MOTOR

48 march 2015 motormag.com.au

OTOR has crossed the Pacific to spank

the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 at

Road Atlanta – a 4.088km road course

in Georgia, USA. Behind the wheel is

Randy Pobst. Who? Known as “The

Rocket” (for obvious reasons) Pobst is

the winner of the ‘96 North American

Touring Car Championship and two-

time class winner of the 24 Hours of

Daytona. So, where’s Luffy? Busy doing

burnouts in Queensland.

Pobst idles into pits and climbs out of

the Z06 after a few hot laps. A small

group of Chevrolet engineers approach,

eager to hear his thoughts. “The power

felt great. Honestly, I want another 100

(hp) more. It’s stable enough. You don’t

feel threatened.”

It’s a strange comment when you

consider the last-generation ZR1, whose

powerband made you keenly aware of

its awesome potential. Back in 2009,

after driving the ZR1 at Mazda Raceway

Laguna Seca, Pobst even said of it: “It’s

one of the very few cars I’ve ever driven

here where I didn’t want to keep my foot

down over Turn 1.”

This new Z06 not only generates more

power, making it the most powerful

vehicle General Motors has ever

produced, but it also has an automatic

’box and a removable roof (it’s available

as a convertible). And, Pobst still wants

more power! The world’s gone mad.

Tadge Juechter, the chief engineer of

Corvette, is in the group. Earlier he told

assembled media that the automatic

gearbox and roofless construction were

part of the goal, but supplanting the

ZR1 wasn’t. They’d started with a high-

revving, big-displacement “spinner”

V8, like the 7.0-litre in the last Z06, but

While it works perfectly

well on road, with this

level of performance

the new Z06 is begging

for the track