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Stingray? The new Z06 is a stun ray.
A few years ago, for the duration of the darkest hours of the GM bankruptcy, Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter identified himself on a conference contact with business execs and government overseers. A conversation on the bolts and screws of bailing out GM all of a sudden halted when one particular of the federales, a Corvette fan, wanted to know the strategy for the C7. “At the time, there was no program,” recalled Juechter as we stood trackside at Road Atlanta this previous October. “We had been at complete stop.”
So much has occurred because then. Flash-forward to 2014 and the scene of our own technical director, Don Sherman, banging on the door of Juechter’s home like some marauding zombie early one particular summer Saturday, intent on hand-delivering our October issue, which featured an exposé on the C8 Corvette. (Juechter neither confirms nor denies our story.) And to our later meeting at Road Atlanta, where the new Z06 sat freshly unwrapped and awaiting its ritual molestation by vehicle writers. Whatever satisfaction an engineer derives from his or her ideas becoming realized, from seeing mere talk and drawings evolve into a finished item, have to boost tenfold in the Corvette system, once an idle afterthought in the mayhem of a bankruptcy and now a full line of very acclaimed cars.
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Nothing to see here. Just the shortest-stopping, most tenaciously gripping production car we’;ve ever tested. Oh, it has a kind of powerful engine, too. |
A line that consists of a 650-hp thunder wagon with the sophistication and poise of the world’s ideal sports vehicles. There, we mentioned it. The Z06 must be ranked amongst the world’s ideal. You know that we right here at Car and Driver are not idle flatterers, our job becoming to find the faults for you in haste, prior to you have to live with them at leisure more than 72 months of payments. Nevertheless, the Z06 completely fulfills its mission to be a super Corvette. It is an accessible American fantasy intended to inject joy and fascination and, let’s face it, a healthy dose of awe into the driving encounter, such that there’s not considerably left to shout about except specifics.
Specifics such as a 60-mph nuking of 3 seconds flat, set by a Z06 equipped with the Z07 Efficiency package and an automatic. This auto tore the quarter-mile a new one at 11.1 seconds at 127 mph, scorched the skidpad with 1.19 g’s of grip, and stopped from 70 in an astonishing 128 feet, the latter 2 figures setting C/D records for a production vehicle. We also tested a slightly less potent manual-trans Z06 [see bottom of page 2].
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Please pause right here for an crucial message about tires. If you have followed our preview coverage, you currently know that there are now a lot of Z06s to pick from. There are coupe and convertible body types. There are 2 transmissions, a 6-speed manual with automatic rev matching and an 8-speed automatic. And there are 3 trim levels, dozens of options, and 3 separate aero packages. Then there’s the mega Z07 Efficiency package that further weaponizes the car with carbon-ceramic brakes, a carbon-fiber aero package, a slightly revised suspension tune, and distinct tires. The Z07’s run-flat Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 summer time virtually-slicks replace the base run-flat Michelin Pilot Super Sports and are, to borrow from Mark Twain, the distinction among the lightning bug and the lightning.
Back to the test numbers: Um, holy crap. Riding a Z06 by means of the initial 4 gears feels like placing a saddle on Superman, although the Z06 is 200 pounds heavier than the old ZR1. Clearly, there’s a squidge far more power, but this is down to the race tires and the fact that today’s automatics are usually more rapidly than manuals in a straight line. We didn’t even use launch manage, a simple flat-foot drop in complete auto mode getting all that was needed to produce these fireworks from the test gear.
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The Z06 we photographed was fully loaded with the Z07 package, Stage 3 carbon aero trim kit, and optional carbon-kablooey interior. As you can see, there’s a Z06 for, effectively, if not specifically every person, then a wider swath of humanity’s more impatient drivers, all of whom will be swamped by admirers at parties. Prepare for the eager smiles of your audience to droop slightly when you say you purchased the automatic, as up to 70 percent of Z06 buyers are anticipated to do. This is a natural, instinctual disappointment, conditioned by the expectation that true sports automobiles have sticks, mounting proof to the contrary notwithstanding.
We drove each the manual and the automatic Z06 and feel that the stick, with its notably soft and seamless clutch takeup, is nevertheless the best option. Rev matching sounds like a hateful automation of the heel-and-toe ability until you get utilized to it. Then you wonder why all manuals don’t have it. Or just turn it off. Or use it to learn suitable rev matching and then turn it off.
Continued…
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