I have nothing against the new Corvette. Cool engineering, great bang-for-the-buck, and it finally fulfills the decades-old mid-engine show car promise. I'd like to try one.
I love older Vettes, and have owned one C1 two C2 big blocks and two C3 big blocks.
I'm very glad that GM isn't still back in the Roger Smith era. The Corvette was nearly killed several times during its life, and I'm very happy to see GM now put such serious resources behind making a world-class sports car. Competition raises the bar for everyone, and life is good, right?
Imagine if we were having this discussion in 1966, about the Cobra 427 versus a Corvette 427. It could have been argued that who in their right mind would buy a Cobra with no top, side windows, heater, radio, etc, when you could get a fully loaded Corvette for less money?
Yes, the new GT500 vs Corvette scenario/argument is different, but it's still Ford vs Chevy, and thus lifelong biases (like rooting for sports teams) are ingrained. But that doesn't mean that one sucks and thus the other is polar-opposite great. They are both very cool cars, very quick (with more power still to come) and we're lucky to have them.
Let's check back on this argument in ten years when most of the new cars will be electric or hybrid. Silent cars, no matter how quick, are of zero interest to me. I drove my buddy's new $100,000 Tesla the other day and it was not exciting. Torquey and quick, yes, but a big part of the fun of acceleration to me is the engine/exhaust sound. And burning rubber. The Tesla is silent as a coffin, and has been 100% high-tech'ed out of spinning a tire. Boring.
I'm enjoying these days as the best the performance car industry has ever seen, or will ever see again. Fossil fuel rules!