Ehhhhh, as a totally unbiased kinda guy (I used to drive a '93 Corvette, but I haven't been able to warm up to the C5's or C6's), I think he's just as guilty of missing the point, as he's accusing Porsche of being guilty. I'll agree with him, there was something basic and involving and palpable about my 993 that isn't present in my 997....but....the reason I dislike C5's and C6's so much, is that they suffer from the same exact disease, ONLY MORE SO. When he preaches value, he's just talking numbers, he's being one-dimensional. Real-life, multi-dimensional, the "value" rich Corvette has ZERO soul. The steering is as numb as can be, the engine sound is abysmal, the road-feel is remote, and the styling is awkward and cartoonish. There's nothing classic, iconic, involving, artistic, about it. It's just a soul-less car riding the coattails of a WELL DESERVED glorious past from the 50's and 60's (when the cars really DID have soul, and were genuine art, inside and out). It continues to pull a strong following riding those coattails, and by virtue of being CHEAP SPEED. And hey, that may well be a good recipe for ongoing profits, who knows...
But to me, the Porsche still has the ingredients it had when I fell in love as a kid. It still has the sharpest most involving steering on the planet. It still communicates the road in a way that I find nowhere else. And it's still a thing of absolute beauty and art, as opposed to the C6, which combines tacky batmobile stying with a big wind-tunnel-dictated butt so it doesn't get squirrely at speed. It's a clumsy looking mutation, at best.
When price is an issue, there's no doubting that the Corvette has an attraction to those who want world-class performance, but just can't step up to the FULL package that a 911 represents, or other cars that are yet pricier. It'll get you around the track just as fast, and.....that's about all you can say. The rest of the car suffers from Chevy's addiction to appealing to the NASCAR demographic.
Z06?? That would be a fun toy. I could see myself having one for a year or so, and once I had gotten tired of flogging it, it would get sold. Conversely, if I bought a Ford GT, I'd keep it for life. Same relative performance, but one is a piece of automotive art, the other is just a hard-charger in a dime-store wrapper. One's a wife you would spend the rest of your life with, the other is a cheap hooker that gets the job done I suppose.
So there's my rebuttal to Dr. Bud. I don't feel that the sports car world has been turned upside down at all. Fact is, Chevy could build a 800 h.p. Corvette for $50 friggin grand, and the only people who would want to be seen in the contraption would be the same people who drive them already, given the current state of the car's styling and dynamics and overall package. Meanwhile, Porsche continues to improve on its classic. If Chevy would have had the foresight to see the timeless and iconic spirit of the 1963-1967 Corvettes, and focused their efforts for the ensuing 40 years improving on THAT classic, then they would be on-par with Porsche, and I would probably be driving one of those suckers today, instead of the Porsche. I also really liked my '93 C4 6-speed. It worked well, and it had a clean and classy design inside and out. Today's Corvettes are less involving to drive, more numb, and horrid to look at. If that's what's turning the sports car world "upside down", well then, that also explains violent demonstrations over cartoons, and pants around the knees with boxer shorts being cool. The whole world is turning upside down.
I wish that Chevy would build a Corvette that was both superior on the track, AND something that I would actually enjoy driving and looking at. Put THAT on four wheels, and charge $50 grand for it, and I'll see you down at the Chevy dealer, and I'll even endure the sleezeball cheeseball sales-hacks I gotta work with to write up the deal.