Here’s what’s crazy. The Corvette Stingray with its base engine is already one of the best performance cars in the world. Period. It can hang with just about anything.
The new Z06 is poised to obliterate it in every quantifiable respect.
This morning, General Motors released the 2015 Z06’s official SAE-certified power numbers, and they’re monstrous: 650 hp at 6400 rpm and 650 lb-ft of torque at 3600 rpm. The torque curve is meaty, too, with 457 lb-ft essentially available as the supercharged LT4 V8 lopes away at idle.
The numbers eclipse the old C6 ZR1 by 12 hp and 46 lb-ft and make the C7 Z06 the most powerful production car in the history of General Motors. The car is so ballsy, GM put together an info-graphic showing where it stands on the horsepower hierarchy of 2015 model-year vehicles (Sourced from: Roadandtrack.com):
Of the six cars ahead of it, two cost over a million dollars, one costs almost a million dollars, and the others range in the several-hundred thousands.
The only other American car on the list is the Viper, and chances are it’ll need to pull a rabbit out of a hat, because the TA was created as an answer to the C6 ZR1, and the C7 Z06 will be better and faster still. (In fairness, however, by the time the Z06 is released, Chrysler will have another monster engine out there in the form of the supercharged Hellcat V8, which we know will make north of 600 hp).
In the end, as a car enthusiast, this is the sort of forum-fodder red meat you live for. Porsche vs. Corvette. GT-R vs. Corvette. ANYTHING vs. Corvette. Let the flame wars begin. With the Stingray, GM delivered a truly world-class car. With the 2015 Z06 coupe and convertible, it’s trying to put it in a class by itself. This is gonna be fun to watch unfold.