Car And Driver publishes Z06 performance numbers
OK, no more rumors. Much to my delight, I opened my
mailbox yesterday to find a new issue of Car And Driver, with a bright yellow "New Corvette From Hell" on the cover.
Long-time C&D readers will recall the controversy over a similar statement made about the ZR1 about 15 years ago,
as if there's some sort of a problem with combining profanity with fast cars. Anyways, if you turn to page 82, you can
see that 0-60 comes in 3.7 seconds, 0-100 occurs in 7.9 seconds, the quarter-mile disappears in 11.7 seconds with a 125
MPH trap speed, and 150 comes up in 17.9 seconds. The car pulls 0.98G on the skidpad, which is the only area where it
seems to be edged out by the Dodge Viper SRT-10. That, my friends, is performance worth of a supercar. There's no word
yet on final HP ratings, but the car they show in the pictures does not have the "505 HP" badges.
UPDATE: Since you asked, the EPA fuel economy numbers are 16 city, 26 highway. That just blows my mind for a 500+ HP
car.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Ajay 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
OMG, now if only GM would do up the interior some. Sounds like a fun car though!
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Michael Warren 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
No word on its top speed?
The C&D website has not been updated yet.
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Opposite Lock 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
198mph
same issue they also said that they like the solstice better than the new mx-5.
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james 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
Anyone know its fuel economy? I'm guessing high 20's on the highway and maybe 15 in the city. Amazing for what they can get with such a large engine. Sure beats the heck out of the S2000.
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md 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
Well i would rather have a dirt cheap interior and keep the price down on this rather than an expensive, overdone interior that ups the cost. Who will have the chance to glance at the interior with this much power anyways? you will need to focus your attention on the road at all times with a beast like this.
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Bob Johnson 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
In before "typical GM crap." And "the interior sucks." And "That engine is horrible because it relies on pushrods!" And "My Carrera GT/Enzo/Lambo/Zonda/Civic Type-R is faster." And "Typical American Garbage, can only go in a straight line."
Okay, I think that about wraps up the comments for this article, thank me later folks.
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Scott 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
The interior on the C6 is leagues ahead of the C5. It's still no BMW/Lexus though. I don't think anyone cares either.
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S P 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
ROFL @ Bob. Right on brotha, I've already got my popcorn out waiting. :)
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Adrian 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
How much does this car cost? And does it still use leaf springs?
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matt 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
ya bob your so right... so let me start. i rather save 50,000 dollars and get an Sti (which is slower by .6 seconds) but common you'll have 50g's to make it better. And what you talking about i just smoked a c6 with my suzuki aero. This corvette blows.
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Michael Warren 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
Dang. It missed the magical 200 mph mark.
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theflinger 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
"ya bob your so right... so let me start. i rather save 50,000 dollars and get an Sti (which is slower by .6 seconds)"
So...the american car that rapes the subie in a straight line (you think .6 seconds is not a lot?!?!) and will continue to rape it even MORE as speeds climb...sounds like something that cant go around corners right?
7:43 at the Nurburgring. Off the showroom stock. Stock runflat tires. Second fastest production car. The fastest? Carrera GT of course - 7:33 for 400,000.
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J Zeke 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
While I love the C6... Car & Driver can suck it.
Besides, Motortrend has a good story with facts and figures, and a well written V12 GT comparo.
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Civic Lesson 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
>>UPDATE: Since you asked, the EPA fuel economy numbers are 16 city, 26 highway. That just blows my mind for a 500+ HP car.
hmmm... you get blown away easily:
2006 E55 sedan
EPA 14 / 21 mpg
4050 lbs
469 hp and 516 lbs
$81 K
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Levi 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
Motortrend has the 0-60 time in 3.5 sec and the 1/4 mile times in 11.5 sec. Motortrend also reads that it will list for $68,000. Skid pad numbers were as high as 1.18g and they averaged .98g. This is an impressive vehicle which deserves respect. I believe it far exceeds the Ford GT and the Viper, the vehicles with which it respectively competes. It makes the new GT500 look slow and fat.
If we want to do a comparison with say a $30,000 upgraded Evo MR or STi (Evo has much more potential for higher power and is more raw and true as the Z06 is) it would be a very close with probably the Evo winning based on it's all wheel drive. Evo's with 500hp running in the 10's for the 1/4 mile are not unheard of. I would also imagine that the Z06 would respond well to upgrades.
Can anybody hear the turbos already hissing at the lingenfelter building. This baby, 1 giant intercooler, 1 big N-tercooler, and 2 large turbos.....Priceless.
I'm an import guy at heart and this is one car that deserves respect
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naggs 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
zo6 will not respond well to mods the pistons are a lightwieght forged type. wont take boost or nos well. it was a necessary step to allow the 7k rpm redline in an engine with almost a liter per cylinder, eat that honduh. has anyone else seen the dyno for this thing? flattest torque curqve ive ever seen in a street car. at least 350 lb-ft over a huge 5k rpm range. amazing.
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Matt Gabriel 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
1) 26mpg Highway is a very big deal, especially for a torque curve so flat. You could, in essence, cruise at highway RPM's all day long, and not see a dip in economy unless you trounced the go-pedal at every stoplight in a city full of Evos, WRX's and Vipers. Since that's unlikely, 25mpg will probably be the average mileage a Corvette owner sees. Very nicely done, and well ahead of the euro-exotics. Even the turbo-charged four bangers get less than 26mpg, and lesser still in everyday driving. (I work with SRT-4 and WRX fanatics. I know intimately what their feul efficiency is, because they bitch about it endlessly.)
2) Easy power will come from exhaust, intake and air-filter upgrades. American automakers have never, ever been able to get this right. Turbo and supercharging will be trickier, but if you're grafting on a turbo, replacing the pistons will be the easy part of the job. (As opposed to re-calibrating the feul injection and spark on the computer.)
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james 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
#14
The Vette is still the better deal. A 2 liter engine with mods to wring out 500 horsepower won't last long at all. Compare that to the new Z06, the simple pushrod engine will last for years even as a daily driver. By the way, anyone ever experience the joy of having a turbo fail while in traffic?
#15
Makes me think they should drop the LS7 in a new performance pickup.
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Greg Koenig 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
Humm.
It would be cool- if I didn't know that touching the body work feels like squeezing a sponge, that the engine has pushrods, the rear rides on leaf springs and to clean the interior, you can just hose it down.
Call me crazy, but even a maniac driver is going to have trouble finding situations where you can use the BHP of the Z06, but your going to face the build quality issues every day. Riding in a car that feels like it was engineered by Mattel Toys just feels pathetic, no matter how quick it might be. Mind you, I don't blame the Corvette team, I think they would all choose to make something better, but the cut corners, penny pinching bean counters are indicative of everything wrong with The General. I'll save my Z06 pennies for an M5 or M3 and be tooling around in a vehicle with some class.
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DT 10:25PM (12/18/2005)
Greg has never driven a C6 obviously!!!
And the z06 is actually much different. the chassis is all aluminum! replacing the c6 steel.
we had the 0-60 at 3.9 seconds because GM uses a 1-ft "roll-out" to get their numbers.
base price we have as $65,800 (incl dest.)
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