My First Vette

Don't worry. Although this story is about my first time driving a Corvette,

A new kind of mania: motoring mania. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

it isn't going to be about a broken down fixer-upper that I found in a barn somewhere, bought for $600, and then retooled to racing spec, nor is it about a pristine '67 that I test drove as soon as I got my license when I turned 16 and proceeded to wreck in spectacular fashion. Until last weekend, I had never driven a Corvette - contrary to what you may assume, I just didn't grow up around cars; my family made do with a Chevette Scooter for the better part of my childhood, after which I learned to drive on an '86 Tercel 4WD (that tall wagon monstrosity), and I didn't have my own car until I was nearly 30. The closest I ever got to Vettes was occasionally catching sight of ridiculously curvy Stingrays cruising up and down the street near our neighbourhood mall as a child, but then came the C4 era and Corvettes suddenly became completely ignorable in my mind.

That is, at least until a couple years ago. It wasn't until the new

Bigger wheels, re-worked chassis and countless flares are all a part of the Z06. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

C6 appeared on the scene that Corvettes once again piqued my curiosity and started turning gears in my head and firing up the pistons of the heart, if you'll allow me that mild cliché. Suddenly Corvettes were Corvettes again. While C5 Corvettes were undeniably capable vehicles and did a lot to bring the Corvette nameplate back to respectability in the performance arena, I still thought they lacked tightness, as though they had a layer of waxy skin left out in the sun a little too long. That and pop-up headlights don't really do much for me either, but oh well, that's all in the past. 

Then along comes the C6, with its sharpened body creases and integrated headlamps and everything just seemed to come together for me. No longer did it seem to be coming from the same design studio that brought us the last Camaros and Firebirds with racy shapes but little inspiration, rather it seemed to evolve out of all the Corvettes of the past with a good look at the present and future and perhaps some of the supercars it aimed  to challenge (and summarily dispatch). The C6 retains an unmistakable Corvette look by moving ahead, no resurrected styling cues to conflict with the modern and aerodynamically honed shape. Yeah, it's still got four signature circular taillights and obviously picks up where the previous generation left off, but the headlights seem like they're out of a Ferrari aftermarket catalogue as opposed to stock Corvette equipment--the body-colour painted backings are sweet, looking very high end. Drop the massive Z06 tire package, aerodynamics and inflated fenders and you have the nastiestpiece of machinery this side of a Bugatti or an Enzo. I would never say any of them look great, but I love them just the same.


Of course, Corvette has always occupied a singular place in the

Quad pipes help the brutal V8 breathe. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

market (which is why it is marketed as its own unique brand in Europe), breaking down the door of supercar performance, with prices that invite everyman types and salaried employees' curiosity. It is also an institution with collectors, historians, museums and widespread pop culture influence (of which, to tell you the truth, I know nearly nothing), though perhaps less in the present than in its hey-day in the '60s. However, we are perhaps in the presence of a new era of Corvette supremacy, and as we all know, supremacy is gained on Sunday, with the monetary gains following on Monday, as tradition goes, and rumours and spy shots of a 650-hp Blue Devil Corvette suggest GM is not yet done cashing in on their racing success.

Sundays, by the way, have been very good to Corvette Racing, although the recent Labour Day Sunday was a rare exception. In the last ALMS race, the C6.R Corvettes were hampered by unfavourable weather conditions, weight penalties, engine restrictions and a controversial drive-through penalty handed down by ALMS race stewards at the Mosport Grand Prix in Bowmanville, Ontario, unofficial home track of Corvette Racing's Ron Fellows. Despite the inconsistent weather, the Corvette team was happy to open its paddock to us and explain how integral the race program was to the development of the new C6, and in particular the Z06, and GM Road Racing Group Manager Steve Weseloski was more than happy to remind us of their astounding record of 55 GT1 class wins in the Le Mans series since the inception of the modern-day Corvette Racing program in 1999. In fact, they're so good that ALMS is forcing Corvettes to carry an extra 90 kilos (198 lbs) of weight and a restricted air intake for a loss of about 30-40 hp. If it had rained harder they might have had a shot, but a dry track spelled doom, even more so after the #3 car of Ron Fellows had a run-in with one of the Aston Martins before even crossing the start line. 
Anyhow, that's not the Corvette I got to drive, and it's not likely

An engine to make the original Sting Ray proud. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

the Corvette you'll be shopping for, but it does have in common a 7.0L small block V8 (that translates into 427 cubic inches of displacement, by the way, a number near and dear to the hearts of Corvette enthusiasts, made famous in the all-conquering '67 Corvette 427 Sting Ray), dry sump lubrication system, titanium connecting rods and inlet valves and computer machined cylinders and intake ports. While you would never mistake the C6.R for a stock Z06 (especially if you hear one started up--when they were moving the car from paddock to pits, a crowd that gathered around Fellows' #3 Corvette collectively took a leap back when they first turned the engine over--it sounds like a dozen shotguns being fired in a cave at the same time), they were developed simultaneously, and wherever possible, Corvette engineers applied whatever wind-tunnel or track lessons they learned with the race car to the road-going car.

While aerodynamic lip spoilers and titanium connecting rods are all a lot

Driving the Z06 is something you absolutelymustdo before you die. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

of jargon that I can live without, the Z06 is not. Yes, I'm happier just knowing that it exists, but that hasn't kept me from begging GM's PR rep for at least six months straight, and telling him that my life was simply not complete without having driven the Corvette Z06. Now that this is taken care of, I can move on to marriage and children, a retirement home or perhaps sky diving. Why was I going psycho to try and get into a C6 Z06? Because it's probably the fastest car I'll drive for years to come, since I'm not on speaking terms with anyone who has an Enzo, a Carrera GT, a race car or a jet, so I tried every form of flattery, coercion and compromise I could think of to get into the Z06. Finally, while the ALMS race was at its repetitive peak (the middle hour), I was handed a set of keys and let loose on the quaint country roads surrounding Mosport, where I did my utmost to not crash the 505 horsepower for which I was responsible for the next hour. I succeeded. 


With a couple of stops for photography, several stops just so I could

Power to weight ratio? It's as high as Ford's GT supercar. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

launch from a standstill and a series of tight, winding roads with scattered gravel and unpredictable oncoming traffic, I made it back with no damage done nor any points on my license (never mind points, I'm not sure if I'd still have a license if I'd found any speed traps along the way) and a prayer still on my lips that the rain would continue to hold off for just a few more minutes.

Of course, I didn't really approach any unreasonable speeds because of said fears,

It's a noisy machine as the Z06 diet has lost a lot of sound insulation. It's also a very harsh riding machine. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

but at the speeds I did manage, I felt like I was barely scraping the surface of what even I, a complete hack, could achieve if I were let loose on Mosport instead of simply near it. Opening it up on the highway isn't very eventful until a glance at the speedo sends a spike of guilt, nerves and cop-fear adrenaline shooting through my veins. While the steering and ground feel weren't quite as riveting as something like an S2000 (which seems to make almost any speed an adventure), high-speed stability and top speed capability aren't what I consider mind-altering about this car (maybe that's because I was really nowhere near the latter - the 115 just isn't where you test out how fast a Z06 can go and how well it goes around corners - I guess I'm not as much of a sociopath as I sometimes make myself out to be); rather, it is its acceleration.

Never before have I been strapped into anything that could go

Six-speed gearbox is stiff, requiring a heavy hand. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

from anticipation to 100 km/h in less than 4 seconds, but every time I tried it, it only felt better. While I doubt I actually pulled any sub-4s or 12-second 1/4-miles with my brick-like feet and boxing-mitt hands, once I got the clutch loose in first gear and gave the pedal a good shove, I quickly saw myself in various states of mortality and enlightenment and felt God on my left-hand shoulder urging me on. Instead, I chose to obey some approximation of the posted limits rather than what I know to be an eternal truth: this car is unholy fast.

Then again, it's not like riding a roller coaster, where you simply hurtle into space and time completely at the whim of the machine; in the Z06, you yourself have to deal with the nature of the beast, feathering the clutch and feeling it grip as you push the revs into tire-spinning torque, but with foot-wide rubber putting all that power to the pavement, it requires a real desire or a patch of gravel to break traction on launch. I found neither. 


The

An appropriate package for a 505 horsepower 7.0-litre engine. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

other challenge when taking off with full power is the sensation that the front tires are seeking to rejoin the hosts of angels that set them upon the earth; by that I mean that it feels like the whole front of the car is lifting like a funny car at the drag strip, and the steering starts to feel eerily light and a bit jittery - it's one of the most fun yet scariest things I've felt in a long time, easily better than any roller coaster I've ever been on.

It's fast and it's fun, but it's definitely not perfect with a shape that does more for aerodynamics than ergonomics, so it's like getting into a toboggan with a roof (and then sledding down a cliff). The stereo sounds great, but it's living through an outdated, plasticky interface and an interior that is very functional, but very plain. Then again, who listens to the stereo when you've got 505 horsepower rumbling underfoot and then out through big quad pipes sounding like Cringer becoming Battle Cat when it first turns over. For those of you who didn't watch a lot of He-Man cartoons growing up, that's loud, mean and then really loud some more, and then a 5-ton cat coughing up furballs.  It's a whole lot of car, and you're not likely to be ignored if you don't want to be, especially if someone is actually dumb enough to get uppity next to you at a stoplight.

So how does one get to be a 4-second car? For a car this size, it could

This is one of the few cars that can actually reach the far end of its speedometer. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

be classified as borderline anorexic, starting from a hydroformed aluminum frame, magnesium engine cradle, carbon fibre chassis composites and carbon fibre panels in key areas to help balance weight distribution and allow for bigger, better and badder tires and suspension. Then they drop in a 7.0L small-block V8 that was lovingly assembled by one master builder at GM's Performance Build Center in Wixom, Michigan. The particular Z06 that I drove housed an engine that was assembled by H. Rose, as revealed by the small plaque on the valve covers just above cylinder seven (the rearmost cylinder on the passenger side) just underneath the plastic engine cover and hidden by a little black plastic tube. 

To learn more about the Performance Build Centre and the special

What a wonderful engine. Thank you very much, Mr. H. Rose. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

care and attention GM pays to the assembly of their flagship powertrains (the Z06's LS7 and Cadillac XLR-V and STS-V's supercharged Northstar LC3), visit our news archives (GM Performance Build Center: The Jewel in GM's Powertrain Crown - May 29, 2006). From block and parts to shining beacon of civilization, one man with enough years of assembly experience to earn the title of master builder puts each part in place and torques each nut and bolt to pass the inspection of the line supervisor and computers with no tolerance for any error. Each engine is a product of human skill and machine verification, a marriage for the sake of assembly perfection and ultimately, customer satisfaction. Consider one man satisfied (though I'm not really a customer - only a wishful thinker). Thank you H. Rose. [Though I'm not sure what the H stands for, I imagine Harvey, Jimmy Stewart' s six-foot tall rabbit with big, floppy ears carefully dropping the crankshaft in place, sealing the cylinders and lovingly pulling the wrench tight on every last nut before sending the engine off to its hot test to make sure it runs perfectly.]


While the finished engine is bolted and attached to the chassis and

Perhaps the most amazing part about the Z06 is that it offers supercar levels of performance, for well under $100,000. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

body that are assembled in Bowling Green, Kentucky, it all comes together like a super nova when you're out on the road. However, years of real world and track testing (on 8 world-class tracks including the famed Nurburgring - like that's some sort of blessed victual conferring performance on a car... whatever) to balance the car and tune the suspension mean unflappable road holding without any sort of S&M punishment at the hands of overly firm ride setup.  However, if you're concerned with the Nurburgring, the Corvette laps it in 7 minutes, 42.99 seconds, making it the third fastest production vehicle, only behind the Porsche Carrera GT and the 911 GT3.

It was everything I had been begging for over the past several months, though I can hardly imagine living with it on a daily basis - I would likely get locked up in a traffic school dungeon or institutionalized in a facility for sociopathic drivers. In a very short time, it climbed very very high on the list of cars I would purchase immediately after winning the lottery. Whether I ever drive one again or not, the Z06 has such pure unadulterated power delivery that I will now be left with lifelong cravings for the adrenaline pipeline and the massive acceleration.

And considering its price, it can easily be considered the crack of

The Z06... more fun than an amusement park. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press)

the supercar world - zero to high in under 4 seconds for a third the price you'd have to pay for the same kind of buzz from the imported brands. There's no point reviewing its safety features or its reliability record, though I'm sure both are respectable, because this car is way beyond simple transportation. In that, it is like a roller coaster - you can go up and down and around in circles and it just gets more fun every time around the loop, the faster it goes and the quicker it drops and the sharper it turns just mean more and more fun, and make you willing to stand in line even longer the next time. The Z06 is the kind of ride for which I'd gladly stand in line for hours, days, or weeks. One hit, and I'm addicted.

Specifications (Z06):

• Price Range (MSRP): $89,900 - $100,010
• Price as Tested (MSRP): $97,455
• Body Type: 2-door coupe
• Layout: front engine, RWD
• Engine: 505 hp, 470 lb-ft of torque, 7.0L, 32-valve OHV V8
• Transmission: 6-spd manual
• Brakes (front/rear): disc/disc, ABS
• Dimensions (L/W/H/WB): 4460 / 1,928 / 1,244 / 2,685 mm (175.6 / 75.9 / 49.0 / 105.7 in.)
• Curb Weight: 1,420 kg (3,130 lbs)
• Tires (front / rear): 275/35 ZR18 / 325/30 ZR19
• Cargo Volume: 634 L (22.0 cu-ft)
• Fuel Economy (cty/hwy): 14.3 / 8.2 L/100 km
• Performance (0-100 km/h): 3.7 seconds
• Top Speed: 318+ km/h (198+ mph)
• Warranty (mo/km): 36/60,000 comprehensive
• Competitors: Cadillac XLRv, Dodge Viper SRT-10, Ferrari F430, Ford Shelby GT500 / Ford GT, Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes-Benz SL55/SL65 AMG, Porsche 911 Turbo
• Website: www.gmcanada.com