The E-Ray has the distinction of being not only the most vigorously accelerating ’Vette in history; it is also, weirdly, the most refined, versatile, usable and commodious. Our test car—in the 3LZ trim package ($123,705, as tested)—was a leather-wrapped luxury launch, buoyed on the adaptive suspension and supple, multi-mode magnetic dampers. Ahoy, sailor.

To be clear, the E-Ray is not a plug-in hybrid. The car typically recuperates enough energy through braking and coasting to stoke its small (1.1 kWh usable capacity) lithium-ion battery pack. If it needs more, it can draw energy from the fossil-fuel reactor behind the seats: a naturally aspirated pushrod V8, producing 495 hp at 6,450 rpm. I’ll give you a moment to stand and salute.

Up front, operating independently but cooperatively, is a large, easily enraged electric motor sluicing power and torque (160 hp/125 lb ft.) between the front wheels, bringing the system’s maximum combined output to 655 hp.

That, plus all the traction on the planet Vulcan, makes it surreally easy for the E-Ray to step off the line. The official 0-60 mph acceleration is 2.5 seconds ahead of a quarter-mile elapsed time of 10.5 seconds at 129 mph. The first number can be credited to the e-motor’s torque, grip and detonator-like response. But that quarter-mile time is all naturally aspirated V8.

Beyond the numbers is the E-Ray’s giddy spontaneity, the way it can effortlessly fast-forward its game play until one politely begs for mercy. The E-Ray answers the typical hammer-drop acceleration test at highway speeds with a prodigious dam burst of eye-widening, jaw-clenching omigod—enough power to “effortlessly complete passing maneuvers,” the press release deadpans. Yeah. The damn thing is a velvet bullwhip.

It will shrink a country road to nothing. In my braver moments I might have ticked up the paddle shifter three times before having to shut it down, calling on the enormous carbon-ceramic brakes (15.7/15.4 inches, f/r), which come as standard equipment. Nice package, by the way.

The E-Ray is fitted with mighty meats: a set of staggered 275/30/ZR20s in front and 345/25/ZR21s in the rear—for the metric-impaired, the rear tire is 13.4 inches wide. But the standard-issue magnetic dampers were not putting up with any nonsense. As I was recalibrating my smile on rough, twisty canyon roads in Ventura County, the chassis seemed to be laying its own asphalt.

Frankly, I wasn’t sure what I was feeling through the flat-bottomed, leather-wrapped steering wheel, except that it was expertly tuned and exquisite: light on center, pointy and precise, with effort and authority building quickly just off center. But the tactile feedback coming from the variable-ratio rack and electric power-steering unit is a highly processed signal, washed with counter-torques that null out vibration, wheel shake and torque steer. The steering feel must also pass through one of the six drive-mode algorithms—ranging from the cushiony Tour mode to the heft-filled Track mode—while looping in signals from chassis dynamics and traction management. The E-Ray puts the fast in Fast Fourier Transform.

It is likewise beyond my ken to know what happened when I stepped on the brakes, except that all my personal belongings suddenly gathered in the footwells to discuss an escape plan. The hybrid’s friction brakes and regen work together to mop up overwashes of velocity like a Swiss bartender. I couldn’t feel the regen’s uptake but I could hear the e-motor whining.

If you were curious as to why a road-focused GT with an already-stratospheric starting price of $104,295 needed the pricey carbon-ceramic brakes, me too. “Reducing weight in the car was critically important,” said executive chief engineer Tadge Juechter. Due to the battery pack stuffed in the center tunnel like salmon roe, the E-Ray is heavy, almost two tons at the curb.

With the eighth-design generation (2019-present), the Corvette went from being a midlife cry for help to a legitimate sports car legend. The first moments sitting in the test car reaffirmed my love for the 8’s swank, future-y cockpit design, with the driver’s workstation separated by a rising diagonal leather console, capped with an elegantly thin line of switches. It was not obvious at the time that this console future-proofed the packaging for batteries.

On the outside, the E-Ray shares the wider, more soul-devouring bodywork of the Corvette Z06. This hard-as-nails track toy generates its own weather with a naturally aspirated, flat-plane crank, 5.5-liter V8, soaring to an emotional 8,500 rpm. Grown men weep. Me, for instance. Anyway, compared to the Sturm und Drang of the Z06, the E-Ray sounds like Tibetan throat singing.

Is it a real Corvette? Clearly, that ontology is undergoing revision back at headquarters. The E-Ray certainly doesn’t sound familiar. At its loudest, the V8’s wail is muzzled and muffled, especially laid against the skyrocketing whine of the e-motor.

Granted, the E-Ray’s hybrid-enabled refinement, next-level performance and all-weather drivability doesn’t remind me of Corvettes past, either.

But it’s OK. I’ll adjust.

2024 Corvette E-Ray

Base price: $104,295 (1LZ)

Price, as tested: $123,705 (3LZ)

Powertrain: Mid-mounted, naturally aspirated, direct-injected 6.2-liter overhead valve V8, with dry sump lubrication; automated eight-speed dual-clutch transmission; front-mounted permanent-magnet motor (160 hp/125 lb ft); gas-electric hybrid all-wheel drive

Total system power: 655 hp

Length/wheelbase/width/height: 184.6/107.2/79.7/48.6 inches

Dry weight: 3,774 pounds

0-60 mph: 2.5 seconds

¼-mile: 10.5 seconds at 129 mph

EPA fuel economy: 16/25/19

Cargo capacity: 12.5 cubic feet

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