Speed testing a Corvette C5

“The chugga-chugga low-rev soundtrack is replaced by a serrated crackle from the small-block eight that makes you dive for the redline at every opportunity. Dig into three-figure speeds and the ’Vette rockets along.”

While that was impressive, what was less impressive was poor ride quality and an interior that led Whitworth to suggest: “If God is in the details, then the Corvette is Satan in a shiny red suit,”

Working with photographer Tim Wren, Whitworth starts a high-speed run on the A48 between markers 252 and 253. Whitworth guns the Corvette up to 5000rpm in top gear while Wren gets snapping and organising. This is what happened next.

“When it hits an indicated 170mph, he [Wren] readies his stopwatch. The noise is deafening. The engine, barking like a rabid Cerberus, almost drowns out the tyre roar from the Goodyear Eagle F1s, but it’s the wind shrieking around the fabric roof that has us wincing.

“The digital head-up display reads 190mph before I yell at Wren to start the clock. My senses are overloaded.

“The mechanical cacophony, the heat seeping into the footwell, the odour of hot metal, the coppery taste of fear in my mouth – all vie for my attention as I concentrate on keeping the bucking and bellowing Corvette in a straight line.

“Moments later, Wren scrawls ‘12.4sec’ in my notebook. As I come off the power and slow the pinking Corvette down to an easy 100mph, Wren punches the figures into a calculator: 180mph, bang on. Faster than advertised.”