Car reviews

The Corvette is like a rare breed programme in the UK: every few years there’s a flurry of interest and excitement as the car makes some headlines, then it fades to a drip, drip of sales to the keenest enthusiasts. It seems pigs will fly before America’s iconic sports car makes more than passing impression on UK car buyers, which is a shame as it offers a lot of car for the money. It costs much the same as a BMW M3, but the Corvette has real supercar pace and presence. The latest C6 model that arrived in 2004 also handles as well as most of its European opposition and offers greater practicality, although left-hand drive only hampers it in the UK. The Z06 landed at the start of 2006 and ups the ante further with a 7.0-litre V8 engine pumping out 505bhp to put the Corvette right up there with the very quickest cars on the planet.