Corvette Z06 - my analysis

Throttle House is my favorite Car-YouTube channel. Although these guys pretend to be buffoons they are actually not stupid. They understand cars but pretend to be on the same level as their audience.

Smart people are rarely openly smart. Our choice is mainly smart people pretending to be stupid or stupid people pretending to be smart. Very few people are openly smart or openly stupid.

I cannot endure stupid people pretending to be smart. I also can’t endure smart people pretending to be stupid when these people are in government and trying to extinct me while pretending they don’t know what they’re doing.

But i can endure some uncalled for fart jokes if that’s what it takes for smart people to become accepted by the masses of their followers on YouTube. This is the classic formula used by entertainers like Joe Rogan. These guys are smart but pretend to be on the level of their audience.

Understand that the average person is stupid and hates smart people as much as old and ugly women hate young and beautiful women. The difference between Autists and Sociopaths is that Autists don’t understand the need to hide their intelligence because they foolishly believe that other people are rational and good. Sociopaths know that people are dumb, vile animals and put on the hapless victim mask ( example: Jews )

Anyway, watch this Z06 review from Throttle House for perspective on the car:

my Analysis that follows is from perspective of whether it would work for @OldFriendSaysHello since i am not interested in this kind of car. i was only interested in Hybrid E-Ray but lost interest when i realized it isn’t a proper hybrid because it doesn’t have electric air conditioner compressor basically forcing you to always keep the engine running …

i was also shocked by the prices of E-Ray but this was due to the car being so new and dealers marking them up …

anyway, if you’re going to keep the engine running for the sake of AC and also to make noise then may as well get Z06 over E-Ray since you will get a car with similar power but lighter weight and a lot less complexity ( less to go wrong ) … albeit you will lose AWD, but in Florida that shouldn’t be a deal breaker …

right off the bat the Z06 has a flat plane crank which means it has Ferrari sound and NOT the sound you expect from V8. but i would say it sounds expensive anyway because it is a large naturally aspirated engine with some attention paid to make it sound special.

in terms of performance they basically took the 6.2 liter Corvette engine and shortened the stroke to make it 5.5 liter, while keeping the same piston size, which also happens to be the same size as in the upper end 911 models at just over 100 mm diameter. and compared to regular Corvette it has dual overhead cam like all modern engines, unlike the WW2 era push-rod tech in regular corvette engine - this allows the new Z06 engine to spin to 8,500 rpm.

the difference ( versus 911 turbo or GT2 RS etc ) of course is that instead of 6 turbo this is a naturally aspirated 8, and while roughly matching 911 on power it has lower torque. it also is RWD only, which means you will lose drag races from the red light.

but this isn’t a muscle car - it’s a sports car. it has proper mid-engine RWD layout like a Formula 1, unlike the 911 which has a wrong rear-engine layout with two extra seats where the engine should be.

basically you can think of the Z06 engine as the engine from 911 GT3 that is SLIGHTLY detuned but with two extra cylinders, and instead of being behind the rear axle it’s in front of it. so really what this Z06 is - is a Cayman GT4 RS with some extra power and a lot of extra torque. the Cayman GT4 RS is of course widely regarded as the best pure sports car on the market. the Z06 is basically the slightly dumber, but stronger spiritual cousin of the GT4 RS.

the main benefit of this vehicle is that it is far simpler than something like a 911 Turbo S - there are no turbos, no AWD - none of the other 911 fanciness. it is very simple car that is fast due to being fundamentally laid out like a supercar ( Ferrari to be exact ) rather than WW2 era VW beetle that 911 is based on.

when the new C8 generation Corvette came out there were shortages and mark ups but the situation is improving. if i was @OldFriendSaysHello i would keep an eye on the prices because if you don’t need fuel economy and you don’t need AWD then this is a true supercar in roughly the same league as 911 GT3 / Cayman GT4 RS but has the potential of being much cheaper both upfront and in long term maintenance costs because it’s a domestic car made in Kentucky and achieves performance not through some techno-gizmo wizardry ( that nobody knows how to fix ) but simply by having correct layout ( mid-engine ) and engine size ( big bore V8 ).

as i said i would never buy it, even if i could afford it, because i don’t want a supercar that screams look at me and is more about burning fuel in the most conspicuous fashion than getting from A to B. i want a well made normal car that balances efficiency, safety, ride quality and so on.

BUT ! if my options were 911, AMG GT and Corvette Z06 the Z06 is roughly on the same level of performance but if shortages / markups end, and prices come down it will be a much better value than those two, and also probably much cheaper to fix in the long term ( because simple and American ).

when i say performance i don’t mean 0-60 of course. if you need 0-60 you should keep the Plaid. 0-60 is a matter of having AWD and no gear shifts to waste time on. 0-60 will always be won by EVs because they can maintain constant torque from 0 RPM to 60 MPH.

track performance on other hand is a matter of having light weight, wide tires and good weight distribution - all of which favor the Corvette over both Tesla, 911 and AMG. the Z06 is more than a thousand pounds lighter than Plaid for example - which means in a corner the tires have that much less weight to fight.

would i trade a Plaid for a Z06 ? no, because i can charge a car at home so why would i trade a car with lots of space and great efficiency for a car with no space or efficiency ? however, if efficiency was no issue and i couldn’t charge the car at home Z06 would be something to consider IMO.

for me it would come down to the deal i can get selling the Plaid, the deal i can get buying the Z06 and whether or not i enjoyed the test drive in the Z06 versus the Plaid.

both Plaid and Z06 are great bargains at MSRP ( probably because both are made in USA ) the difference is nobody could get the latest C8 generation Corvettes at MSRP until recently … but there is a pretty good chance there will soon be Z06 at good prices … but that’s something you have to research yourself - i can only do technical analysis.

@OldFriendSaysHello probably thinks BAH ! a Corvette ! it isn’t even European ! To which i would say the American Ford GT was regarded as one of the best supercars and so was the Japanese Acura NSX … yes we typically think of Supercars as Italian etc. but there are exceptions.

the Z06 is simply the latest in the line of these “mistake” cars like Nissan GTR that are better than they should be for the price - of course we are talking about MSRP here, not price after dealer markups.

another potential downside is if you drink and drive with rear wheel drive after a rain you will probably die, though it depends on traction and stability control. if they’re good and you don’t turn them off maybe you can survive.

as for Z06 versus regular C8 corvette - basically it’s a bit like BMW M3 versus M340i

the difference is that 3 series chassis is not a supercar chassis and trying to get crazy performance out of it is somewhat misguided

whereas C8 corvette IS a supercar chassis - it’s an aluminum, mid-engine, 2-seat chassis - it’s a chassis superior to that of all BMWs, all Teslas, all Porsches ( not counting limited production ones like Carrera GT and 918 ) and superior to AMG GT chassis.

with such a high level chassis it is almost a waste to use tame engine, suspension and tires like in the base C8. i think the C8 chassis deserves the upgraded Z06 engine that actually uses modern DOHC valvetrain that allows the engine to breathe properly, instead of ancient pushrod that kneecaps performance.

large naturally aspirated engine is a no brainer for a supercar IMO because turbocharging is really a trick used to get power from small engines. turbos are good for fuel economy ( because in most cases they allow to replace a 3.5 liter V6 with a 2.0 liter four, like in my Volvo ) or in case of 911 turbo is used because the 911 is by definition a flat-six so to it needs turbo to get V8 power.

but if you can just design the car from the start to have a V8 in the right place ( behind the driver’s seat ) then you don’t need turbos, and because the engine is in the middle of the car you automatically get perfect weight distribution and minimum polar moment of inertia.

why doesn’t everybody do this then ? well they do ! most supercars have mid-engine layout whether it is Ferrari, Lambo, Bugatti, McLaren, Koenigsegg, Pagani etc …

911 is the ONLY supercar with rear engine. and AMG GT literally has “GT” in the name, which means grand TOURING which means it isn’t even pretending to be a supercar.

Nissan GTR’s entire claim to fame was that it was a regular car with 4 seats that was fast.

these are all OUTLIERS.

the Mid-Engine layout is the NORM for supercars.

i think @OldFriendSaysHello if you want a car that looks flashy and makes noise in the roughly $130,000 range you should at least test drive the Z06.

as for Z06 versus E-Ray they both fall short

the E-Ray uses the inferior push-rod engine and the hybrid system is crippled by the lack of electric Air Conditioning compressor forcing you to keep engine on, defeating the purpose of hybrid

the Z06 is crippled by lack of All-Wheel-Drive

if at some point in the future there is a Hybrid corvette with Z06 engine and electric AC compressor it will be, in the real world, more efficient than the current Hybrid ( since you will actually be able to turn engine off ) and faster than current Z06 ( since it will have AWD )

so both Z06 and E-Ray corvettes leave a lot on the table still. the platform isn’t utilized to full potential by either of them.

the Corvette C8 platform is far superior to Porsche 911 platform but only has three models none of which come close to maxing out the platform’s potential. by contrast the 911 line has many models and even though the limit of that platform is lower it has more models that are closer to that limit.

you always get optimum value in the golden middle. it doesn’t pay to either max out a mediocre platform with every turbocharging trick nor to have a superior, expensive platform and then put a 50 year old pushrod engine in it.

does any car strike this golden middle ? NO. they all miss it.

or rather all the cars that hit it become discontinued like Audi R8 V10 or Acura NSX - because the emotional market fundamentally rejects reason.

good luck out there !

OK i see what they are doing


https://www.motor1.com/news/668757/chevrolet-corvette-zr1-spied-under-heavy-camo-insanely-wide-tires/

they released a proper supercar platform but you will never get anything at MSRP because by the time Z06 prices come down ZR1 will come out and then who will want a Z06 at that point ?

it was the same when the base came out. base was selling at $40,000 over MSRP because everybody wanted to be first, then as soon as everybody got one they came out with Z06 …

this is a formidable platform for sure … if they put twin turbos on the Z06 plus those crazy tires to make a ZR1 and then also put electric motors on the front they’re now at 1,000 hp in a lightweight 4WD car …

this generation corvette is in a different league from last gen.

the coming full-performance variants will be closer to Ford GT than what people are used to thinking of as corvette.

also supposedly there will be a Corvette SUV so Corvette is now a brand rather than a model.

which means it isn’t a Chevy anymore and you don’t need to be ashamed of driving one.

my guess is when ZR1 hits the market it will sell for over $200,000 for at least the first year.

also telling that they are benchmarking it against 911 GT2 RS rather than Turbo S … meaning it will be for lunatics LOL

it may not be possible to extract the performance out of it except on a race track and in hands of a professional … so much power to just the rear wheels would be difficult to put down in the real world without killing yourself …