The C8 is the ideal machine for carefree motoring in the fast lane--as we are doing here on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Climbing into the C8 Corvette may be a bit of a squeeze for a six-footer, as this baby has been pared down to the absolute minimum size in the interest of absolute maximum performance. But, we felt right at home in the cockpit. Once behind the wheel, the controls fall readily to hand (and feet) and you really get the feeling of wearing this car rather than being entombed in a crypt of metal, plastic and glass. As with any roadster, visibility is superb.

Ergonomics, such as they are, may be surpassed by a stock factory Corvette, but this is to be expected in a stripped-for-action street stormer. Also on a negative note, is the way the C8 gets jostled from its dead-on tracking during strong crosswinds and when being passed by speeding semis. But with all that power on tap, we suspect it will be the C8 pilot who will be doing the passing. All it takes is that special kind of courage to keep your mettle to the pedal no matter how white your knuckles get.

During the C8's brief stay with us (we had to return it because Car and Driver was clamoring for a chance to do their own test, and they were none too pleased that Dragracingonline.com had beaten them to the punch), we still were able to put this excitement machine through our full road test battery. Quarter-mile performance at Raceway Park's famed dragstrip in Old Bridge, NJ varied depending on whether we had our morning coffee. Our best times were in the high 10s, although we did manage to pull off a 10.13 after three cups of double-shot espressos.

The price of social irresponsibility. We received a summons for driving 135 MPH in a 25 MPH zone. We don't advocate this sort of bad behavior for Dragracingonline.com readers.

Street racing was a real delight. As we have already said, there is no hiding the true nature of the C8 Corvette. You can't just walk over to the kid with a juiced up Mustang and expect him to run you anymore than you'd expect him to run Larry Dixon in his Top Fueler. Still, we did manage to find a few naive souls who thought they had quick cars. Needless to say, we made short work of them and easily showed them the C8's weight-saving taillight decals. Stock Corvettes were a joke, and we gave one owner of a heavily modified roadster the surprise of his life. He swore we had nitrous under the hood. Little did he realize that the C8 doesn't come with a hood--another weight-saving feature.

As far as top end goes, the lack of a speedometer (or any other instruments, for that matter) made our ultimate speed a moot point. Suffice it to say that Lingenfelter Performance Engineering declined a shootout with the C8 at the TRC high speed test track in Ohio.

'Nuff said!

Cliff Notes [1-7-05] There are 8 million stories at the Mopar Nationals. This could be one of them.