End Times

[Mblake1981]

Originally Posted by Encroaching Death [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Societies with a strong middle class have lower crime rates, they enjoy higher levels of trust and life satisfaction, as well as greater political stability and good governance.

https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/OECD-mi...n-findings.pdf

Corvettes are cool because of their ties to American motorsports. It is "America's sportscar" (but not Supercar). Harley Earl was the lead designer and he was inspired by European sporting cars of the time, he wanted to create an American version to compete and win races. The name comes from fast-attack ships.

Sports cars and Muscle Cars were nearly killed off during the emissions-era (aka the malaise era), the Corvette was sold one year with only 185hp from the factory. But they kept it going, even during the difficult years.

Focus on European design was always there, mid-engine designs popped up before I was born but never materialized. It was during the 2000's when Horsepower began coming back that the switch to it was pressed. Due to limitations in the front engine/rear wheel drive design, possibly due to Nurburgring (Germany) becoming the center for what sports cars should be.

The criticisms I have read online mostly from overseas tend to focus on the interior of the cars being cheap and not up to par with its peers from Europe. I think this is because Europeans fail to understand that the Corvette was made to compete on race tracks with their vehicles but not to win pamper-awards. So the Corvette is one of the quickest cars for the cheapest dollars put in, which Euros don't care about since Ferrari is better. It goes over peoples heads.

Edit: Modern American motorsports came out of the Great Depression. We have a priority of cost v. performance. Luxury interiors are not usually on the list as our original racing cars were stripped down for weight savings. The return of Muscle/Performance from the factory began again with the Dodge Viper in the early 90's, all the money was in the drivetrain. The interior was the cheapest stuff possible and the car was dangerous. The seatbelts were attacked to the doors and the roll-bar was not crash rated. There was a warning to drive responsibly.