Sacramento
I missed a test drive helping my friend transport his crapped-out old Crown Vic 300 miles north to Sacramento with no AC and the heat somehow stuck on full blast. Now I’m recuperating in Sactown, visiting family, and with the downtime, I’ve found something special to try today.
I thought Tiffany the C5 Z06 was fast. In fact, I thought Tiffany was my first supercar. She wasn’t.
Since beginning this mission, I have been searching for a C7 to drive – price be damned. How do the new Vettes compare to the old? Trouble is, LA-area sports car enthusiasts seem to have figured out that the C7 is now a remarkably good buy. Since GM released the C8, there has hardly been any C7s available to drive anywhere in the Southland. Fortunately, there are two C7s nearby here in NorCal.
But not just any C7s. Two Z06 Stingrays.
As the test drive monitor pulls up with the white Z06, I’m struck with a moment’s panic.
“Holy shit what have I gotten myself into?”
There is no mistaking a C7 Z06. This Vette’s blinding white finish, black wheels, Z06 badges, spoilers, and ominous exhaust rumble all inspire and terrorize the novice driver.
First impressions. This couldn’t possibly be a Chevy.
The interior is special. Even after mild use since 2016, it’s held up so well and it is so welcoming. The shifter is trimmed in smooth stainless steel like a Tag Heuer Formula One timepiece, and the red leather trim is sumptuous enough to match my own Mercedes. Hang on a second, what’s that badge? Six hundred fifty horsepower, oh God, and 650 ft-lbs of torque! These kinds of numbers I’ve only read in magazines…
From the test drive monitor:
“Because of Coronavirus we only have solo test drives, you have ten minutes to try the car.”
Right. No time to reflect on the weight of responsibility that comes with absolute power – let’s just go!
Before I could even get near a freeway, the Stingray has already put me in my place. On one hand, the C7 lulls you into a false sense of security with its luxurious interior, polite-shifting automatic transmission, and meat-locker-worthy air conditioning. On the other hand, the Z06 doesn’t share the controllable two-mode acceleration of the previous Corvettes. The C7 Z06 seems to have “Def-Con One” for normal driving, and beyond 1/8th throttle, you’ve found yourself strapped to a launching ICBM.
Applying speed in the Z06 is like trying to drink from a fire hose, your thirst is never quenched and yet you find yourself on the constant edge of drowning. Just tap the go pedal and you have all you need to keep up with traffic (of which there is plenty on this test drive – fortunately? – sadly?) beyond a mild tap, the throttle is where the car just might try to kill you.
Steering onto the 99 freeway I think: oh good, the congestion meter’s on and that’ll make a nice open stretch to get acclimated with the throttle.
The 6.2-liter V8 and the 1.7-liter Eaton supercharger have other ideas.
The light. Turns.
Green.
Apply one-half throttle. And –
-Explosion.
Two-eighty-five section rear tires rip and rail against asphalt and the Stingray slides to the right.
Off the throttle!
Whoa!
Where the hell is the traction control?
Ok.
Try again.
One-half throttle and –
Sideways.
S**t!
These aborted launches have my heart racing. I’m just a little embarrassed as I have a line of commuters behind me bearing witness to this idiocy.
Trying to harness this rocket is an exercise in avoidance. Avoiding jail time for the triple-digit speeds you invariably summon. Avoiding a crash with any other object on or off the road should all velocity come on too quickly. Avoiding temptation to slap down the Aussie import Chevy SS that’s been trying to race me for the last mile.
If this Z06 Stingray were anybody, she’d be your favorite porn star. She’s a wild fantasy – maybe best left to online browsing.
And yet.
Here she is!
With you. Or me, actually.
And I’m on a date with a girl so hot, so wild, so ready that the moment things even feel like they’re heating up, she won’t care that you’re both in public.
Anyway, such is the stuff of fantasy. It doesn’t have to be right or make any sense. And the Z06 Stingray doesn’t either. It simply is.
It’s too much car for me but today I’m proud to say I’ve popped my supercar cherry to a psychotically-fast Z06 Stingray.
Wow. With what you describe, I am amazed that Carmax will turn people loose in it. I wonder if their insurance people understand. 🙂
They don’t have their own insurance
You aren’t going anywhere unless you have your own coverage
And to think I just enjoyed the same treatment with a 2017 Nissan Leaf SL. But my CarMax gave me half an hour.
The rear tires on a Z06 are 335’s, not 285 (that’s the front size). I find it weird that the traction control would be turned off as a default, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of it.
The C7 styling’s still a little too outlandish for me, but I’m becoming more accepting if it in certain colors. I do like the red interior here though, that works well. Looking at CarMax’s current pricing shows these Z06’s in the $60k or so range depending on year and mileage, which seems like excellent bang for the buck assuming a place where the bang can be used enough…Non Z06’s seem to be around $40k which may be even better.
As the recent (last November) owner of a bone stock 7 speed manual LT-1 2017 Corvette I can attest to what a quantum leap this is over the C-6 in every way. If I could of wrote the script for you, as awesome as the Z-06 is (and I love your description) ,I would of had you test drive a lower spec C-7. Maybe that is coming. I am still getting to know mine a bit but I can tell you generally what a sweetheart she is around town, docile even, and comfortable. But when you want to have some fun, it’s more than enough performance any mortal could possibly want (or need).
It was probably turned on, it just tolerates some wheelspin before jumping in. Honestly, even the computer has to think quick to stop 650 hp from just doing whatever.
“First impressions. This couldn’t possibly be a Chevy.”
It is my belief that, starting with the C5, the Corvette was no longer really a Chevrolet. It seems like there was (and is) a Corvette Motor Car corporation, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chevrolet Division of General Motors.
From the C1 through the C3, the Corvette was mostly constructed with off-the-shelf or breathed-upon Chevy parts. The engine in a 1974 Corvette wasn’t far removed from the one in a ’74 C-10, and et cetera.
Starting with the C4, and fully with the C5, the Corvette became more and more a bespoke vehicle, using fewer and fewer corporate components.
To the modern C8, which seems to have virtually nothing in common with anything else from GM.
I’d move that to the right one generation and call the C6 the first significantly ‘bespoke’ ‘Vette. While the C5 unquestionably elevated the model it was still littered with corporate GM components, from the column stalks* to the exterior door handles to the radio and the HVAC controls. The Malibu-spec interior plastics were its greatest flaw.
By the C6, most of those customer touch points and many others were unique to the Corvette, excepting the Cobalt-sourced steering wheel used from 2006-on. Even the GM-spec column stalks were now labelled in a font unique to the Corvette (and Cadillac XLR.)
*One Corvette-specific change was made to the C5’s wiper stalk: the wash function was moved to a button at the end of the stalk rather than the ‘pull back’ feature seen in other GM vehicles.
I just want to know what her name is???????
Seriously, another fun write up. Thanks for the diversions.
“…..on a date with a girl so hot, so wild, so ready, that the moment things even feel like they’re heating up, she won’t care that you’re both in public.” ROFL.
I finally figured out why I hate the C8 so much but I love Corvettes from 1955 (the first V8) until 2019 – the end of C7 production.
For the largest part of the product’s life the Corvette has existed as a fusion of Sports Car/Muscle Car/Supercar. It was uniquely American and its price undercut nearly anything that could come close to matching it’s all-around performance stats (minus the dark years from roughly the mid 70s to the mid 80s).
With the C8 the price is still “reasonable” although I question how long that $60K base price will remain. But design-wise the Vette has simply become a Ferrari/Lamborghini/McLaren/etc knockoff. The C8 has lost something that made it an American icon to me and become a sort of “me too” car.
Forgive my rant.
You put the finger on something I’d been contemplating for a while. Of course, we have similar taste in cars, or wagons, anyway.
A coworker (former, now I’m retired) owns a C7 Z06 (7MT) and loves it – it was his dream / midlife crisis car, purchased will full approval of his wife. I’ve ridden with him once, and he kept things docile. You more ‘wear’ the car than sit in it.
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Honestly I don’t hate anything about the C8 but it seems like a novelty car, more along the lines of the Ford GT that comes and goes from production for an occasional branding boost. Chevrolet should have two Corvette lines if they were serious about mid-engine… it makes no financial sense obviously… but whether or not this mid-engine gamble pays off has yet to be determined for some time. Optimistically it draws a whole new customer base to the Corvette, pessimistically it is a burdensome car to manufacture, the old buyers begrudgingly still buy them, and the new market they’re seeking doesn’t actually exist like they think, or can afford it. If the latter proves true there may very well be no C9.
If I had any personal bone to pick with it it’s that I have always considered the Corvette more a peer to the big V12 Ferrari’s , not the V8 “Junior” Ferrari’s, and Ferrari moved V12s back to front engine over 20 years ago, their whole exercise in mid engine is bookended with the 365 BB and the 512TR, and if there was ever a time Corvette should have gone mid engined it was in the 70s when it was cutting edge. It seems just so silly now 40-50 years later to exclaim that “it’s not a REAL supercar unless it’s mid engined”. Literally the only people I have heard saying that are C8 defenders on the internet over the last year in a half. Front engined Corvettes are basically are basically mid engined for all intents and purposes between the lightweight set back engine placement and the rear mounted transaxle. This rear mid engined exercise almost strikes me as a chance for the development team to relive the nostalgia of the 70s, it wouldn’t surprise me if a few of them were trying to bring a Wankel engine into it to really “complete the legacy”
Long ago swore never to buy another GM product, but might have made an exception for a Corvette if they managed to come up with something as perfect as the C2- ‘65 hardtop with fuel injection and a manual please.
However, the C8 while incredibly capable is another generic mid-engine supercar. Wedgy, wingy, and scoopy but bland.
If I were in the mood for an $80Kish 2-door an Audi RS5 or BMW M2 would be vastly more interesting, don’t even need the competition version of latter. All are vastly over-capable for driving on the street.
Seen yesterday at the Cowboy Jack’s in Fredericksburg, VA among all the Harley’s. The second C8 I’ve seen and an Acura NSX.
Try again.