The impact of Bondurant Driving School switching from GM to Mopar and replacing Corvette C7 Stingray with Dodge SRT Viper

Typically, people can be divided in two groups: one group claiming the proverbial glass is half empty and the second group, claiming the glass is at least half full.  Although one can never go wrong with a glass being half empty, the latter school prevails, with Corvette owners firmly fitting in that second group.  Thus, whatever happens to the +General Motors Corvette is typically interpreted as a good thing.

Among the things that readily come to mind are events like AFM finding its way in to the car that made its fame as the quintessential american V8, half ass aero aides, extra weight, missing Nurburgring lap times and countless other tell tales that should set off a warning sign to true car enthusiasts but somehow get lost among the apologetic masses subscribing to the brainwashing teachings of the latest Corvette prophet, none other than +Tadge Juechter .

Ironically enough, as Corvette enthusiasts continue to apologize and excuse the huge cluster fuck called Corvette C7, the tell tale signs continue to appear on a daily basis.

So... here is the newest sign of that proverbial glass being not just half way empty but actually getting very close to being completely empty:  Bondurant Driving School replacing its stable of GM cars, with the offerings from a competitor, Chrysler specifically.

Why would this be happening?  For many years, and specifically since the sixth generation of Corvette was released, Bob and Pat Bondurant made a point of advertising GM products as their cars of choice and specifically, Corvette as their weapon of choice allowing waxers to at least get an idea what their car can do.  In fact, during the C6 days, buyers of the previous flagship, Corvette C6 ZR1 received a complimentary course at Bondurant Driving School to experience their cars potential more than they would otherwise.

However, barely two years into production of C7,  Corvette is no more at that driving school, with Ron Fellows Spring Mountain remaining the only facility accommodating Corvettes, at least for now, LOL.

So what happened that motivated Bob and Pat to part their ways with GM altogether?  The answer is rather simple: absolute lack of support GM offered to that school regarding numerous problems with the Corvettes this school used .  Although not widely advertised, the problem ranged from routine cases of overheating for both engine and transmission and continuous mechanical breakdowns.

Unfortunately, the unresolved problems led to the complete break up with GM for Bondurant.  Unfortunately because the newest generation of Chevrolet has the signs of major improvement over the previous generation and most likely would be a great car for a driving school.

However, since Chrysler offered considerably better support for their cars, specifically their SRT line up, this is where new cars will be coming from beginning January 1, 2016,

The Chrysler line up will include Dodge Challenger, Charger and Dodge Viper, all the way to the newest Viper ACR for the drivers who manage to acquire the highest level of driving skills at that school.  Once again and ironically, the new Chevrolet Camaro at least appears to be a better driver's car than the Challenger but due to the problems with Corvette C7, there is no way to find out, at least at Bondurant Driving School.

So is the glass half way empty in this case or half way full?  How could the glass be half way full?

In order for the glass to be half way full, either all Corvette C7 buyers would have to possess a superhuman set of driving skills OR... both C7 Stingray and C7 Z06 were such well sorted out cars that no driving training would be required for anyone-in a nutshell, nobody needs Jim Mero to complete the Nurburgring course in a record time... Of course, considering the lousy laptime Mero recorded there last, there may also be a possibility that in order to equalize the driving part of the new flagship's track equation, the car's abilities were reduced overall, simply to make the waxer crowd feel better?  Hmmm...

The bottom line?  The glass is very close to being empty: Bondurant did not just dump the Corvette due to mechanical issues and lousy factory support, the car is simply unsuitable for allowing drivers to discover their full potential, at the higher level and overall and the supercharged, overweight and overheating flagship simply and plainly is unsuitable for track duty for the maximum skill level group of drivers.  The void the last real Z06 left simply cannot be filled at this time.

However, the naturally aspirated Dodge Viper can and is the car capable of sustain the track duty and in its track ready ACR variant, will allow for real drivers to advance far beyond where the current Corvette would stop.

Considering that the GM itself already understands the failure of Z06 and no longer advertises this overpriced piece of junk as the most track capable Corvette ever cannot be made any more clearer than with formerly GM  only driving school dumping their current stock, strictly due to the C7 track capability failure.