1997-2002: 1997 C-5 Corvette
While the Camaro is the best value in the world, the Vette is technically MORE... so I got it and was NOT disappointed...
around 300 HP DOUBLES the Camaro's performance, and the interior overall feel of the car is a BIG step UP.
Althea the Wonder-Pooch poses with me, and then Jennifer (friend of a friend) below.

2002-2005: 2003 C-5 Corvette 50th Anniversary:

Now THIS is the car that truly was "mine". More than the Camaro or the inaugural C-5, the 50th Anniversary fit me perfectly in every way... a rare car (build ONLY in the 2003 model-year) with it's 50'th anniversary red and beige interior, THIS is the car that truly fit like a glove, and had people saying "That's Austin's Car" like Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon... that car was just unmistakably MINE... the colors just suited me perfectly... and with 350 hp at a lower gear ratio than the previous C-5, it HAULED ASS. I just sold it 2 days ago and am still kicking myself... I now have TECHNICALLY superior cars, but that C-5 was just PERFECTION... not too cushy and sloppy like my current C-6, or insane like my current Ferrari, the 50th anniversary was a PERFECT blend of comfort and speed, that could easily have been an extension of my body... if I had room for 3 cars in my garage I never would have sold it... it is probably the best-looking car I have ever owned.

With it's Magnetic Ride Control, the car rides differently than anything I have ever driven... it feels like a moderate weight on some super-stiff rubber bands... "stiffly springy". At 3,200 lb and 350 hp, it moves fast. The car is pure paradise to drive, with an engine that is so perfectly tuned that it feeds back a perfect "purrr" to let you know it is running, and has such a "tight" connection to the car that the acceleration of the car is perfectly linear with gas pedal displacement. It shifts even easier than my last Vette, and has an even more precise feel in handling and road response. Brake response is perfect as always, and the sound of the engine when under load is perfection. Steering response is like a cheap video game: perfectly direct.

The car is a dream under normal driving conditions, and in rain and snow the traction control and active handling kick in make it handle in the rain better than most cars handle on dry pavement. Just turn off the traction control, though, and you can spin the wheels, whipping the car around in a tight 180 in only twice it's own length, if you like. The C-6 feels to sloppy to do this comfortably, and the Ferrari is too expensive to do this comfortably. Again, the 50th Anniversary Corvette is probably the best all-around sports-car I ever owned, including my Ferrari at 4x the price.. the Ferrari is just more "extreme" so I had to have it, but the Vette is the better all-around easy-going, comfortable-sports car. It simply cannot be beat... at ANY price.

And with my bird: (as you can see, on different days, my clothes seem to match either my plane or my car... it's a coincidence though!)

John B Carnette shot for the Popular Science shoot:

Less power, equal fun: The color in the picture below sucks (the PROPER color is in the picture above), but this car was always there, without fail...

2004-current: 2005 Corvette C-6, as defined by GM:

...and with me:

There is only one car that could drag me out of that pure paradise of the 50th Anniversary C-5 Vette and that is the C-6.

The C-6 is NOT as precise in steering as the C-5! In that sense, the C-5 is the BETTER sports car!
BUT, the C-6 moves up to 400 HP, AND shaves 75 pounds off the weight, so it is indeed faster, and it is much smoother and quieter as well.

The car has:
XM radio (satellite-based for reception everywhere in the USA with no commercials)
GPS system (with big built-in moving map and voice-guidance to verbally TELL you where to turn to get where you are going "Right turn 500 yards and your destination is on the left")
HUD (which shows you visually where to turn to get to your destination based on input from the GPS)
run-flat tires (take all the air out and the tires can still go 200 miles on the sidewalls thanks to fiberglass inserts)
extended-operation engine (take all the coolant out and it can still run for 200 miles by alternating between running front and back 4 cylinders while the other 4 cool)

So, let's say:
there is no air in the tires.
there is no coolant in the engine.
it's night.
you are totally lost.
you are in the middle of nowhere.

No problem.

While you listen to the XM radio, driving at highway speed, following verbal guidance as the car speaks to you clearly telling you how to get to your GPS-entered destination, you watch the turns appear on the HUD to guide you to your destination. You are still having a funner, smoother, faster, safer, better-guided drive than most anyone else has when everything in their day is going perfectly.

The car still runs perfectly, guiding you every step of the way on the map, with the HUD, and with verbal instructions, while you jam to commercial-free XM with 200 HP on tap (remember, you get half the engine while the other half air-cools if you have no coolant).

That is not a car.

That is a 4-wheeled GOD.

The engine grumbles and purrs and lopes along quietly at low power, and goes into a vibrating orgasmic resonance with your body coming thru 4,000 rpm and then into a stock car-style screaming roar as the engine heads to 6,000 rpm. No matter who I let drive it (including guys used to $150,000 to $250,000 cars as a matter of routine) they just sit there with their mouth hanging open, jaw dropped, mouth agape, unable to figure out how this $57,000 "cheap" car runs circles around anything they have ever driven, even if it costs 4x more... and that is just from their first impression of the fit and finish and feel and performance of the car.. that is without even touching the XM radio, integrated GPS nav system, and get-there-100%-of-the-time aviation-style backup systems. This car is the best car on Earth. It is the best car in the world. You cannot beat it. No amount of money can beat it. The 50th Anniversary had a more precise steering response, so may have had an edge in the SPORTS-car category, and was more unique to me, and fit my PERSONALITY better, but the C-6 is simply the technically-undeniable winner of BEST CAR IN THE WORLD.

2005-present: 2001 Ferrari 360 Modena: (pronounced MOE-denuh!!)

Ok, you heard what I said about the C-6 being a bit too smooth and relaxed in steering response.. and that goes for the suspension as well. Now look at the car above. See how it looks smooth, silky, and quiet?

DON'T BELIEVE IT! IT IS LYING TO YOU! It is loud, sharp, stiff, instantly-responsive, tempermental, a slave to the maniacal whims of the engine it is tied to tighter than a Bra on Pamela Anderson, and smacks you in the ass on every open-throttled 8500-rpm F-1 paddled shift. Driving the car is like doing battle with a barrel full of monkeys on crack and you are also on crack and having the fight with the monkeys in a banana-chip factory that is run by the Three Stooges and they are also on crack. That is what driving the car is like. The first girl I showed it to thought I was having a seizure when the accelerations began. Screams of "STOP! STOP!" and "STOP SIGN! STOP SIGN!" and "WATCH OUT!" and "YYYYYYEEEEEAAAAAIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!" are also common. The car is geared so low, and the engine so powerful, and the F1 transmission so tight, that in first gear it is actually difficult to go slow... you just TOUCH the gas in first and the car LURCHES forwards hard enough to throw you back in the seat, thus lifting your foot off the gas... this results in HARD engine braking which YANKS the car back, throwing you forward in your seat and your foot flopping down on the gas pedal simply from inertia... this results in a prodigious burst of power, which of course throws you back in your seat and the cycle repeats! The result is that the car goes rroOWWRrr.rroOWWRrr.rroOWWRrr.rroOWWRrr as it lurches across the lot... it can actually get bad enough that the tires start skidding from it, leaving you lurching across the lot with the tire chirping desperately as the engine cycles and the occupants are tossed for and aft like silly crash-test dummies. Of course, there is a solution... just keep a FIRM foot, with your heel FIRMLY on the floor... do this and you can make it as smooth and pretty as you please, but like a mooth landing in an airplane, it is an acquired skill.

The steering and suspension both make the Corvette C-6 feel like a Lincoln with half-flat tires by comparison. How? Well, the engine in the Ferrari is where the back seat would be, so it is right near the CENTER of the car, thus resulting in a LESS inertia in pitch and yaw... that, coupled with fairly stiff suspension and narrow-profile tires, has the car holding every atom in the road... it actually changes PITCH as the FRONT wheels go up over a little piece of gravel in the road while the back wheels go DOWN in a tiny indentation... in any other car, you never even stopped to consider that the PITCH of the car would ever change, but it does in the Ferrari as every wheel perfectly describes every contour in the road, perfectly penciling a pitch and roll pattern through space as it tracks. The wheel is small and is easier to use than a mouse. You point: the car goes. There is no delay, limit, argument, understeer, oversteer, or any other imperfection. It perfectly tracks the road. It perfectly tracks you. There is no loss or compromise.

The engine sounds like a crotch-rocket motorcycle, with the vents for the engine inlets right behind the windshield. Hit the gas and the engine goes bbbRRAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP! as you get pushed back in the seat with about 1 G of acceleration... tap the right hand paddle-shifter (no clutch) and a little autopilot runs a hydraulic actuator that separates the clutch plates, shifts the gears up 1, and re-enages the clutch plate... all in a tiny fraction of a second. When the clutch re-engages in the higher gear, all the extra rotational speed of the engine is INSTANTLY SNAPPED into the drive-train, resulting in a WHAM as a pressure-pulse runs through the car (AND YOU!) as the tires skid, the car hops (vertically and longitudinally) and the engine wind-up begins again in the new gear... the sound is like wwhhhaahhh bbrrraaAAAAAPPP-WHAM! bbrraaAAAPPP-WHAM! bbrraaAAAPPP-WHAM! and you are going 110. After a demo, people just sort of stumble around giggling, not knowing what to say as they sort of wander around the car in a daze with a silly grin on their face, like their life had briefly turned into an insane cartoon.

So here is the current stable.. two purposeful-looking cars, but each totally different from the other, despite their similar appearance:

Note: Minutes after this picture was taken, a WHOLE HORDE of kindergardeners was let out of the school in the background and attacked the cars like a swarm of locusts... we had about 7 of them in the Vette and 3 or 4 in the Ferrari all at once.. they were climbing into the baggage compartment in the back of the Vette and squeezing 4-at-a-time into the cockpits... when cleaning out the cars later, I could distinctly see footprints and dead grass all over the baggage compartment of the Vette! They had to crawl over the seats to get back there! Once, when letting little kids play in my Cirrus, I afterwards found FOOTPRINTS ON THE CEILING!!! I AM NOT KIDDING! 4 little kids have gotten Ferrari-rides so far (with parents permission) and there will be many more of course.

How could I ever say enough good about GM and Ferrari? I COULDN'T. It can't be done. The value and wonder of ALL these cars is beyond description.

So:

Best economy: 1993 Camaro
Best all-around sports-car-if-you-can-only-have-one-car: 2003 50th Anniversary Corvette
Best all-around transportation car: 2005 C-6 Corvette
Best extreme sport-scar: 2001 Ferrari 360 Modena

And, when I don't feel like driving, I can always just walk, of course, with the proper aerodynamic guidance and comm-systems: (photo copyright John Carnette for Popular Science)

..or fly my little bird, a Cirrus SR-22... but that is a story for another day!

An important note: James Dunn, a fuel-cell expert and revolutionary force in modern technological development (one of the creators of the first laptop computer, as I recall) just emailed me pointing out the environmental hazard of driving the fuel hogs that I have now.. averaging around 16 mpg or so.

Obviously, he is 100% right.. my rationale for owning these fuel-gulpers is that I work out of my house, my commute is to walk from the bedroom to the living room, I walk to the local mall and deli and bank for lunch and movies and stuff, and as a result only drive about 1,500 miles per year. The national average that people drive is about 15,000 miles per year.. so since I only drive 1/10th as much as most, I rationalize that my fuel consumption is equivalent to an average driver getting 160 miles per gallon... running your life as e-everything and living in a city where you can walk everywhere has major advantages!

Anyway, I wanted to point out that we should NOT take fuel comsumption lightly, and these are NOT good cars to have if you put on a lot of miles. (NOTE: for long-distance trips I take the Cirrus, and there are high-altitude, fuel-leaning techniques that I describe in the "Detailed Cirrus Flight" adventure that I use to get 20 miles per gallon out of that airplane)