To be honest with you. I think no matter how close the vette comes to Ferrari or Porsche, it is still a peice of crap GM product in the end. The build quality of the car is crap, the engine technology is crap, and the suspension technology is crap, and don't get me started with the interior!
Those car companies are just in different leagues, so there is no point in trying to compare them.
...Wow, that takes a lot of guts to talk like that when you know that I'm around. I think there are more than a few members who know how I feel about the Corvette, and to be completely honest, I do have to question your reasoning here.
1) GM is Crap: I'm not going to defend everything that GM has done in the post-Golden-years era, however in the past seven years alone, GM's quality has increased ten-fold, their products are exciting and generating plenty of buzz, and it would appear as though GM is serious about bringing back the GM of yore. Certainly, GM still has a way to go in order to knock-out the Japanese guns in the quality department, but with Toyota faltering (basically a victim of their own success) in build quality, Honda showing signs of cheapness, and the Koreans generally surprising everyone, GM might not have long to go to get back where they need to be. Look no further than the Aura and Outlook for some good recent work, the Cadillac brand has been stellar for the past few years, and with the addition of the Zeta program this year, it is quite easy to see that GM is not only maintaining their dominance of the American market, but hope to expand it in segments previously left untouched by the company.
2) The Porsche/Ferrari Factor: Gripe all you want, but people are still going to put cars like the Corvette and the Viper in with the 911 and the F430 no matter what happens. What it comes down to is that for less money you can buy the two American cars that pretty much out-perform cars that cost twice as much. Around the world, cars like the Corvette and Viper have increased in popularity simply because they
aren't 911s or F430s which have almost become generic in Europe. Here in America, they are icons because they are built in America, use decisvely American technology, and sell for blue-collar American prices. Why complain? I love the idea of our "ass-backwards" Z06 beating up on the F430 and the like...
3) Corvette Technology: How many times have we had this debate on the forums here? I mean in nearly every mention of the Corvette or Viper, the same stuff gets brought up, and nearly every time people split themselves down the middle. What it comes down to is that the Corvette doesn't need to have F1-derrived V8s or transmissions, it doesn't need 47 computers to monitor the suspension/brakes/seat cushions/steering wheel height/your mom's phone number/etc. All that matters is that you stick in a high-power V8, a "shift-yourself" manual transmission, and match it up with a low-weight body and chassis to make the go-fast come a little easier.
So what if we still use pushrods. You find me a 505 BHP engine that you can buy out of the box for $15K and will probably run for 150K+ miles. Using these engines keeps the price down, the weight down, and overall increases the reliability and the ease of customization and maintenance on the engine. If people had a problem with GM running the same design for the past 53 years, they would have changed it by now. Simply put, there isn't any reason to dump the small-block, and I believe most sane people realize that. But people still complain... "Why do you only make 505 BHP with 7.0L???" Well, its the way we do it in America. Look at the Viper and you used to only get 500 BHP from an 8.2L V10. What it comes down to with the Z06 is that history has brought back the 427ci V8 in modern times, and we don't care if people don't like it. We want our BHP and torque on the cheap, and thus we shop for our Chevrolet/GM V8 designs...
As for the suspension issues, I believe that is more of a personal issue than anything. Just like pushrods, people seem to have this notion that the world gave up on it years ago, and for the most part they did. But have the leaf-springs not worked out well since 1963? They last longer than coil-overs or multi-links, reduces weight, and doesn't call for an anti-roll bar. Sure it is a bit more complex and slightly more expensive than some other setups, but given how long they will last, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Build quality issues are something that are variable with the Corvette. Sure, they don't have Porsche or Ferrari-quality materials inside the cabin (after all, that is why the Z06 costs only $70K), but they are a significant improvement over the C4 and C5 generations, and GM has been fairly active in improving it as time goes by. On the side of poor build quality when it comes to reliability, electrical issues have been something that have plagued the Corvette for decades... Same things happen at Jaguar and Aston Martin, but does that mean that you wouldn't buy an XK or V8 Vantage? Thought not...
I'm not out to put the Z06 in the same category as the Enzo or the Carrera GT, but with the extra power the Corvette ZL-1 could do some spectacular things. Given that the current Z06 pretty much matches the SLR in most performance benchmarks, the Carrera GT and other supercars aren't far-off. We'll see what GM does decide to do with the car in the near-future, but it is anyone's guess how radical the performance will be. If anything, the Z06 surpassed a lot of expectations as a cheap supercar, and I'm sure that the ZL-1 will do much the same.
I assume though, you are speaking in terms of LMP.
