Video - Always Hoon Responsibly

29/6/12, 0:40, 91 views (when posted)

I'll admit, being brought up on a balance of TopGear, Gran Turismo and Formula 1 hasn't really given me much love for American cars. The very competitive and aggressive-defensive American car fans on the internet that try force-feeding them to you don't help either, because they make you not want to like them. Nevertheless, the ones that stand out tend to be big V8 muscle cars. It's hard to ignore or resist that cartoon-character quality that a massive, stripy, shoutier-than-your-car Shelby GT500, Dodge Challenger SRT8 or Chevy Camaro SS has, and then you get the internationally-designed Ford GT40 and this, the Chevrolet Corvette. Be it a C5 or C6 generation, something about a Velocity Yellow-coloured Z06 does it for me, and this video of just such a car being shown a good time at Monaco's Grand Hotel Hairpin (to use its Formula 1 name) to explaining why.

Of course, while I like the childish appeal of a muscle car, some people are uptight enough that they just find them crass and vulgar, which to be fair is how I feel about most American cars, particularly the church-sized pickups and SUVs they have (after a point, a pickup's no longer big merely to suit a purpose), but I digress. The point is, the kind of people who turn their nose up at a muscle car are probably the kind of people who live in Monte Carlo, by the sea with a delicately-finessed Ferrari or Maserati, or "just" a Veyron. So I wonder what onlookers thought of this guy burning rubber like some ignorant hooligan tourist? Actually, some might just compare it to the other hooligans in AMGs and Koenigseggs...

Of course, technically, the Corvette is actually a sports car, but I wouldn't exactly buy one over a Porsche GT3 or a Nissan GT-R, whatever YouTubers vomit in defence about 'Ring times. I wouldn't mind one of these (or a blue C6 ZR1) for cocking about in though, like this guy is doing. It's like Homer Simpson: big, daft and bright f***ing yellow, and yet you just kind of love him for it. One thing should be made clear though - he didn't try drifting around the entire corner, he waited until the coast was clear and then slowed down afterwards (not that you have much choice about slowing down in those corners). In other words, he was hooning his very vocal 'Vette responsibly.

Weaving between lanes at high speed isn't cool. It's dumb. So is powersliding through traffic lights or street racing (unless you're 14, in which case it's awesome). This kind of thing is OK though, within reason, although any more than this and you'd better be on private property of some sort, ideally a track or car park. And so, with far more text than a 40-second video deserves, I leave you with three words: Always Hoon Responsibly.