C7 Newbie Observations/Questions

[VINDIC8R]

Hi Folks.

It has been a while since I posted here. Lotsa life happening - fortunately part of that life has been driving my new Corvette.

My C7 saw the first real ray of sunshine on Easter weekend. Since then I have racked up just over 2000 klicks. I have observed a couple things and I am looking for feedback...

During the break-in period, the tach showed a 4500 redline. This I had read about and at 805 klicks (500 klicks US [chortle]) the redline magically jumped to 6500. No problem. However, when I took the car out of the garage this morning, the engine was cold of course (reading was 17 C for both engine and oil). The redline on the tach was back to 4500 rpm.. A few minutes later as the engine warmed up the redline moved to 5500 rpm. By the time the engine temp reached 75 C the redline had moved to 6500 rpm. Is this normal?

The other thing I noticed is when I monitor gas mileage and the state of V4 versus V8 in the DIC. In touring mode and in sport mode, the engine will revert to V4 when stress is off the engine. If it does the fuel management stuff in touring and sport modes (I haven't tried Track yet) what happens that is different in Eco mode. I see the same behaviour in Eco mode. Hit the gas and all 8 cylinders kick in and I have gone from 6L/100km to 38L/100km. Why even have an Eco mode?

Other than that, my '15 C7 is running like a top. No issues.

Thoughts?

Doug in Collingwood

 

[tyho]

38l/100km I've got to check mine. Mine is behaving similarly. I drive in eco on the highway, 4 cyl. If I do go heavier on the accelerator, I can feel the jump to 8 cyl. This happens in eco, touring or sport mode.I have a M& so I can sort of play around with the gears somewhat, 5th, 6th or 7th on the highway and the cylinder deactivation will kick in depending on the rpm's in certain gears. Not sure if this helps or answers your question. I assume this is what the car is meant to do.

 

[C7AW]

The redline on the tach was back to 4500 rpm.. A few minutes later as the engine warmed up the redline moved to 5500 rpm. By the time the engine temp reached 75 C the redline had moved to 6500 rpm. Is this normal?

I believe that's intended to remind owners not to revv up a cold engine. It's a neat feature actually.

I have an M7 and mine has never been in eco mode, so I can't answer your eco mode question. Normal driving, mostly in town, very little highway, gentle driving gives me approx 13.5L/100km.

 

[blue_bomber697]

Hi Folks.

It has been a while since I posted here. Lotsa life happening - fortunately part of that life has been driving my new Corvette.

My C7 saw the first real ray of sunshine on Easter weekend. Since then I have racked up just over 2000 klicks. I have observed a couple things and I am looking for feedback...

During the break-in period, the tach showed a 4500 redline. This I had read about and at 805 klicks (500 klicks US [chortle]) the redline magically jumped to 6500. No problem. However, when I took the car out of the garage this morning, the engine was cold of course (reading was 17 C for both engine and oil). The redline on the tach was back to 4500 rpm.. A few minutes later as the engine warmed up the redline moved to 5500 rpm. By the time the engine temp reached 75 C the redline had moved to 6500 rpm. Is this normal?

The other thing I noticed is when I monitor gas mileage and the state of V4 versus V8 in the DIC. In touring mode and in sport mode, the engine will revert to V4 when stress is off the engine. If it does the fuel management stuff in touring and sport modes (I haven't tried Track yet) what happens that is different in Eco mode. I see the same behaviour in Eco mode. Hit the gas and all 8 cylinders kick in and I have gone from 6L/100km to 38L/100km. Why even have an Eco mode?

Other than that, my '15 C7 is running like a top. No issues.

Thoughts?

Doug in Collingwood

The 4500 redline on start up is normal. It is a reminder not to push the engine hard until it warms up. If you watch the tach as your driving, it slowly creeps back to 6500rpm. I think this is an awesome feature and I've never seen it before on other vehicles.


The Eco mode is for Manual cars. I believe for the manuals, cylinder deactivation will only occur in ECO mode. While in the Automatic, it will do it in all modes. So for an Auto, I don't think there is really a difference between ECO and Touring.

 

[2015c7]

Tach & afm

On start up with a cold engine the Tach will show an amber caution band from3500 to 4500 RPM and the Red Line will start at 4500 RPM . As the engine and fluids warm up the bands will increase until back at the 6500 RPM redline limit.

On my 2015 coupe , A8 transmission, with the drive selector in "M" , manual, and using the paddle shifters the AFM ( V8 -V4 ) is inhibited and the engine stays in V8 mode. With the drive selector in "D" , drive, the AFM will switch between V8-V4-V8 in all modes including Track mode. My understanding is that in ECO mode with the A8 the switch to V4 is a bit more aggresive.

I believe with the Manual transmission the only time AFM works is in the ECO mode.

I took delivery of our 2015 C7 in October and then went to Florida for six months and now have 14000K on the car. On the drive home on I-75 the computer showed" best fuel economy in the last 62 miles" was 35.1 MPG or 6.5L / 100K ..........that was in Tour mode. I have not noticed much difference in fuel economy in Tour as compared with ECO.

 

[Rodmo]

Wow great mileage!

 

[EZERUSS]

From what I have read the system works like this

ECO- 4 cylinders at around 130hp
Tour- 4 cylinders at under 3000rpm and 8 cylinders over 3000 and all 8 below 3000 when hard on throttle
Sport- 8 cylinders
Track- 8 cylinders

 

[VINDIC8R]

Thank you everyone.

Yes, I like the incremental redline feature for cold starts. I had not come across it in any literature. Didn't know if was some software tweak for '15 or not.

Thanks also about ECO mode. Makes sense.

Cheers all and save the wave :seeya:

 

[AllFlash]

Sure am glad you guys are educating me on all this stuff now!

 

[2015c7]

From what I have read the system works like this

ECO- 4 cylinders at around 130hp
Tour- 4 cylinders at under 3000rpm and 8 cylinders over 3000 and all 8 below 3000 when hard on throttle
Sport- 8 cylinders
Track- 8 cylinders

Not quite correct........our 2015 , A8 , coupe will go into V4 in both Sport and Track modes as long as the car is in steady state driving ,not trying to accelerate.......of interest, the AFM software is programmed to only allow V4 operation for 10 mins of continuous operation before it reverts back to V8 operation for 1 minute..........

If you are interested GM back in 2014 released a lengthy document explaining how the AFM software works as well as a good explanation of the mechanical side, which cyls shut down, how it's accomplished, etc, etc. I think you can google it and it is also on the usa C7 corvette forum......hope that helps.

 

[JB08]

My newbie revelation is that the performance exhaust comes set to touring from the factory. Unless the setting is changed it will not open the butterfly valves when you go into S or Tr mode. Couldn't figure out why the exhaust sound was not as pronounces as I had seem on videos.

 

[VINDIC8R]

My newbie revelation is that the performance exhaust comes set to touring from the factory. Unless the setting is changed it will not open the butterfly valves when you go into S or Tr mode. Couldn't figure out why the exhaust sound was not as pronounces as I had seem on videos.

My driving mode reverts to Touring after shutting down when I had been in W, E or Tr. It stays in S. So I get a real 'bark' when the car starts in S mode.

 

[VINDIC8R]

Not quite correct........our 2015 , A8 , coupe will go into V4 in both Sport and Track modes as long as the car is in steady state driving ,not trying to accelerate.......of interest, the AFM software is programmed to only allow V4 operation for 10 mins of continuous operation before it reverts back to V8 operation for 1 minute..........

If you are interested GM back in 2014 released a lengthy document explaining how the AFM software works as well as a good explanation of the mechanical side, which cyls shut down, how it's accomplished, etc, etc. I think you can google it and it is also on the usa C7 corvette forum......hope that helps.

Thanks. I will hunt that down. There are so many hills in my area that I could never stay in slack mode for 10 minutes straight.

 

[blue_bomber697]

My driving mode reverts to Touring after shutting down when I had been in W, E or Tr. It stays in S. So I get a real 'bark' when the car starts in S mode.

Yeah the vehicle will only start in Touring mode or Sport mode. I wish it would just start in whichever mode it was shut off in. Track starts is what I want to hear.

 

[VINDIC8R]

Just returned from Spring Mountain. I asked the question of Rick Malone. Rick said the Eco mode only works with manual trannies. In A8s, the Eco mode is redundant and you get the same results whether in E, T, S or Tr.

I highly recommend doing Spring Mountain by the way. Top drawer all the way.

 

[myfirstvette]

My driving mode reverts to Touring after shutting down when I had been in W, E or Tr. It stays in S. So I get a real 'bark' when the car starts in S mode.

Me Too!

 

[sneakytoot]

Just returned from Spring Mountain. I asked the question of Rick Malone. Rick said the Eco mode only works with manual trannies. In A8s, the Eco mode is redundant and you get the same results whether in E, T, S or Tr.

I highly recommend doing Spring Mountain by the way. Top drawer all the way.

VINDIC8R:

Gives us a report on Spring Mountain? What car's did you drive auto/manual? What track did you use? Pictures? 4 of us going from Winnipeg in July should be a blast..........

 

[VINDIC8R]

VINDIC8R:

Gives us a report on Spring Mountain? What car's did you drive auto/manual? What track did you use? Pictures? 4 of us going from Winnipeg in July should be a blast..........

Hi Sneaky...

Spring Mountain was amazing.

The cars: all were Z51s - the majority were M7s while there were a few autos. The automatics are distinguished by an A after the car number. In my case I was driving a yellow '15 A8 marked as 102A most of the second day. There is a blend of 14s and 15s but the 14s are being swapped out as mileage piles up. I asked for the auto as did about a 3rd of the class. Bring an SD card for the PDR.

My school May 4/5 used the 1.5 mile track the whole time for track time. There is class time and track time. You go over some basics and this includes understanding ABS braking and steering - honest. Next up is the Serpentine to teach you to go wide and look for the apex and look wide again. They add a surprise as part of the exercise. I did the serpentine better with the impediment. You learn braking and downshifting.

By the afternoon of Day 1 you are on the track putting the fundamentals to work. Very well structured learning process for those like me who have never been on a race track before. To those who have, a lot will be old hat I am sure.

If you bring a spouse or partner, they have an opportunity to ride along with an instructor. Those who are willing but skiddish should select the Day 1 afternoon ride along because Day 2 is much faster.

Our group was always a lead car (Camaro) and 3 or 4 students trailing. During track runs you rotated out so each student was behind the instructor. With the C7s equipped with CBs, you get to hear the critiques by the instructor.

There is a skid pad so you can learn cornering and drifting. Damn hard to lose it when in Wet mode on the wet pad.

Day 2 is faster with more detailed instruction on cornering and the performance features of the C7. Very interesting and very informative. I got my C7 up to about 110 mph on the short straights. Man do those Michelins ever stick. Granted the track was hot.

Day 2 includes a couple of hot laps (well, sort of). You ride in your C7 as a passenger to see what the C7 can do on a course. They say they take to C7 to about 75% of its performance capability. My instructor got it up to 130 mph on the straights and about 50 mph in the corners. I won't need a laxative for a month.

The instructors are amazing - they are also very patient. They want you to have fun but they will stretch you if they think you can handle it. They will lag back if you need to be slower.

Lastly, you get to witness Launch Control with both the manual and automatic. There is a group photo but you get photographed in action on Day 2. The package of 20+ hi res pix cost $195.00. I went for it. I will try and attach a pic of me in action. It's lotsa bytes so I am not sure if it will attach.

Some logistical stuff...

You basically have to drive everywhere unless you are truly up for walking/jogging. If you are on the 1.5 mile track, you are taught at the Cadillac building which is a fair haul from the condos and clubhouse.

The condos are just that - condos. There is no maid service and in fact there are no phones. So, if you crave pizza, be sure to bring your cell phone (read as: sign up for a roaming package). They are well appointed condos. We stayed in the A condos. Excellent. They have a track side view.

There is an $8000 USD deductible than can be bought down to $2000 USD for $200 USD. I paid it because I had no idea what to expect. No one took a C7 off the track but my group did have a couple of spinouts. Leave the track and you will put a C7 through a debris field of small rocks that will cause real damage to the underside.

You get bussed to lunch and back from the clubhouse. The negative again for me was the long distance between buildings. If you are on the longer track you may be better able to handle the distance since the long track is closer to everything.

I highly recommend the school. You have more respect for the C7 and you drive better afterward - honest.

Last but not least - obey the speed limits on Highway 160. The troopers ARE waiting for you.

My wife and I ate at the Japanese steakhouse in town - excellent. We chose the teppanyaki service (hibachi they called it).

 

[VINDIC8R]

Trying to attach a Spring Mountain...

 

[sneakytoot]

VINDIC8R:

Great write up THANKS. Now I can hardly wait for our time to come........