Chevrolet News Car

What else can we say about the latest Chevrolet Corvette Z06 that we haven’t said before? From our first test: “The Z06 must be ranked among the world’s best.” From the Z06 coupe’s comparison-test win against the Nissan GT-R NISMO and Porsche 911 Turbo S: “Drink your Red Bull and splash some water on your face, because unless your last name is Vettel or Gordon, the Z06 is more than you can handle, even on your best day.” And from our test of the automatic convertible: “To keep from getting arrested, we settled for short blasts of acceleration [on public roads].” To this, all we can add is “Yup.”
The Z06 is a formidable beast no matter which form it takes, as there’s essentially no fall-off in performance from coupe to convertible. Chopping the roof from the Z06 results in no palpable difference in rigidity—there’s next to no shake in the cowl or the windshield header—and the weight penalty is less than 90 pounds. Yet perhaps the biggest benefit to the convertible is that it allows pure, unfiltered access to an exhaust note that sounds like a Napalm Death concert being held inside a howitzer.

Punch the throttle and your first thought is something like, “Great holy [CENSORED] balls of [CENSORED], this thing is brutal.” The 650-hp, 650-lb-ft supercharged V-8 slingshots the Z06 to 60 mph from a rest in 3.3 seconds. The car reaches 150 mph in 17.7 seconds. It scorches a quarter-mile run in 11.4 seconds at 127 mph. These figures are essentially identical to those we’ve gathered from manual-transmission Z06 coupes. To beat those numbers with something else topless, you’re going to either get an automatic Z06 or spend great gobs of cash on a McLaren 650S Spider or a Porsche 911 Turbo S cabriolet. And neither of those cars can claw the road with the 1.14-g tenaciousness of the Chevy, nor come close to its stupendous 138-foot stop from 70 mph.
The magnetorheological shock absorbers enable the Z06 to deliver a ride that’s livable every day, and the steering is accurate, quick, and sends the car toward apexes in a way best described as predatory. The ridiculous grip levels translate to cornering speeds on back roads that would be illegal on a freeway, and what acceleration you give up with the seven-speed manual transmission—0.2 second to 60 versus the eight-speed automatic—is more than made up for by the euphoric rush of redline upshifts executed via a progressive, user-friendly clutch and a positive shifter. If there’s any complaint to be made about the convertible, it’s that it looks a bit goofy with the top up. If you live someplace that dictates you’ll drive with the roof raised for a considerable amount of time, get the coupe and take advantage of its removable targa panel on nice days.
Once again, this car represents a tremendous value. The base price is $83,995, a fraction of anything else that can touch it in terms of performance. The money saved can, of course, be plowed back into the options list, and our car had another 10 grand or so in extras. These included the $3270 2LZ Preferred Equipment Group (basically a bunch of convenience features), the $2995 carbon-fiber package (painted carbon splitter, rockers, and rear spoiler), the $1795 Performance Data Recorder (a very worthy add-on that also brings navigation), a carbon interior-trim package for $995, $495 black wheels, and $100 painted carbon-fiber mirror caps.
If you want to go whole hog, you can order the Z07 package to make the car even more ludicrously capable, and other available options include a customized VIN, exterior stripes, special paint colors, and competition seats. You can go well past $100,000, but outside of the Z07 kit and maybe the seats, everything that you really need is baked into the basic car, although there’s nothing basic about the Z06 or its talents.
As you can see, the numbers—price, performance, and nearly anything else you can think of—speak for themselves. Yet we can’t wait for another opportunity to say this stuff all over again.