Corvette Stingray Coupe

Make
Chevrolet
Segment
Coupe

Sometimes performance cars are too cheap for their own good. For instance, a base Chevy Corvette C8 costs $64,200, is capable of launching to 60 mph in about 3 seconds, and has a top speed of something like 194 mph before you add any performance packages.

We're no stranger to reports of Corvettes in high-speed collisions but this is getting out of hand after the latest incident. It seems that a driver in New Hampshire hasn't gotten the memo. The 30-year-old male was clocked doing 161 mph on I-93 (where the speed limit was 70 mph) and subsequently arrested.

The New Hampshire State Police report that on the last day of July, Trooper Shawn Slaney caught the orange Corvette speeding down the interstate. He could not pursue it because it was going too fast. After putting out a BOLO alert, the perpetrator was caught within minutes by members of the nearby Woodstock Police Department, when it was in the middle of a street race between sports cars "driving erratically at high rates of speed." They arrested him when he got stuck in traffic off of an exit ramp after the trooper caught up.

The driver, identified as Alejandro Zapata-Rebello, was booked on two charges of reckless driving and one charge of disobeying an officer. He was released on a summons to appear in court later in September.

As for the 'Vette's fate? Unclear. But it's a testament to the car's speed and perhaps why more police departments need to adopt performance cars into their highway fleets. Repossessed cars are a common way to do this, as there have been Corvettes converted for police service before. And the Czech Republic just transformed a Ferrari 458 Italia to join the growing list of police departments in becoming cooler.

If more taxpayer funds were relegated to highway patrol cars of a faster variety, there is no doubt that the police would be better trained in handling vehicles at high speeds than the culprits they're chasing. And we wouldn't have to mention the C8 Corvette involved in something of bad faith every time it makes news headlines.

So to fast drivers everywhere, we plead: don't speed.