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Director, Purchaser’s Information
Wealthy Ceppos has evaluated cars and automotive know-how throughout a profession that has encompassed 10 years at Normal Motors, two stints at Automobile and Driver totaling 19 years, and 1000’s of miles logged in racing automobiles. He was in music college when he realized what he actually needed to do in life and, someway, it is labored out. In between his two C/D postings he served as government editor of Vehicle Journal; was an government vice chairman at Campbell Advertising and marketing & Communications; labored in GM’s product-development space; and have become writer of Autoweek. He has raced repeatedly since school, held SCCA and IMSA professional racing licenses, and has competed within the 24 Hours of Daytona. He at the moment ministers to a 1999 Miata and a 1965 Corvette convertible and appreciates that none of his youthful colleagues have but uttered “Okay, Boomer” when he tells considered one of his tales concerning the loopy previous days at C/D.
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