Sypher

It's not time to wake up until they release the official MSRP.

Until then, dream away!

I'm hoping for a used Z06 in like 3 years or so.

darrinb

what i dont get is why they put navigation in there, isnt it an extra 50 or so lbs

SanJoseRoller

who cares about 50 pounds when you got 500 horses and 475 foot pounds of torque it will help the corvette hold its resale value which is bad for all us fuckers who want to buy used one

Maximized

This car is going to be a tree finder. Insurance companies must hate these types of cars. I hate to say it, but cars are getting TOO fast for the general public. Most people that buy these cars will never be able to fully control them.

darrinb

well they only spends thousands trying to dave a few lbs here and there

darrinb

true, but being that its 70-80k your not gonna see many people under 25 driving them, so that helps out on insurance #'s alot

gocubsgo55

i think it's safe to say that GM really got it right. A supercar without the super price. Truthfully, they got the price right too. This car in my opinion can value for upwards of 100k; a high compression hand made V8 producing 500 HP attached to a body that only weighs 3100 lbs. Impressive. I'm sure it'l give the entry level supercars (Modena, Gallardo, NSX-R, M3 CSL, etc..) a run for their money (which are a lot).

bigman

it's amazing how fast the new z is coming out when compared to the 4 years it took with the C5. When it comes down to it, if you purchased a C6 and got a stroker kit and some other goodies for 5 grand, you will be much faster stock. Or you can always purchase a low miles C5 for 25 grand, drop in a 6 grand twin turbo kit and make over 800 horses easily. There are guys that are making that poer and have been driving the cars for years that way. One thing for sure is these Gen III and IV motors are very potent in stock form.

LexDriver

the new vette is sweet, love the new lights. the z06 is just

ilitig8

I agree in some sense BUT the more sophisticated traction control available today make todays high HP cars much safer than the muscle cars of the late 60s.

The biggest reason insurance cars hate them is not due to excess 1 car accidents it is the exotic metals and construction that costs, small bump-ups can cost huge dollars, even compared to the cost of the car.

Vandy

PS regarding the steering wheel, these cars get tracked rather more often compared to many others and if you use gloves at the track, as I do, you appreciate a beefy steering wheel.

Vandy

Dan Martin

Damn that's hot!

Did anyone else notice the shitty design of the headers? I guess they must have been cramped for space under there...

gavriil

Corvette C6-R race car launches for 2005 - - Posted by: kak on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - 02:36 PM CET - - Source: kak.net

srika

click here for tons of pics of C6 and C6R - no 56k

darrinb

dodge is getting scraed!!!

Dan Martin

Great pics! Thanks for that link srika. I love the last cutaway shot.

srika

David Kimble rocks!!! I think he's been drawing car cutaways since like the early 80's... maybe earlier.

Dan Martin

I'm sporting it as my wallpaper right now.

Moog-Type-S

Wow!

srika

Chevy says the new Z06 will do the 1/4 mile in 11.7 seconds @ 127 mph

I believe it. If not damn close to that. This car is not even in the same league as the Viper anymore, and shouldn't be compared to it.

It's running with the Ford GT now. Hell, with some basic mods, it'll be running close to Enzo and Carrera GT territory. Now that, is insane. Even bone stock, it ain't too far from Carrera GT territory. Oh yeah..... for around $65,000.

Check this review at C&D online, it's a good read.

http://www.caranddriver.com/article....rticle_id=9017

srika

Crazy Bimmer

wow. They really took it to the next level.

darrinb

there actually have been some bone stock ls6 z06's that have ran 11.8 on stock tires, i'd imagine that those are very skilled drivers w/ optimal conditions though

srika

I don't doubt that. The trap speed for the C6 Z06 is what's more , than the ET...

GreenMonster

The C5 Z06's can be had for low $30's now... While not as nice as the C6, they are a hell of alot cheaper

Sypher

Yea, but I never did like the C5 body style. The C6 is the first Corvette since the C2 (used until '67) that really looks good to me. I think I'll hold on to my money until the C6 Z06 can be found used for less than $50k.

gavriil

MT reports that there is a supercharged 428 cubic inch LS7 V8 under the hood of the Blue Devil making 600 HP on 93 Octane gas but it's still several years off if GM decides to build it.

MADCAT

I little late don't you think? All that brain power to waist on those bloody SUV's

mattg

SpeedyV6

2005 Chevrolet Corvette: Of Speed, Style, Vision and Missed Opportunities
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...06auto.583.jpg
LET'S get this out of the way right at the start: the 2005 Chevrolet Corvette is the best high-performance bargain on the planet, bar none. There is simply no other way to park a sports car of this caliber in your driveway for less than $45,000.

To wit, when the glossy car magazines look for a worthy challenger to run hot laps against the 'Vette, they tend to pick the venerable Porsche 911 - a car with a base price of $79,895 and actual stickers that usually run much higher.

In these battles, designed to titillate both teenage horsepower hounds and candidates for midlife crises, the Chevy often wins. So it was no surprise that on the pages of the December issues of both Road & Track and Car and Driver, General Motors' tried-and-true two-seater was judged the better car for the money.

By now, track-day geeks, youthful dreamers and the Corvette's legion of fans have all memorized the winning numbers: 8 cylinders, 6 liters of displacement, 400 horsepower, 400 pounds-feet of torque, zero to 60 miles an hour in 4.1 seconds, 12.6 seconds through the quarter-mile, a top speed of 186 miles an hour. (These are all according to Car and Driver; Road & Track came up with slightly slower times.)

To get a little perspective on this slurry of statistics, however, I'd like to throw a third car into the mix. It's an equally iconic steed, my mother's Camry.

While the four-cylinder Toyota is anything but a sports car, it is fully capable of cutting off 911's and 'Vettes on the freeway. One can even imagine the Camry, in the hands of a less adept pilot than Mom, skidding toward a stop before slamming into the substantial plastic-composite rear end of a 'Vette that had just decelerated from 60 m.p.h. to a dead stop in only 114 feet.

The point is, in the real world, the Corvette's numbers matter a lot less than they do in the fantasyland of guys who use "pilgrimage" and "Bowling Green, Ky." in the same sentence. All of today's most potent performance machines - Corvette included - offer levels of power and handling so far beyond what is usable on our increasingly congested road system as to be absurd. Even if you can open the throttle, is there a difference between obliterating the speed limit in 5 seconds rather than 6? Not an important one.

Go ahead and believe in the infallible stopwatch and irrefutable spreadsheet if you must. I distrust numbers-crunching that fails to recognize the subjective qualities that make cars more than mechanical animals. Absolute performance matters far less than purity of design and overall drivability. Call it what you will - the spirit, the soul of the car, the Heartbeat of America - but I'll take this gestalt any day over pulling g's on a skidpad.

In other words, I'm unconvinced that the new Corvette is a great car just because it can literally run circles around 99 percent of what's on the road today.

This is the so-called sixth generation of Chevrolet's halo car (it is thus known as the C6), though it is heavily based on the previous C5 model. Like last year's Corvette, it comes in coupe and convertible body styles in a mostly conventional front-engine, rear-drive layout.

A higher-performance Z06 version of the C6 is due to arrive later this year as a 2006 model. It will be powered by a 7-liter V-8 that makes 500 horsepower and 475 pounds-feet of torque, and will carry other performance enhancements to make it more of a racecar in street clothes.

The C5 was a stellar sports car, which continued a Corvette tradition of major redesigns that took the car in new and mostly better directions. The look of the C6, on the other hand, breaks little ground. It is basically a warmed-over restyle of the C5. This new car makes no overriding design statement, and I get little sense that the development team sat down and probed the really big questions about what a 21st-century Corvette could - and should - be.

While this doesn't make the C6 a bad car - it is certainly not a bad car - it is disappointing that such an opportunity was missed.

The C6 is 5 inches shorter than the C5 and an inch narrower, and it has a 1.5-inch longer wheelbase. This doesn't do too much to change the car's look, but it does significantly improve the Corvette's ride over unfriendly pavement. The new car is less edgy and it is exceedingly comfortable, even when equipped with the optional Z51 performance suspension package.

Indeed, the C6 is one of the best-riding sports cars I have ever driven. It is also roomy, capable of swallowing a driver of almost any size, including those who shop at the big-and-tall store. Its excellent seats are neither too soft nor claustrophobically supportive, and are still a pleasure after an entire day behind the wheel. With the top down, the convertible model has far too much wind buffeting at speed, but that's my only complaint from the cockpit.

There is no problem, either, with the Corvette's V-8, which paints the standard C5's lily with 50 extra horses. Acceleration is effortless, as expected, though steering effort is anything but light. The only thing wider than the steering wheel is the car's turning circle, making "nimble" the last adjective you'd use to describe this beast. Of course, it would be unimaginable for the Corvette suddenly to become a dainty little sports car, so the heft and brawn of the C6 are as welcome as they are familiar.

In fact, the C6 mimics the C5 in so many ways as to be almost entirely without its own personality.

The C5's main vices were a cheap, monochromatic interior and a large, unbecoming rear end. G.M. designers sought to address these issues, though the results are middling.

The interior has been "upgraded" with the sort of faux-luxury plastic finishes now common on sub-$20,000 cars like the Scion tC and Chevrolet's own Cobalt. The result makes me appreciate the lack of pretension in the C5, whose dashboard would have looked at home in a Silverado pickup.

The big-booty issue was tackled in part by shortening the car, which reduced its rear overhang. The haunches and deck lid were given a more sculptured look, though the effect is like cinching the belt of your pants tighter to rein in a beer gut.

Given the failures in rectifying these big complaints with the C5, it's hard to believe that G.M. managed to screw up one of the Corvette's best features - its svelte, tapered nose. By ditching the concealed headlights that have graced the front of every Corvette since 1963, and adding a long, horizontal open-air intake to the Corvette's fascia, the C6 has gained what Chevy calls a "stronger" face. Or, if you prefer, a beady-eyed lizard.

The rest of the styling changes are of the nip-and-tuck variety and become apparent only when C6 is parked next to C5. What's really obvious then is how much more organic the old design was. You can tell someone actually drew that car, imperfect as its shape may be, while the new Corvette looks as if it had its genesis in Photoshop.

Though the C6, with its longer wheelbase and shorter length, has better overall proportions, I'll still take the C5. Not only does it look meaner, but less like a generic amalgam of influences from other cars.

I can understand that G.M. wanted to stick with what works, and there are worse directions it could have taken than creating this "C5½." The old car was (and still is) an impressive machine. In its 405-horsepower Z06 trim, the C5 was just as capable of generating numbers to make the fan boys drool. There are myriad ways in which the C6 could have been improved, but wasn't.

The Corvette still employs a conventional four-speed automatic transmission while virtually every other sports car on earth has adopted some sort of shift-it-yourself automatic or Formula One manual activated by paddles or buttons around the steering wheel. It is disappointing that the 'Vette still doesn't offer any of these modern gearboxes.

Would it be heresy to suggest that G.M. might have considered a wholesale reinvention of the Corvette? That perhaps the C6 should have an all-wheel-drive system like the one in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, a fellow member of the 4-Point-Something-to-60-M.P.H. Club? While a hybrid-drive system was clearly never on the drawing board - G.M. has no such deployable technology -

wouldn't it have been cool to see the Corvette break this ground?

Perhaps these two suggestions are equally stupid and unrealistic, but the point is simple: there are not enough new ideas in this car. Only once or so in a decade does G.M. redefine the Corvette. You'd think that even in lieu of a clean-sheet design, it might have come up with innovations beyond an optional navigation system. But the new Corvette is still pretty much the same old car with many of the same old annoyances.

Primary among these is the six-speed manual's skip-shift "feature," which forces drivers to shift from first to fourth gear at low speed. This trick gives the car a bump in the fuel-economy ratings, keeping it free of a guzzler tax, but that hardly justifies such an intrusive system - especially since owners routinely disable it with a $20 after-market part.

In too many ways, the car feels forced together out of disparate parts or components that were not particularly well thought out. The steering column has two separate adjustment controls: a one-axis joystick for its telescoping function and a lever to adjust the tilt. Surely another company would have found a way to combine both functions in a two-axis control.

Similarly, the power convertible top isn't entirely automatic - it must still be unlatched by hand. Much of the competition, including lesser sports cars like the BMW Z4, have one-button automatic tops.

These throwbacks should not be surprising, given that most of this 'Vette was defined a decade ago. The rest, including a problematic keyless entry and ignition system (with electronic door handles) is a result of the C6's being co-developed with the Cadillac XLR luxury roadster.

I have had problems with both cars' failure to identify the radio transmitter in the keyfob, forcing me to go through the tedious process of unlocking the car with the key. Since there are no keyholes in the doors, this requires fiddling with a concealed lock at the rear of the car, then a further effort to convince a sensor to "see" the fob so the engine can be started.

The bottom line is that you can find yourself sitting 15 minutes in a parking lot, frustrated with a new technology that offers no more convenience than the previous system. This does provide some time to contemplate what this whiz-bang superfluity is doing in the Corvette in the first place.

Sadly, we already know the answer. G.M. has only so much money to spend developing cars, and some of that cash had to be sunk into the XLR, which shares its architecture with the C6 Corvette. Now I'm not saying that G.M. robbed Peter to pay Paul, but it's clear that Cadillac's new sports car influenced the C6's parameters as much as anything.

I won't judge whether this was the right move or not - Cadillac's turnaround is certainly G.M.'s greatest success of the last 20 years - but I will say that I like the XLR a lot.

And despite my carping and criticizing, I like the new Corvette, too. It's a lot of fun to drive. And as all the world already realizes, it offers unmatched bang for the buck.

But I want more than a fast car at an attainable price. I expect more from the caretakers of this icon - America's Sports Car, as it's called. I long for a Corvette in which every surface, every part, every angle and ultimately every decision contribute to the creation of the perfect sports car. I don't expect G.M. - or any automaker, for that matter - to succeed in this impossible task, but in the trying comes the possibility of creating a very special car. The new Corvette, unfortunately, isn't it.

INSIDE TRACK: To have and have no
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/au...=all&position=

charliemike

Redefine the Corvette? Like Ford almost did with the Mustang when it made the Probe?

This writer is an idiot.

gavriil

In the latest MT mag edition, the Convertible WITH THE 4 SPEED AUTO ran:

4.8 for the 60
13.1 @ 110.4 mph for the 1/4 mile
60-0 = 112 feet
600ft slalom = 65.6 mph
Lateral Acc.= 0.88 g

Base price $52245
As tested $62805

heyitsme

heyitsme

Z06 undergoing testing

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...eline.promo.2g

gavriil

In the link above, Edmunds calls for 505 hp and 470 lb-ft, of troque, and under 4 second 0-60 run and mid 11s for the 1/4 mile.

Crazy Bimmer

A supercar without the premium price?

cob3683

Nice

Good article on the GT500 too

cusdaddy

Sounds amazing!

gavriil

Motor Trend mag. has an article elluding to the fact that there is an internal proposal within GM for the return of the Corvette SS from 1957. This Vette will be positioned above the current Z06 car. Since we now know the Z06 makes 505HP, the SS should make at least 550HP to go against the Viper or 600+ to go against the GT. They also have an illustration of what it could look like above the article.

gavriil

I am getting more and more convinced that we will see an even more powerful Vette than the Z06 since there has been talk about it from different angles. I am referring to the Super Vette or the Blue Devil Vette we have heard about in the past. Now this SS proporsal.

Another hint could be the unusually "well designed" LS7. E.g. dry sump, titanium rods, sodium filled valves, etc. You dont need all that tech to make 505HP from 7.0 liters in my opinion.

Making the LS7 turn to 8000 rpm and peak HP at 7250 will easily produce another 100HP. The question is, can they make it while maintaing driveability, emissions and other similar factors.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

All this talk of an even more powerful Vette doesn't do GM much good if it can't get its bread and butter cars off the lots and into consumer hands.

Moog-Type-S

I'm sure the SS Vette will be shelved...GM has more important things to do....like save the company...ans SS Vette is not the savior for GM