Fastest & most powerful, yes. But best???
November 22nd, 2005related post: 1
Many writers have come from their first drives of the Corvette Z06 so full of adrenaline and so stupefied by the ferocity of the experience that they’ve started calling it ‘the best Corvette ever’.
As much as we admire the modifications made to the standard Vette, we get the sense that it’s less than the sum of its parts. The Z06 lacks the dialed in chassis of the last iteration – it’s more about the motor than the handling this time around.
From Car and Driver’s December issue:
...the gas pedal is the trigger of the gun that’s pointed to your head. Squeeze the gas a little too much at corner exit, and you’ll find yourself instantly in trouble. On our first drive of the Z06 in Europe, we noticed the Vette’s chassis didn’t make the driver feel confident, but on smooth racetracks, the chassis was more or less benign. But Grattan’s track gave the Z06 fits. It never felt comfortable or sure of itself and gave us all disconnected, spooky feelings that were only exasperated by that booster rocket waiting to be unleashed. “Only qualified drivers should be handed the keys,” warned Phillips. If the Z06 encountered any kind of bump or lump in the pavement as it was exiting a corner, the result was a nearly instantaneous outward snap of the tail. It was so sensitive to bumps that the Vette uncovered lumps in the pavement we never knew were there—even though we’ve done hundreds of laps at Grattan in stiffly sprung race cars. For our first few laps, we wisely set the Delphi stability-control system to its competition mode. That allows some sliding but can save the driver. Had we shut it off, we probably would have stuffed it. Not yet aware of the sensitivity to bumps and the throttle, we were saved by the system numerous times. ... to establish a lap time we turned it off and did five laps. ...the faster we went, the sweatier our palms got. ... our knees were audibly knocking and we parked it… our sense is there was too much consideration paid to a cushy ride and perhaps that’s why it’s such a handful.
This edginess has been present in each C6 Vette we’ve driven, which is why every time we’re offered the keys to a Vette at a GM driving event we opt for a CTS-V or GTO instead. We blame the overly sensitive throttle, sudden electric steering assist, and tires with little slip angle designed in. (A soft suspension seems softer if you can’t make smooth inputs and the tires break away suddenly).
The Viper C&D editors preferred the handling of is ordinarily considered a handful, but its new fixed roof eradicates the slop in the chassis and its Michelin Pilot Sports have a lot of slip angle engineered in. This causes it to be less snappy both front and rear than the Z06 and “a real sweetheart on the track.”
Given the Corvette’s balky shifter and annoying skip-shift feature, we’re more excited about the new 6 speed automatic (past autos have had a maximum of 4 ratios). Given the way most Corvettes are driven, the torquey engine and the surplus of power, will the new Corvette Automatic be the best Corvette ever?