HANDBAGS AT DAWN!
Motor Trend|August 2021
PORSCHE VS. CORVETTE. NOW MID-ENGINE VS. MID-ENGINE. THE FIGHT THAT (THANKFULLY) NEVER ENDS.
CONNER GOLDEN
HANDBAGS AT DAWN!

Brand tribalists will hate this comparison between the 2021 Chevrolet C8 Corvette and 2021 Porsche 718 Cayman GTS 4.0. Speed-actuated decklid spoiler alert: There’s a first-place finish at the end, but it’s a two-piece ranking of our conflicted preferences.

Frustrating, right? Everyone loves a winner, no one aspires to be a loser, but one cannot exist without the other. On the subject of horsepower and performance, there’s a more powerful car, a faster car, and a slower car, and there’s only one choice—otherwise, why bother harvesting test data to begin with?

These decades-long Porsche versus Corvette stand-offs usually raise subjectivism versus objectivism in our minds like bile in our throats. After all, the Corvette—in all its modern permutations—is the de facto victor on the performance-per-dollar front; it shouldn’t lose, at least not on paper. Forget the C8; a 16-year-old base C6 Corvette from 2005 is both lighter and more powerful than today’s base 992-series 911 Carrera.

Our choice was easier back then, too: Pick the lairy V-8 fiberglass wedge for atomic straight-line blasts and ass-out antics, or go with the finespun, finesse-inspiring Porsche for absolute confidence and a sublime driving experience.

But that was long before General Motors engineered the C8 Corvette Stingray, one of the finest and most impressive performance cars available.

As we enumerated in a face-off between the new C8 and the 992 Carrera in our February 2020 issue—in which the Corvette claimed the honors—the mid-engine Corvette isn’t just good for an American automaker; it’s a world-class supercar. Galaxy-class, even.

This test is not sports car versus sports car. It’s supercar versus sports car.

This story is from the August 2021 edition of Motor Trend.

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This story is from the August 2021 edition of Motor Trend.

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