hemi culture
46
ILLUSTRATIONBYBARRYBRUNER
•
OCTOBER2015
•
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
road trip
CaliforniaCruising
Flyingdown thePacific
Coast ina
2015Corvette
StingrayCoupeZ51
BYJUSTINGOLDMAN
PRICE$64,000
SANFRANCISCO
Anyonewho’s seen
Bullitt knows that
SF—with thehills,
the traffic and the
techies emailing
while crossing the
street—is ahairy
place todrive. But
theCorvette’s five
drivemodeshelped
us tackleeverything
from the foggy
GoldenGateBridge
(weathermode)
to curvyLombard
Street (track
mode—kidding!).
LOSOLIVOS
On
aquiet stretchof
highway just north
of SantaBarbara
wine country,we
cut the ’vette’s
450horses loose;
let’s just say that
the car getsup
to140waaaaay
faster thanwe
wereprepared for.
Needing something
to calmour nerves,
we stoppedatAlta
MariaVineyards,
inLosOlivos, for a
glassof pinot noir.
GAVIOTAPASS
TheStingray’s
seven-speed
manual
transmissionwill
warmanydriving
purist’sheart.We
fired through the
short throws as
we came through
GaviotaPass,
zipping inandout
of traffic likeDustin
Hoffmanonhisway
tobreakupElaine
Robinson’swedding
inThe Graduate.
VENTURA
On the
windingPCH, south
ofVentura,with the
shimmeringPacific
onour right,we
took the topdown
to feel the sun
onour faces. The
carbon-fiber T-top
cameoffwith the
flipof just three
latches—though it
was good tohavea
friend tohelp stow
it in the trunk.
MALIBU
Weput the
car’s track chops
to the test on the
winding canyon
roadsofMalibu.
Theonly thing
more insane than
these curveswas
how tightly the
Z51performance
suspensionpackage
kept us glued to
them. Thehair on
our necks stoodup,
butwenever came
close to fireballing
into thebottomof
the canyon.
VENICE
Itwasour
last chance to show
off, sowe rolled
past thegallery-
andbar-hopping
crowdsonAbbot
KinneyBoulevard.
Wegave theheads
something tobob
to, firingup the
Bosepremium
audio system to
bump2Pac’s “To
Live&Die inL.A.”
