Salvage-Title Corvette Z06 to Be Raced at Pikes Peak

Damaged Corvette ranks among the best C7 online discoveries to date.

Every Corvette restoration project typically comes with some kind of challenge.

Then, there are the occasional others that come with a few welcomed surprises as well.
Take, for example, the wild undertaking of turning this salvage 2017 Corvette Z06 into a racer ready to tackle the legendary Pikes Peak. The mission is being orchestrated by Robb Holland, an experienced racer, who placed fourth in the Pikes Time Attack 1 Division race last year driving a Rotek Racing TTRS, as reported by Jalopnik.

Holland said the plan was to take another run at the Pikes Peak race this year with a few major mods to the TT. But instead, he’s opted for the Z06 to give him more edge in the race where a car’s ability to handle monstrous climbs and altitudes can prove to be the deciding factor between merely finishing Peaks or needing a tow back to home base. Why a Z06? Well, Holland narrows it down to a few things. They center on power, weight, aerodynamics, handling and suspension and ease to upgrade.

That said, Holland explains that there were several other cars being initially considered as a replacement for his TTRS in the race including the Dodge Viper ACR, Porsche Turbo GT2/GTS, Ford Mustang GT350R, and a BMW M2. Eventually, the experienced racer decided on the Corvette Z06 of the five sports cars after stumbling on the car searching the salvage title car auction site, CoPart.

The thing that piqued Holland’s interest most in the Z06 was the fact that it only had nine miles on the odometer, which would likely prompt a lot of people to take a deeper look into the car.
So, what’s the catch? Well, apparently, the Corvette has a bent cross brace, a damaged lower transmission cooler, a few scrapes to the underbody and a blown airbag. And yet, during an outing at a track in the car, Holland learned just how good of a deal he’s landed for his Pikes Peak challenge before he even begins working on the car for the race.

“My first laps in the car confirmed it: The Z06 is a beast. Straight out of the (slightly damaged) box, this car is one of the fastest, most capable street cars I have ever driven. I was easily running sub-two-minute laps around a track that only sees those kind of times with track-prepped race cars,” says Holland.

How’s that for a salvage find?