FASTFATBOY

Besides the engine, what's the core differences?

95Z28M6

Trans gearing, rear end gearing, I believe a bigger torque tube, thinner glass, wheels and ducts obviously and factory brake pads come to mind. Also the titanium exhaust and tach...can't think of any else right now.

avizandum

I'm not a C5 guy, but a huge disadvantage is 8.5" front wheels vs. 9.5" on the Z06.

That said, if you're autoxing, Z06 is in AS where FRC is in BS.

chetly

Or the FRC is in STU where you can change the intake (pre mass air), headers, high flow cat exhaust, add race seats, go to 10.5 inch rim front and rear, springs shocks sway bars, brake calipers....

acrace

I believe that the axle ratio was the same for FRC (Z51) and Z06.

Thinner glass is windshield only.

Bar diameter (front and rear) and spring rates are different. Not sure about control arm bushings. Shock valving was also unique to the Z06.

Sox-Fan

Seats. P/S cooler?

Could an FRC have a hud?

Lawdogg

I believe the back window glass is also thinner.

acrace

Lawdogg's right on the rear backlite. It is thinner on the Z06 versus the FRC.

racer313g

Besides the performance things, there are also parts that commonly go bad that are specific to 99-00 vs 01-04. The steering position sensor comes to mind. It's expensive for 01-04 and unobtanium for a 99-00.

PRE-Z06

The rearend gear ratio is the same, now the differential case on all '01+ vettes which would include the z06 are stronger being they are a 3-rib housing vs a single rib on 97-00 models or FRC.

Also the z51 front spring on FRC is actually the same as the z06 and only the rear is different, hope that helps.

69autoXr

Rear axle gear set was shot-peened on Z06, and not for the rest of the cars. The diff tag on a Z will read "3.42SP" vs. "3.42" for the rest of the manual cars.

mr.beachcomber

The C5 Z06 uses an M12 6-spd with lower gears than the standard MM6 6-spd for better acceleration through the gears. Here's a comparison of the two 6-spds.

MM6: 1st 2.66; 2nd 1.78; 3rd 1.30; 4th 1.00; 5th 0.74; 6th 0.50; reverse 2.90.

M12: 1st 2.97; 2nd 2.07; 3rd 1.43; 4th 1.00; 5th 0.84; 6th 0.56; reverse 3.28.