Thoughts on the 2023 Z06?

[Trackaholic]

all ford had to do was reduce the stroke to 80-83mm and use their albatross bore spacing. 4.5L of displacement is more than enough for anyone. Just like 640K was. I doubt very much Voodoo sales would have taken a hit. Or are American buyers incapable of thinking past their dick/splacement size?

Well, I can't speak for other American buyers, but in order to surpass my own dick/splacement, the engine's gotta be pretty big!

But seriously, if Ford wanted to get ~530 HP out of a 4.5L engine they would have needed to go even farther with their optimizations. I just don't think that was in the budget. Also, I do think Ford's bore size is plenty, it just is smaller than what Chevy is setup for.

-T

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[barron64]

With the torque peak of 460ft/lbs at a lofty 6300rpms and a HP peak of 670 at a stratospheric 8400 rpm’s… you are going to have to drive it like you stole it to get the most out of it. It is going to be a big change from the large displacement or supercharged versions of the traditional LS/LT engines which produced big torque down low. Should be a blast to wring it out though!

 

[JR369]

I prefer the gt350. The frequent oil consumption and broken 8th cyl valves lend it that uniquely Italian charisma missing from Detroit products.

/Kidding

We'll see if GM engineers learned anything from watching the Ford fiasco.

Sadly you might have a decent point here. When the C8 Z gets released into the wild we'll see what issues arise. But GM has a lot going in its favor. The unlimited budget and elimination of any bean counting is tops. A racing powertrain that has already been shaken down. I don't see the same bugs that plagued the Voodoo early on factoring in for the 5.5L. I also cannot fathom GM having to replace as many 5.5L FPC motors at dealerships.

 

[JR369]

With the torque peak of 460ft/lbs at a lofty 6300rpms and a HP peak of 670 at a stratospheric 8400 rpm’s… you are going to have to drive it like you stole it to get the most out of it. It is going to be a big change from the large displacement or supercharged versions of the traditional LS/LT engines which produced big torque down low. Should be a blast to wring it out though!

Driven a GT350 lately? Ya the C7 Z06 owner will have to take some time to adjust. It'll take 5 minutes for an R owner to adjust tho. Lol.

 

[shogun32]

my "helpful" salesman offered me a CPO C8 Z51 with next to no miles on it for a mere $100k, or 20K+ ADM. Unless the whole world (still) goes sideways 2 years from now I don't expect ADM to last for long. To their credit GM isn't shy about making as many as possible.

 

[barron64]

Driven a GT350 lately? Ya the C7 Z06 owner will have to take some time to adjust. It'll take 5 minutes for an R owner to adjust tho. Lol.

Yes I have… I have a good friend that has a 16 GT350 and winding out that engine is glorious!

 

[13GetThere]

not a corvette hater by any means, but i still cant get over the looks. maybe itll grow on me but hasnt yet. ive seen plenty of them in person. performance is very impressive. even the current ones, the performance they get with "only" 490 or whatever they are, is very impressive. great car, not my cup. 100% subjective. i cant afford one anyways . if i could, id still get a shelby. maybe even a camaro before the vette. id get a C7 all day as well.

Okay, jumping from page 1 to 12, how did this topic seem to stay on topic? DON'T answer that. Just stay on topic.
I pretty much agree with what 331GT said.

 

[Dfeeds]

Okay, jumping from page 1 to 12, how did this topic seem to stay on topic? DON'T answer that. Just stay on topic.
I pretty much agree with what 331GT said.

Nothin like a new corvette to unite a mustang board haha

 

[Postal Bob]

Sadly you might have a decent point here. When the C8 Z gets released into the wild we'll see what issues arise. But GM has a lot going in its favor. The unlimited budget and elimination of any bean counting is tops. A racing powertrain that has already been shaken down. I don't see the same bugs that plagued the Voodoo early on factoring in for the 5.5L. I also cannot fathom GM having to replace as many 5.5L FPC motors at dealerships.

Lets wait and see. It's still a new engine design to GM. And with a high reving, FPC engine, the vibrations will intense, just like in the GT350. Let's see how the car handles that, and how it feels to the driver, with the engine right behind the driver.

 

[PP0001]

Sadly you might have a decent point here. When the C8 Z gets released into the wild we'll see what issues arise. But GM has a lot going in its favor. The unlimited budget and elimination of any bean counting is tops. A racing powertrain that has already been shaken down. I don't see the same bugs that plagued the Voodoo early on factoring in for the 5.5L. I also cannot fathom GM having to replace as many 5.5L FPC motors at dealerships.

In addition to the above valid points with respect to "GM having a lot going in its favor" there is no question that the annual Road & Track PCOTY award which launches each November was a significant event for Chevrolet and GM back in November 2015.

Obviously Chevrolet was very disappointed when Ford's 2016 Shelby GT350R beat out their 2016 Corvette Z06 by a wide margin but in doing so the GT350R also beat out 6 other formidable competitors many of which were priced in the 6 figure bracket with the GT350R being the lowest priced vehicle in the 8 car field.

GM and Chevrolet certainly took notice of the lop sided R&T PCOTY win by Ford back in November, 2015 and decided to follow Ford's lead with the launch of their very own FPC engine program which would ultimately end up in their 2023 Z06 Corvette.

Not only did Chevrolet have the luxury of watching the FRAP build over 24,000 Shelby GT350's over the next 5 1/2 years but they also got to observe any potential issues that might develop during that time period whether it be centered around the 5.2 FPC engine or any potential problem issues with the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires or the Carbon Revolution Carbon Fiber wheels.

If Chevrolet was going to follow Ford's lead back in 2015 they certainly confirmed that by staying within much of the same Ford play book which included a larger 5.5L FPC engine, larger 20" and 21" CF wheels and of course larger Michelin Cup 2 tires front and back.

Yes, GM had a lot going in its favor when developing the 2023 Corvette Z06 and that certainly included a great deal of help and forward thinking by the many men and women at Ford that launched the 50th Anniversary Shelby GT350/R program in July of 2015.

 

[460Fred]

I’m 6’4” 235 and had no head room. Maybe the production cars are different, we’ll see soon enough.
During the reveal I attended a rep told me I “may” fit with the lower race seats.
This was with a car seat that had over 10K butts on it at that point so I’m thinking it was broken in ;-)

Went over to see my buddies C8, I fit….barely but I fit none the less. My size 13 boots had a rough time because I didn’t want to scuff anything up.
Once I adjusted the seat I had about 3/4” head room left.
What a nice car. Fit and finish is great but then again it’s 30K more than I paid for the GT350.

Forgot to mention this C8 is a convertible, maybe that made the difference in head room.

 

[cactus_kid]

HTC has less head room than the coup.

 

[stanglife]

I don't really like the look of the C8 and I was hoping the z06 treatment would help but I still don't care for it.

That said, you cant complain about the recipe they used for the car - obviously following the footsteps of the GT350 and R but admittedly, taking it to the next level. I'd hope they would learn from their own previous fails - I suspect the car will be fine.

One question I've had burning... One of the things that the general public says is great about the z06 is that the flat plane crank was used reliably in racing their C8R. I can not find anywhere that GM ever said that their C8R was FPC. I can google-fu many statements from car magazines from 2 years ago but these same rags also state that the z06 production car was going to be twin-turbo. Am I just missing it? Did GM ever say it anywhere? PS - the C8R has had some engine failures on-track as well.

Had to add... I'd like to be the one to coin the phrase, "It's a $130k ugly Ferrari.". but does being less than half price of a similarly exciting Ferrari excuse the meh appearance? I think it sort of does. I think this is a good move for GM.

 

[Hack]

To me the one thing I don't like about the new Ferraris is that they don't have manual transmissions. So I really don't see this car pulling many Ferrari buyers. There's nothing about it that is enough better/different to pull people away. Yes it will cost less than a Ferrari, but that might be more of a negative rather than a positive for many Ferrari buyers.

But this is an exciting engine and some people who are typically manual transmission only might still consider buying this car anyway due to the engine. I have no interest in any car with an automatic, though.

The one concern I have about the engine is the solid, non-adjustable valvetrain. I could see it being fragile and noisy. Noisy would be ok for me as long as it is durable, but some premium car buyers are not going to want to hear a lot of ticking in their $100k ++ vehicle. We all know there's likely to be some piston slap when it's cold, which lots of GT350 buyers have gotten cranky about. I assume many Corvette buyers will feel similarly.

 

[460Fred]

HTC has less head room than the coup.

Seat slid back all the way, back of the seat forward a little, bottom of seat rocked back for thigh support and I was good to go. Felt like I was tucked in nicely.
At that comfortable position, no way could I wear a helmet. Did I say how nice the interior is? ;-)

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