Automatic or stick, the Corvette is fast traffic. It's quick at the starting gate, beautifully balanced, surprisingly comfortable, and built to a far higher standard than any Corvette in history. While we prefer the 6-speed, we have to admit that the automatic rams its shifts home with authority, and there's enough muscle in the LS1 V8 to cover the small performance penalties associated with auto-shifters.

Unlike most ragtops, the Corvette convertible weighs the same as the coupe, which means its acceleration performance is undiluted: 0-to-60 mph in less than 5 seconds with the 6-speed manual transmission, about 0.4 seconds slower with the automatic. The only performance penalty that goes with the convertible version is top speed. The ragtop doesn't share the coupe's aerodynamic efficiency, so it tops out at a mere 162 mph versus 175 mph for the coupe. Of course, when the top is down there's more drag and a correspondingly lower top speed. Still, that's speed that'll get you to the drive-in in a pretty big hurry -- and the local slammer even faster.

From a handling and acceleration standpoint, it's tough to perceive any performance distinctions between coupe and convertible. Corvette's chief engineer said the structural design for the new Vette began with the convertible, and as a consequence no shoring-up measures were required for the soft-top chassis. You hear the same song from almost every purveyor of convertibles, but in this application it seems to be true. If there's any distinction to be made between the agility and stability of the Corvette coupe and the new convertible, it would be all but impossible to discern on public roads.

Significantly, we haven't seen a hint of cowl shake, the time-honored malady of convertibles wherein the dashboard and exterior oscillate at differing rates. Ride quality is decidedly stiff. You don't get a sports car's ability to change directions without snubbing body roll and limiting up and down suspension motions, and when you do those things you're obliged to accept some tradeoff in comfort. Potholes in and around Washington, D.C., were easily identifiable in the Corvette. Yet they were not uncomfortably harsh. We heard them and felt them, but they weren't jarring and did not unduly upset the handling balance.

Even with the basic suspension package, responses are surgically precise, if you can imagine a surgical instrument with 350 horsepower and great gobs of torque. The Corvette offered sharp reflexes while driving down rural roads in Maryland. It provides a superb blend of muscle and finesse, with a much higher tolerance for mistakes of the enthusiastic variety, complemented by brakes that are nothing short of raceworthy. Chevrolet's second-generation Active Handling is standard equipment in 2001; it's a magical system that gets you out of slides before trouble strikes, by applying braking to the individual corners as needed. It utilizes on-board sensors to measure yaw, lateral acceleration and steering wheel position, then brings into play the capabilities of Corvette's standard ABS brake and traction control systems to smoothly assist the driver in maintaining vehicle control in oversteer or understeer situations. Some such systems have been getting criticism lately, for their hair-trigger qualities, their eagerness to aggressively assist before the driver wants or often needs such assistance. Corvette engineers say that this 2001 system has been carefully calibrated to limit such intrusiveness. Aside from an "Active Handling" message on the instrument panel, drivers might not even realize they've been assisted.

Much to our relief, and even surprise, we found this to be true on the race track. We spent two days in the Z06 at the Rupert Bragg-Smith Advanced Driving School, which is Chevrolet's official school for high-performance driving. It's located at a wonderful 2.2-mile rhythmic driver's circuit Bragg-Smith designed about an hour from Las Vegas. In a nutshell, we found the Z06 to be rock-steady, precise, consistent, and, of course, fast. An absolute joy to drive. The brakes didn't fade. The transmission and shift linkage was solid, tight, shifting perfectly each time, whether up or down. Bragg-Smith reports that each three-day school requires some 4000 shifts of the cars (he uses C5 Coupes and Camaro SSs as well), 12,000 to 15,000 miles in a year, and there's never been a gearbox problem. Never been any problem, in fact; he says he only changes the oil and brake pads (and goes through piles and piles of tires), and that's it.

The car didn't understeer unless the driver forced it to, by his own error. It only oversteered in response to deliberately crude throttle application, and then the Active Handling brought it back into line by applying the brakes to the outside front wheel. There was one spot on the track where the suspension gave a mighty twitch, full on the throttle in third gear exiting a turn, but it stopped at that one twitch. It's a new circuit, and still smooth; a bumpy circuit might have brought different results. But it must be kept in mind that this is a road car, not a racing car. Its performance for a road car was beyond impressive. And wildly enjoyable.