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Behind the Wheel | Chevrolet Corvette Stingray: Stingray Returns With Styling à la Mode

While the Corvette’s 61-year history has included some spectacular cars, aspirations for the 2014 model are the highest yet. The Stingray badge evokes the beloved second generation. More Photos »

Imagine, if you will, that an unnamed manufacturer just released an all-new sports car. It rockets from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.8 seconds, pulls more than one lateral g on the skid pad and has a carbon-fiber hood and roof. The interior includes dual high-resolution screens, top-quality materials and the option of racing seats. The manual transmission, with 7 forward speeds, will execute rev-matched downshifts, and it’s mounted at the rear of the car for optimal weight distribution.

Other serious performance hardware include a dry-sump oiling system (which keeps the engine lubricated during neck-straining cornering maneuvers), an electronically controlled differential and magnetic ride-control suspension. All of this is concealed beneath bodywork that’s thoroughly dripping in exotic, low-slung menace.

If Porsche made such a car, it would cost $125,000. If its fenders wore Ferrari badges, it would cost $200,000. But we’re talking about a Chevy with a starting price of $51,995. And this fact blows our minds just a little bit less because the car is a Corvette. Where that particular vehicle is concerned, we’ve come to expect outrageous returns on our dollar.

The Corvette has a long and often glorious history. But that continuity, stretching back to 1953, means that every new generation of the Corvette tends to be viewed through the prism of its predecessor.

And it’s tempting to think of this seventh-generation Corvette Stingray (in ’Vette lingo, the C7) in terms of the sixth-generation Vette — it’s like a C6 with better seats, more power, better behavior at the limit. But then you start itemizing the list of aspects that are different, both quantifiable and subjective, and you realize that the C7 isn’t much like a C6 at all.

The new car’s ambitions are fundamentally loftier, a point underscored by the return of the Stingray name. (Chevrolet is surely hoping to evoke the world-beating 1963 Sting Ray rather than the 1976 model — a fixture of the “Boogie Nights” era — that last wore the badge.)

Start with the handling. “Handling” was never something the old ’Vette was overly concerned with, as long as its lap times were low enough. The car’s breakaway behavior was a particular problem, as it would let go suddenly and with great drama — the C6 Corvette is the only car I’ve ever spun on a racetrack with the stability control system engaged. If Khrushchev and Kennedy had been that twitchy, we might all still be eating canned peas in our fallout shelters while watching “Leave It to Beaver.”

The C7, though, is friendly and controllable all the way to the limit. The Z51 performance package includes an electronically controlled differential (called eLSD) that allows fine modulation of the car’s rear-end behavior, instantly adjusting from locked and stable to open and nimble, depending on the requirements at hand.

After spending some quality time sliding around the Black Lake testing area at General Motors’ proving ground in Milford, Mich., I concluded that buying a ’Vette without the Z51 package would be like getting a puppy without a leash. If you spend a little bit more for a leash, you’re going to have a lot better control of that puppy, right?

And the Z51 package is a bargain. For $2,800 you get performance gearing, a transmission and differential cooler, bigger wheels and tires, bigger brakes, a firmer suspension, the dry-sump oil system and the pièce de résistance, that magic differential.

I would also opt for the magnetic ride control system with performance traction management, which goes for $1,795. And the multimode performance exhaust costs a not-insignificant $1,195, but is worth it for the wonderful sounds, if not the five extra horsepower that it uncorks. So equipped, you have a $57,785 car that has everything you need. The Corvette Stingray is not a case where the base price is merely a teaser and the car you really want costs 50 percent more.

Wheels Blog: Talking to the 2014 Chevrolet Impala: G.M.’s Improved MyLink

General Motors MyLink’s 8-inch screen slides up out of the dash to reveal a James Bond-style smartphone storage compartment.

Talking to your car can be like trying to reason with a recalcitrant toddler. It often petulantly refuses to obey your commands or, worse, does the opposite of what you want. But in-vehicle voice recognition systems are gradually improving, as demonstrated by the new version of Chevrolet’s MyLink system.

Connected services are expected to continue to be a major selling point, and Chevrolet went to great pains to emphasize the system’s debut on the all-new, front-wheel-drive only 2014 Impala. Standard on the LT and LTZ trim packages, the revamped next generation MyLink was one of the highlights described by Phil Carlisle, product manager for the Impala, at a press briefing in New York last week.

The new system features an 8-inch touch screen that slides up out of the dash to reveal, James Bond-style, a hidden compartment behind the screen where drivers can stash a smartphone. (It can be locked down with a numeric code to put it in valet mode, preventing other drivers from accessing personal information, like your home address on the navigation system.) The touch screen is pressure sensitive, so owners can still operate its built-in navigation (now boasting 3-D graphics), phone, and radio functions while wearing gloves. Alternately, all the controls are duplicated via a traditional set of dials and buttons, as well as steering-wheel mounted controls.

MyLink also supports smartphone-based apps, but only two are included: live weather reports and streaming music from Pandora. While General Motors spokespeople would not reveal what apps might come next, G.M. is heavily promoting development software to outside companies so that new programs can be added.

General Motors The all-new 2014 Chevrolet Impala.

The highlight of the MyLink system, however, is likely to be its voice recognition system. G.M. has added more sophisticated natural-language speech recognition. It does not rely on a fixed set of commands but instead can interpret full sentences and common phrases. It means owners should not have to read the owner’s manual and memorize commands just to tell MyLink what to do.

Indeed, during an hourlong test drive, the Impala seemed comfortable with my spoken requests. “Play the radio,” elicited a response asking me to specify AM or FM or to simply choose a station. “Play 104.3 please,” I politely requested, and the system confirmed my instructions and Cream’s “Born Under a Bad Sign” came from the Bose stereo system’s speakers.

Delivering navigation instructions proved to be just as easy. Asking the car to change the destination resulted in the system asking me if I wanted to use an address or look for a nearby point of interest. I purposely chose a street name that often flummoxes New York City cabdrivers (77th Street), but MyLink wasn’t stumped – although I failed to mention the city, causing the system’s feminine voice to suggest a Long Island location. Even when it misunderstood, the system suggested backing up and asked me to start with the city name.

General Motors MyLink includes a valet mode, with a security code to protect personal information as well as the secret smartphone cubby.

To achieve this level of natural vocal agility, G.M. tweaked voice recognition software from Nuance, said Ara Eckel, a connected car specialist at G.M. Furthermore, the recognition software is built into the dash, rather than relying on remote, Internet-based servers like Apple’s Siri, so MyLink’s responses are quick and seamless.

The overall MyLink system is based on the software used in the Cadillac Cue system. As such, this represents G.M.’s effort to standardize on a single in-dash platform that could give owners a consistent look and feel across the company’s various model lines. It means volume controls and on-screen buttons will appear in the same position eventually on all the company’s vehicles, even if the colors and other design elements vary from Cadillac to Chevy to Buick.

Cruising back to the city with the sun in our eyes, the Impala began to warm up. Pressing the voice button, I demanded, “Change temperature!” But the computerized female voice responded that it didn’t understand my request. It turns out heating and air-conditioning can’t yet be controlled by voice. Thankfully, the buttons for that are still there.