Driven: 2010 Corvette Grand Sport

By Nelson Ireson

Nelson Ireson

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Nelson is an Editor at High Gear Media focusing on reviewing cars and covering the hottest topics in luxury and performance cars, car culture, and... More

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2010 Corvette Grand Sport

You've got a magnificent stretch of two-lane blacktop planned, a 2010 Corvette Grand Sport in the driveway and a weekend to burn. Sounds like the perfect recipe, right? It is until someone adds in a few hundred cruising motorcycles and one very slow yet determined 18-wheeler.

This frustrating scene was my reality with the 2010 Corvette Grand Sport just a few weekends ago. All set for a fun and frenetic drive up Arkansas' inimitably twisty and scenic Pig Trail on the way from Little Rock to Fayetteville, I found I'd picked the worst Saturday possible: the weekend of a motorcycle rally along the exact same path. But all was not lost, it turns out.

A Steel Z06 Or A Dressed Up Coupe?
The 2010 Corvette Grand Sport can be described as a standard Coupe with a lot of Z06 trimmings--the widened fenders and wheels, upgraded suspension, bigger brakes, a dry-sump engine on the manual version, and a host of other small tweaks that make it a better performer on the track. But it can also be described, almost as accurately, as a Z06 with a steel unibody and a smaller engine. However you think of it, ours was a max-spec manual-transmission 4LT version, equipped with the navigation and upgraded audio package, premium leather upholstery, chrome wheels, Grand Sport Heritage appearance package and fender stripe, dual-mode performance exhaust and a host of other accessories that drove the price up from its $54,770 base price to just north of $68,000. That's only a few thousand shy of the Z06's base price, but it makes for one comfy Coupe.

So you can understand the frustration of being stuck at a snails pace as packs of very relaxed-pace bikers proceeded to turn one of the best driving roads in the country into a parade route. And that was before the 18-wheeler slowed the pace to sub-20 mph for a dozen miles or so as he navigated the hairpin turns, using up every inch of the blacktop and then some.

The lethargic drive up the mountainous road gave me a chance to assess an aspect of the Grand Sport's nature that I'd probably never have slowed down enough to notice, or at least notice as thoroughly, otherwise: this is a comfortable, easy-to-drive car in typical stop-and-go traffic. Aside from the lack of a back seat and the archaic infotainment/navigation system, you'd be hard pressed to point to any major downside to being in the tarted up 'Vette instead of a BMW 3-Series or Mercedes C-Class. Noise levels are low with the engine loping along at 1,000-1,800 rpm, the interior materials are more than acceptable with the optional premium upgrade package, and the seats are perfect--supportive but not too soft, with plenty of adjustment for many sizes of driver or passenger.

But as much as the Corvette, even the more performance-focused Grand Sport, is capable as a daily driver, that's not really what the car is about. It's about raw, neck-straining, passenger-screaming, grin-inducing speed. And it delivers on that front, too.