52 march 2015 motormag.com.auFor the rest of us, the extreme level of
performance available leaves plenty of
headroom. You’ll also find it bizarrely
easy to drive around town. At low
speeds, it’s like a normal Corvette,
with nimble steering and ample boot
capacity. The powerband’s sheer breadth
means you can treat the manual like a
three-speed. The infotainment system
hides adjustments for the exhaust
volume, from full-on freeway-droning
madness to near silence. It has cooled
seats and even Wi-Fi.
The price makes this all the
more bewildering, as you’d need
to spend around $1m elsewhere to
reach the performance our Z06,
with the Z07 package, offers at an
as-tested US$105,210. That’s around
AU$128,000, though if the Z06 ever
makes it to Australia (there’s plenty of
speculation it might). With that comes
the clear message this car sends to the
rest of the world: bring it on.MYOU’D NEED TO SPEND
AROUND $1M FOR THE SAME
PERFORMANCE ELSEWHERE
MEET THE C7.R
WANT another Z06 bragging right? It’s
more powerful than its C7.R road racing
counterpart you’ll see at the Tudor United
SportsCar Championship and 24 Hours of
Le Mans. The C7.R makes around 373kW
because regulations limit displacement to
5.5 litres and forbid adding forced induction
and variable valve timing.
The engine is based off the one in the
C6.R and still uses a six-speed sequential
transmission, but it now has direct injection,
which improves throttle control and fuel
economy – pit stops matter. The same
new types of aluminium construction that
improve the Z06 translate to the C7.R.
Using the production car’s aluminium
frame increases the race car’s stiffness by
40 per cent over its predecessor, according
to Chevrolet. Both race car and street car
chassis are built in the Corvette’s assembly
plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The two
cars look similar, too, sharing similar ideas
about airfl ow. Never mind that the C7.R is
8cm lower and 12cm wider. It also omits
the inlets above the production car’s rear
wheels in favour of airfl ow.
The C7.R also dons Michelin racing slicks
and smaller-diameter steel brakes with
beefi er braking hardware (six-piston rear
calipers), and it eschews the road car’s
transverse leaf springs and MR shocks for
race-specifi c coil-overs. As it’s a race car,
it can do without the things that make
commuting more pleasant – bye bye cooled
seats and Wi-Fi. And despite the 112kW
power defi cit, the C7.R is faster.CORVETTE Z06
BODY 2-door, 2-seat coupe
DRIVE rear-wheel
ENGINE 6162cc V8, OHV, 16v, supercharger
BORE/STROKE 103.25 x 92.0mm
COMPRESSION 10.0:1
POWER 485kW @ 6400rpm
TORQUE 881Nm @ 3600rpm
POWER/WEIGHT 303kW/tonne
CONSUMPTION N/A
CO2 EMISSIONS N/A
TRANSMISSION 7-speed manual
WEIGHT 1603kg
SUSPENSION double A-arms, adaptive dampers,
transverse composite leaf springs (f/r),
anti-roll bar (f/r)
L/W/H 4519/1965/1235mm
WHEELBASE 2710mm
TRACKS 1613/1588mm
STEERING electrically-assisted rack-and-pinion
BRAKES 394mm ventilated/drilled carbon-ceramic
discs, 6-piston calipers (f); 390mm
ventilated/drilled carbon-ceramic discs,
4-piston calipers (r)
WHEELS 19 x 10.0-inch (f); 20 x 12.0-inch (r)
TYRES 285/30 ZR19 (f); 335/25 ZR20 (r)
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2
PRICE US$78,995 (AU$96,000 approx.)
PRICE AS TESTED US$105,210 (AU$128,000 approx.)*
*ZO7 package
^ Mind-blowing performance; cool
factor; value in home market
% No chance of coming here officially;
erm, that’s about it11112