Then there’s the dual-clutch gearbox, which is one of the very best of its type we’ve tried. In terms of its responsiveness when pressing on and the smoothness when shuffling around at low speeds, it feels not far off the sophistication of a Ferrari 296’s ’box, which is the slickest dual-clutch system we’ve experienced.
Even the carbon brakes – often a set-up that can seem grabby and short of feedback – felt great here. The pedal is firm and reassuring, and delivers superb stopping power. We’d need to sample the E-Ray on faster, more challenging roads or a racetrack to really put them to the test, but for everyday use, they were superb.
And that sums up much of the E-Ray experience, too. There’s a decent amount of boot space front and rear – although if you remove the T-Bar roof panel, it swallows up much of the rear storage area on its own – while the cabin is well appointed and comfortable. The wraparound dash design is unique, but while we often champion the use of physical buttons, the very long sliver of keys running up the centre console takes some getting used to.
All of this means that, even at £153,440, the Corvette E-Ray looks very tempting. Does it feel as immaculately engineered, fast or sharp as a Ferrari 296 GTB? We’d need to drive the pair side-by-side in identical conditions, but we suspect not quite. That’s fair enough, though, because the Corvette costs roughly half as much to buy. In the UK at least, it’ll probably be rarer, too – but based on this encounter, it deserves all the success it gets.
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| Model: | Corvette E-Ray 3LZ Coupe |
| Price: | £153,440 |
| Powertrain: | 6.2-litre V8 petrol, 1x e-motor |
| Power/torque: | 635bhp/798Nm |
| Transmission: | Eight-speed auto, four-wheel drive |
| 0-62mph: | 2.9 seconds |
| Top speed: | 180mph |
| Economy: | 22.4mpg/180g/km (est) |
| Size (L/W/H): | 4,731/2,024/1,237mm |
| On sale: | Now |
