Does Europe Need the Vette and XLR?(Column)

Byline: Matt Davis

Watching the two yellow-soon to be red, white and blue-C5-Rs of GM's Corvette Racing team growl around the roads near Le Mans every June is a thing not to be missed. All the German powerhouses are smoothly vacuuming around the circuit winning their classes while the Corvettes really rip it up and make a helluva racket winning theirs. Just once, stand by the pit wall as they barrel down the grandstand stretch between the Ford Chicane and Dunlop Curve and you know that the 7.0-liter ``small-block'' American V8s are a crucial ingredient to the race experience. Makes one very proud to be an American.

Then why do the 5.7-liter civilian Corvettes always seem so awkward anywhere outside of the North American open road? Not just seeing them in Europe is odd. Driving them there is even odder. Come to think of it, Corvettes look and drive a little like caged whale sharks even in U.S. cities. They are for the expansive suburbs at least, and are at their deftest on straight, wide, expansion strip-free roads with healthy sections of long sweepers. Ideally you also should be allowed access to a drag strip every 100 miles or so just to get the lead out.

That may be the only reason to bring a Corvette to Europe: to be able, every now and again, to cruise at 130 mph for miles and miles without a legal care. The only other reason could be to stand out like a parrot with a cow's head on. You get noticed in a way that doesn't necessarily pigeonhole you as a midlife crisis denial case.

But overall, the C5 is a fish out of water in the old country. Leaving them to get brought in one by one by overly moneyed dukes, execs and pop stars seems so much nobler than actually trying super hard to establish respectable volume sales numbers through dealer networks. Now GM is touting the XLR as Cadillac's big relaunch poster monkey in the EU and it ...