Cross-country in a Corvette Stingray: Day Three

Day two of our cross-country Corvette trek ended in North Platte, Neb., where we encountered a couple of C2 Sting Rays in the parking lot of our Holiday Inn. We shot some photos and hit the sack around 1 a.m.

Day three would be the second-longest of the trip at around 14 hours. Not a short drive, but totally manageable.

We'd heard that Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter has said that the Stingray is capable of 40 mpg on the freeway. So, that morning -- over a particularly flat stretch of highway in Nebraska -- we slipped behind a semi and made careful use of our right foot to average 40.5 mpg over just more than 26 miles at 70 mph. Before we stopped feather-footing it, the average fuel mileage was still rising. Frankly, that's astounding.

Rory Carroll
Here we have an indicated 40.5 mpg over 26.3 miles at an average of 70 mph.

We crossed through more miles of farmland before crossing the Mississippi River. We made a slight detour to shoot a couple of photos in Chicago and noticed a massive thunderstorm rolling its way across Lake Michigan. As we passed into the Great Lakes State, the storm hit us full-force. Switching the Stingray into weather mode damped the throttle response, which was nice, given the amount of water on the road. Even on its wide Michelins, the Corvette was undaunted by the rain. The same can't be said for its driver who had to slow down when the shear volume of rain limited visibility.

Rory Carroll for Autoweek
A brief stop in Chicago.

It was during the storm that we encountered the first signs of a bug in our pre-production Corvette. During the storm, the radio, Bluetooth and satellite radio functions started working only intermittently. However, over the next couple of days it cleared up and the system started operating normally. We've made Chevy aware of the problem, and their engineers are chomping at the bit to get a look at our car.

We out-distanced the storm and crossed Michigan to arrive in Detroit at around 4:30 a.m. Early the next morning, we'd head up to Charlevoix, Mich.

You can follow along with the rest of our journey on Twitter, Instagram and Vine under the hashtag #xccorvette.

Rory Carroll for Autoweek
Somewhere in Iowa, a Stingray catches it's breath.

By Rory Carroll