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"The R&amp;amp;amp;T staff drives and performance tests hundreds of new cars every year. Because we don&amp;#039;t have time to give each one the full review treatment, we share select logbook notes here, in a quick, easily-digested format. Unless noted otherwise, each test car is in the office for two weeks and is driven by every member of the editorial staff. Each staffer spends at least one day, but often more, in each car. Josh Condon, Senior Editor This car\u2014the chassis, the V8, the overall capability\u2014is truly glorious. The slow, wrong-thinking automatic transmission is not. But hey, I&amp;#039;m going to buy the manual, you&amp;#039;re going to buy the manual, so this is more like a reminder of why the manual is the only option for this car. And really, tooling around snowy Ann Arbor back roads, the C7 is loads of fun. The V8 takes a minute to deliver at low revs, and then WHOOOMP\u2014the back flies out, is caught fairly easily, and the whole thing scrabbles and kicks up snow while the engine howls like a pissed-off monster. Massive pull, great balance, and fun to drive pretty much everywhere, in any situation. Somebody should give this car an award or something. PLUS: Great, accessible toggle switch lets you perfectly adjust the placement of the heads-up display. R&amp;amp;amp;T&amp;#039;s much-deserving Performance Car of the Year\u2014what more can you say? MINUS: Are we too good for door handles now? Buttons are the better solution? No.  READ MORE: Drive Notes: 2014 Jaguar F-Type S Roadster  Alex Kierstein, Web Editor So help me, I actually like this thing. It&amp;#039;s either the brilliance of the C7 or some minor stroke I never knew I had that what I consider to be the antithesis of all that is right with Corvette-dom\u2014the automatic-equipped convertible, retirement sled of warmer climes\u2014was a joy from behind the wheel. Sure, I&amp;#039;d rather row my own, but the seven-speed manual isn&amp;#039;t exactly an S2000 &amp;#039;box, and the automatic is pretty good. I think lessons learned from calibrating the Cadillac automatics to be fun-enabling devices of surprising competence are well-applied here. Also, it&amp;#039;s a cheap parlor trick, but the volcanic surge of exhaust noise at startup appeals completely to my inner five-year-old. Snugged inside, the spaceship shape of the protruding hood and fenders and the driver-oriented cockpit put you in the mood to drive, and hard. Thankfully in the sub-20-degree weather, the winter tires were up to the task of keeping things pointed the right way. I even put the top down for a spell, until my eyeballs froze. If I had this much fun in a slush-covered frozen urban wasteland, I can only imagine how it would feel to head somewhere windy in the summer in one of these things. In that daydream, I can almost forget I&amp;#039;m not shifting myself. PLUS: Plainly, self-evidently fun. Impossible not to smile. A very good automatic doesn&amp;#039;t spoil it. MINUS: The door-pop buttons never cease to annoy me. They work fine, but \u2026 they&amp;#039;re so unnecessary. READ MORE: Drive Notes: 2014 Infiniti Q60S  Sam Smith, Executive Editor Writing this just after getting to work. It is cold as unholy frap outside, so my brain isn&amp;#039;t working. Scattershot thoughts as follows: Engine cranks for a loooong time in this weather before lighting off. Chassis rigidity is crazy impressive; no scuttle shake, no squeaks or rattles, even in this weather. Couldn&amp;#039;t say that about the C5 or C6. Still love these seats. Three-quarter rear visibility with the top up is terrible, but it&amp;#039;s a Corvette convertible, so that&amp;#039;s expected. Optional performance exhaust: Engine sounds great. Engine sounds great. Engine sounds great. I don&amp;#039;t know what else to type. MY BRAIN IS SO COLD RIGHT NOW. Oh, right: I drove it here with the top down. It&amp;#039;s \u201311 Fahrenheit. I love C7s. You gotta do what you gotta do.  MINUS: In manual mode, the six-speed automatic is still a bit clunky and head-tossy around town. This nerd wants an analog tach. PLUS: It&amp;#039;s a C7, so it feels like, well, a real car\u2014refined, comfortable, an interior you don&amp;#039;t make excuses for. New thing for a Corvette, and pretty awesome. Even at an as-tested $67,000, this is a bargain. READ MORE: Drive Notes: 2014 Acura TL SH-AWD 6MT  Robin Warner, Road Test Editor When I was a traction-control calibration engineer at TRW Automotive, I got the lucky job of making a Mustang drivable in the snow\u2014not easy. It required a heavy hand when it came to torque reduction. Horsepower and snow don&amp;#039;t mix. But you know which Mustang needed the least help? The 2011 550-hp GT500, of course, because it ran winter tires. Sports cars on winter tires are great machines! They look the part, make fun growly sounds, and dance in the snow with the right tire. When this convertible arrived at our doors, I laughed out loud, as there was plenty of snow on the ground to relive my glorious sports-car-in-the-snow days. With winter tires, the Corvette delivers. Plenty of Corvette-ness comes from every pore, but winter tires keep life predictable. So the near-magic handling of the C7 comes through on any surface. Drift around your favorite back road, rally style, then cruise the strip at 2 mph\u2014the ice won&amp;#039;t stop you from stopping. I like sports cars. When they become four-seasons capable, it can&amp;#039;t be helped but to fall in love. PLUS: Still a Corvette. There are separate HVAC controls on the right side of the passenger seat. Nice touch. MINUS: Yeah, ground clearance. Quite low, actually. READ MORE: Drive Notes: 2014 Audi S4  David Gluckman, Associate Editor I have this weird need to put a convertible&amp;#039;s top down no matter what the weather. In fact, the colder it is, the more top-down I want. Okay, maybe it&amp;#039;s not that weird, but I can&amp;#039;t explain my need to torture myself. Instead, I acted on it. The temp spiked up to a relatively balmy 27 degrees last night, there was no snow in the forecast or on the convertible top, and I had a haircut to go to. I made it the few miles there with the windows down, a hat on, and no gloves. The nice thing about a convertible post-haircut is it gets rid of the trimmings. People look at you as if you&amp;#039;re crazy when you drive a convertible in the winter, especially when that convertible is the worth-looking-at new Corvette. Driving it in traffic like I was, and on snowy roads with winter tires, I didn&amp;#039;t even really mind that it had an automatic, but it did make it a little harder to coax the switchable exhaust to produce noise as often as I wanted. But at least I had the top down to hear the loud stuff. PLUS: There&amp;#039;s an upside to an automatic-transmission Vette in winter: remote start. I set it to preheat, came out to a palpably hot rear window (small area, lots of wires), and had no worries about stowing the glass and the rest of the top under the tonneau. The winter tires GM fit sure helped, too. MINUS: I didn&amp;#039;t realize the fob had a button to put the top down remotely until I put the keys back. That was a missed opportunity in torture-enabling laziness. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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