The 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is essentially a comfortable and street-legal race car.
I see a Victory Red 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 in the parking lot. I walk up to the car and it senses that I am near, thanks to the keyless entry remote fob in my pocket. I open the door. The seat is more comfortable than I thought it would be. I push down on the brake and make sure the shift knob, which is connected to a 6-speed manual transmission, is in neutral. I press the button marked "ENGINE." The 7.0L V8 LS7 engine snorts and rumbles to life and I now have 505 hp at my disposal. My heart is beating … fast … faster … I put down the parking brake and move the shift knob into first gear and I am now leaving the parking lot … quickly.
The interior of the Corvette Z06 is necessarily spartan yet has everything you need in a modern car.
The 2008 Corvette Z06 is basically a race car that you can drive every day. It will make the jaunt from standstill to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds. A quarter of a mile will go by in just 11.7 seconds and you will be doing 125 mph. If you have the room, you are crazy, and you can afford the ensuing speeding ticket, you can top out at 198 mph. No, I did not test this aspect of the car as my wife, my mom, and my mother-in-law would all cease speaking to me. I made sure that the speeds I saw displayed on the extremely useful Heads-Up-Display (or H.U.D.) were at (mostly) safe levels.
Two things jumped out at me as I was driving this car. One is that the interior is far more comfortable than expected. Since it is an American car, anyone with an American rear-end will have no problem because the seats aren't very sporty. This is good and bad, as it allows the driver to be more comfortable, but you are forced to put a death grip on the wheel in a fast turn so that you don't go sliding around. The second thing that jumped out at me is the basic yet more than adequate center stack. This Corvette Z06 came equipped with the optional Navigation unit and Bose 7-speaker premium sound system. The CD player sounded great, and you could hear the Bose system just fine over the exhaust note. At times I preferred the radio to be off, just so I could listen to that 7.0L motor, because it produces noises that haunt the dreams of Prius owners.
The Z06 loves to show off its naughty bits …
In terms of "bang for your buck," the Corvette Z06 delivers 505 hp/470 lb-ft of torque for around $71,000 ($76,920 as tested). If you take into consideration that those power numbers are typical of Ferrari and Lamborghini, the 2008 Corvette Z06 is a great value. Also, the Z06 is covered under GM's current promotion of Employee Pricing, so right now the Corvette Z06 can be purchased for closer to $60,000.
See the 2009 Corvette at NADAguides.com, the most trusted new car research and pricing guide resource on the net.