traded the Z06 in last year for two trucks an ltz suburban and an ltz pick up . the z06 was well used and the clutch was all but gone . my best time with that car was 11.29

anyway hopefully i will be getting a ZR-1 as i have been number one on the list with the same dealer i bought the Z06 through . will have to see how its priced .

it did not take long though before i craved another corvette to drive so we went down and traded a jeep wrangler we had laying around in on a 2008 black 6 speed , only options are Z-51 package , exhaust and dark dray competition wheels .

at first i was impressed with the acceleration of the car especially in first and second but after a few full court presses i can say its clearly not near Z06 performance levels , no surprise of course but a very nice car for the money . a new z06 would have cost me about 30k more from this dealer here in florida .

One point that may be of interest was made by my 14 year old son who came with me to bowling green to pick up and drive the Z06 home , and was rarely not in the car everytime i took it out . He says we seem " invisible " to people now , compared to driving the Z06 and he is correct . That does not matter much to me anymore but he surely notices it .

anyway i hope to take this car to the local track soon and will report back on what we get out of it .

one complaint so far is the removable top , the rear latch makes an annoying rattle so much so that i have to leave it un lathched if we are just driving around town . Has anyone had this problem and is there an easy fix . ?

 

nope, no ideas from a vert owner, but looking forward to your times if your car's still "bone stock".

 

Interesting and informative post.

BTW when you ran the 11.29 with the Z06 what mods, if any, were on it?

 

08 Black Z51 here.....no rattle from the rear latch on the roof for me. However, I will note that most corvette owners seem to be EXTREMELY **** retentive in comparison to me. So it could be rattling and I just haven't noticed or cared.

 

if memory serves i had a 160 tstat , jim hall email tune and filter, stock run flats . Honestly though i am not sure how much these mods helped as the biggest help came from conversing with " ranger " and getting my 60' time down . Once i reduced the 60' times, low elevens were common . Till my clutch went away that is . i believe before nailing the launch technique i had glazed the clutch a few too many times and it would heat up right away and became impossible to launch hard . the clutch was still fine on the street though .

 

i am with you on that ,the performance of the car is whats important to me . i tend to overlook any and all minor shortcomings of the car , i really could not care less about the paint quality etc.. if it was better , that would be great but as long as mine is no worse then anyone elses its fine with me . I normally dont care much about minor squeaks and rattles either , i usually have the exhaust fuse pulled and the radio on anyway but this thing is two inches away from my ear and is frustrating in a brand new vehicle . I only have 175 miles on the car . i did do a search after posting and found that there are a lot of people with the same problem and apparently a redesign of the latches has been done ? guess i will have the dealer change them out at some point .

great car , have fun with it !

 

I just bought my first Corvette (also an 08 Z51) and have noticed that many other drivers tend to behave like Don Garlitz at stop lights when I'm around.
Jeeze, just because it walks away from everyone else starting from second and short shifting....
Must be even worse with a Z06...

 

That may be the case but don't forget it is over a year later now right?
You'd be surprised what a year more of seeing other similar cars around does to people, what was once hot might now be more common, less 'special'...especially among 'car jaded' south Floridians.
The point I'm trying to make is your son might've noticed more people staring at the Z06 a year (or more) ago because there simply were more people staring at ALL Corvette C6s (Z06s and base cars alike) back then. The car in general is just more common/has been seen around more lately so it might only seem like it's a C6 versus C6 Z06 thing when the truth is those same people not noticing your current car might not have noticed your Z06 now either.
Up here in NJ, my base model yellow C6 still practically stops traffic even this far into the model run.




There might be a way to adjust the latch/mechanism and/or a way to grease the area where the dowel slips into to quiet things down a bit.

 

[QUOTE=LS1LT1;1564874229]That may be the case but don't forget it is over a year later now right?
You'd be surprised what a year more of seeing other similar cars around does to people, what was once hot might now be more common, less 'special'...especially among 'car jaded' south Floridians.
The point I'm trying to make is your son might've noticed more people staring at the Z06 a year (or more) ago because there simply were more people staring at ALL Corvette C6s (Z06s and base cars alike) back then. The car in general is just more common/has been seen around more lately so it might only seem like it's a C6 versus C6 Z06 thing when the truth is those same people not noticing your current car might not have noticed your Z06 now either.
Up here in NJ, my base model yellow C6 still practically stops traffic even this far into the model run.


You make a good point and in fact we may have had the first Z06 in our area . We took delivery right around christmas time 2005 . You also make a good point regarding area , as there are so many C6 cars in our area you cant drive a mile or two without seeing one . Actually i think i was the first person on this forum to ever race a Z06 at the track . Mostly because Florida tracks may have been the only ones open in January . that first run i just krept off the line as i felt certain there was no way the tires were not going to go up in smoke but even with a horrific 60' that first pass was still in the 11s and i was amazed ! still have a video someone sent me of this run .

 

FWIW, no latch rattle here.

 

You just bought the wrong color is all. My Atomic Orange Coupe gets looks and praises constantly here in Miami!

 

Ditto

 

I have about 1200 miles on my 08 Black Z51, no rattles from the latch, but I am having rattling issues in the front of the dash. Has anybody else had issues wth this???