Motor Trend’s Corvette Z06 Fails to Finish Best Driver’s Car Competition
The new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is a brilliant car. It brakes like hitting a wall, it turns like a rabbit on PCP, and it’s lightning-quick. Or at least it is for some. For Motor Trend, however, the Z06 is a bit of a mystery. Why? Because the last two times the magazine tested the car, in both instances there were significant problems (e.g. water pump and rear caster misalignment). The latest incident happened at this year’s Best Driver’s Car Competition where the Z06 actually received a DNF.
According to Motor Trend, “It didn’t work. The damn Z06 retarded spark by 8 degrees, and the 1.7-liter TVS supercharger refused to make boost. Chevrolet came up with a ‘bad gas’ theory, but Big Nasty got filled at the same Chevron stations as everyone else, and even swallowed 8 gallons of 101 octane to wake the supercharger. No luck. What we have here is a failure to compete. What a pity.”
The C7 Z06 has had its teething problems, one of which happens to be engines grenading themselves after only a few hundred miles. Most believe this is down to Chevy’s engineers over-clocking the 1.7-liter supercharger, and we tend to agree with this theory. The 1.7 is just not a robust enough blower, and has a tendency to overheat and sap power.
What we don’t know, though, is what the heck happened with this particular Z06. We find it highly suspect that Chevy’s engineers blamed it on bad gas. What makes that statement even more suspicious, though, is that the Cadillac CTS-V, complete with the same motor, still managed to get its lap in without problems, and on the same gas.
So here’s the question. What went wrong, and is it just indicative of the new Z06?