MOTOR

(Darren Dugan) #1

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
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