2008 Chevrolet Corvette

These guys aren't letting up. The Corvette team is relentlessly chipping away at every reasonable argument a rational buyer can articulate for choosing some big-name, bucks-up, blue-blooded bahn-stormer over the crossed-flag cruise missile that Zora launched. This C6-1/2-generation Vette boasts more refinements and detail enhancements than one expects from a mid-cycle refresh of a supercar, but are they enough to steer the Porsche/BMW/Benz/Jag buyers into a Chevy store? To find out, we spirited a manual coupe and an automatic convertible away from the General's Milford Proving Ground for a romp across rural southeast Michigan.

One of the biggest and best-deserved beefs brought by the stringback-gloved set against the Vette is that its interior was too rent-a-Chevy, its pleasing design marred by downscale grains, textures, and gaps. All Corvettes get metal sill plates and classier looking new center-console trim, in either a carbon-fiber or metal-screen type finish, with brightwork around the shifter and cupholder. But to lure the Eurosnobs, there's a new Custom Leather Wrapped Interior package. Practically every surface you see or touch is swathed in supple leather, handstitched by the nice folks at Draexlmaier-the same ones treating the hides in Maybach, Mercedes, and up-level Cadillac cockpits. The seat inserts are perforated leather in either a light "Linen" or darker "Sienna" color. Pricing hasn't been announced, but it's expected to run $4,000-5,000, given the list of gear it includes. It'll be worth paying for, though, and will still leave plenty of savings when compared with any Euro-rocket that can touch the Corvette's performance.

Speaking of which, wow. The base Corvette automatic can now run with the C5 Z06, sprinting from 0-to-60 mph in 4.3 seconds enroute to a claimed top speed of 190 mph. Impatient automatic drivers can spring for a new, shorter 2.73:1 axle ratio for even sprightlier passing (it's standard on Z51 automatics). Here again, it's not just the overall performance (of about 10 percent), but the finesse with which it achieves it that impresses. The new intake manifold, resonator, and acoustic helmet manage to quell the high-order frequencies that applied an unwelcome layer of slightly agricultural-grade noise over the trademark V-8 burble and growl. Want even more of the same? Ante up for option code NPP ($1,200). This two-mode exhaust, like the one on the Z06, adds six horsepower and four pound-feet. When it opens up at around 3500 rpm, backpressure is reduced 80 percent, and you get what sounds and feels like a VTEC transition with a nicely sharpened snarl (it stays open briefly on overrun, too, providing some lovely crackles and pops). It's every bit as enticing as any boxer or inline-six.

Upshifts ordered via the steering-wheel paddles are 30 percent quicker, downshifts 50-75 percent quicker. The paddles work with the shifter in the S position only, which, sad to say, doesn't invoke a performance-algorithm shift schedule when you're not shifting manually (stay tuned, this may yet come to pass). The Tremec manual box also has been thoroughly made over. The ends of the gear teeth are sharpened to reduce the likelihood of hanging up when shifting between gears. The synchronizer packs are slightly more compact, allowing the gears to be fattened for greater torque capacity. But what you'll notice most from the driver's seat is that the shifter feels lighter and way more precise. The old "rock crusher" moniker no longer applies. The shifter knob doesn't feel as handy as those of the best Porsches and BMWs (it still shreds one's palm during quick shifts toward the top of the pattern), but what it's connected to feels damned close.

"Lighter and more precise" are apt descriptions of the steering as well, thanks primarily to tighter machining tolerances for the rack-and-pinion gears and a stiffer intermediate shaft. With less slop in the system there's less filtering of the data the tires are picking up at the road surface. The cornering effort perceived through the steering wheel builds nicely as you lean the car harder into a bend. It's no Porsche helm for road feel (name a front-engine car that can touch that bogey), but it's closing in on BMW and better than Mercedes.

Boxster, Cayman, and Z4 intenders should carefully examine a new Corvette-and the increasingly shaky foundations of their biases against it.