Sure the Z06 is right there in sheer handling/speed. I'm not arguing that. It's a fantasic car for the $$, no argument there.

Ford recalls GTs due to potential cracking in suspension control arm
AMY WILSON | Automotive News
Posted Date: 12/20/04
DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. is recalling its GT supercar, saying the vehicle is unsafe to drive because of potential cracking in a suspension control arm.

Ford has notified dealerships of the GT recall. The recall affects the 448 GTs produced this year. Of those, 289 have been shipped to dealerships, and 106 are in customers' hands.

Ford says no accidents or injuries have been reported. Engineers discovered the cracked control arm in one GT during a routine field inspection.

It may be weeks before the cars are back on the road. A casting problem caused the flaw, a Ford spokeswoman said.

Ford is developing a new casting procedure and will then produce new control arms.

The base price of a GT is $143,845, including a $1,250 destination charge and a $2,600 gas-guzzler tax.

Let's settle the barroom arguments right now. Here's what you need to know about the new Z06: It's raw. It's loud. It'll run 11-second quarters, pull almost 1.2 g through a turn, and, if you're brave enough, reach as near as dammit to 200 mph on the road. Oh, and here's the best bit: It'll cost you less than a Volkswagen. Okay, that's a $70,000 Volkswagen Phaeton we're talking about, but the fact remains this new Z06 is the hottest supercar you can buy anywhere for the money. There, we said it. The King of the Hill is dead. Long live the King of the Hill.

Designed and developed alongside the Le Mans class-winning C6R racer, the Z06 shares much of its technology and construction techniques. In some cases, the Z06's use of exotic materials exceeds that of the race version. But for all that, it's Chevy's astounding old-school LS7 engine (Overhead cams? Four valve heads? Who needs 'em?) that really defines the Z06. A true 427.6-cubic-inch V-8 small block, it's the first engine in the world to be certified under the new SAE (J2723) standard. The official results returned 505-horsepower at 6300 rpm and 470 pound-feet of torque at 4800 rpm.



The first, and most lasting, impression of this ultimate Corvette comes the moment the LS7 booms into life. A slight lifter "tick-tick" at idle erupts into big-block fury under hard acceleration, thanks to butterfly valves in two of the four exhaust tips that are there mostly for drive-by-noise regs, but, once open (from 3500-rpm up to the 7000-rpm redline), allow the engine to howl at full song.



You won't have heard anything like it since they stopped running production-car-based Trans-Am races in the 1970s. We bolted our own test equipment to a car at GM's Milford Proving Ground and found it had grunt enough to hurl this 3147-pound coupe to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, and nail the standing quarter in 11.5 seconds at 127.1 mph. That 7000-rpm redline is almost superfluous, by the way, because the weapons-grade torque seam is so rich and flat that third gear is about all you need for most occasions. But it does mean the Z06 will hit 60 mph in first gear (albeit just past redline).

In a straight line, then, this Corvette is Ferrari-fast, turning numbers quicker than the $192,000 F430 F1 we tested in Italy (MT, June 2005). But what happens when you throw some turns into the equation? A sledgehammer powertrain is one thing, but a supercar also needs finesse in the handling department. Which is why we've come to the Nürburgring--not the legendary, scary-fast 13-mile, 73-turn Nordschleife version, nicknamed the Grune-Holle (Green Hell) by generations of wide-eyed, white-knuckled racers, but the adjacent F1 circuit built over the remnants of the old Sudschleife in 1983.

The Nürburgring F1 track is a good place to get to know the behavior of the Z06. Sight lines are more or less direct, there are few tricky bits or surprises, and the front straight is lengthy enough to stretch the car's long legs. Nail the gas, and the Z06 catapults onto an acceleration curve that pulls harder at 100 mph than does a Honda Accord at 50. Thundering past start/finish flat in fourth gear, we recorded 144 mph before braking for turn one. The revised Tremec T56 six-speed transmission's shift gates are now more distinct and the throws are shorter, but because the internals had to be strengthened to handle the LS7's prodigious 470 pound-feet of torque, each shift feels like you're overcoming the inertia of 50 pounds of spinning metal. It requires the deliberate movements of an endurance racer, not the lightning jabs of a drag racer.

Slowing the Z06 are monster 14.0-inch vented and cross-drilled front discs, clamped by six-piston calipers (13.4-inch, four-piston rears) with individual pads in each pot for a total of 20 (count 'em) identical brake pads. Sounds complex, but using numerous small pads aids cooling and reduces the tendency of a long single pad to wear a greater amount at its leading edge. Ducts (under-chin for the front rotors, and on the side for the rears) are designed to keep everything cool. The system works: Multiple forays into triple-digit speeds around the Nürburgring F1 circuit never ended with the terror of a mushy pedal; you could confidently push the car deeper and deeper into each corner. The Z06's brakes have anti-lock modulation, but the feedback through the pedal is so concise, and the massive tires have so much grip, you have to be in an awful lot of trouble to need them on a dry surface.



Nürburgring's few low-speed corners probed the balance and lateral limits of the chassis. While understeer is theoretically possible, you'd have to purposely cook a corner and yank the wheel to find it. More often, g-loads high enough to separate platelets from whole blood (we recorded a peak 1.18g) give way to a gentle drift followed by throttle-induced oversteer--not the fast way out of a bend, true, but a helluva lot of fun. It's easy to find the give-and-take interplay between front and rear grip with the Z06's throttle because the car's balance is phenomenal--not necessarily due to its near 50/50 weight distribution, but the way the tires' grip is distributed and, once exceeded, released so gradually and predictably.



The most entertaining part of the Nürburgring F1 track is the high-speed kink called Hatzenbach Bogen. While F1 cars routinely see 180 mph and 2g-lateral loads, the Z06--without the aid of thousands of pounds of downforce--managed a respectable 120 mph while delivering a 1.0-g force, sustained for a second and a half. It's that combination of unflappable grip and seemingly endless grunt the Z06 manages so well. Nothing seems too great a task, and only your instinct for self-preservation gets in the way of attempting the impossible.

Which brings us to Spa-Francorchamps, or simply Spa, about which many racers have said, "It gets your attention and demands your respect." Yeah, no kidding: Draped over the undulating hills and through the forests that separate Germany from Belgium, Spa is very fast and constantly moving. There are blind crests, off-camber corners, double-apexes where the exit is concealed until it's too late to do anything about correcting your line, and perhaps the most famous corner in all of Formula 1: the soaring left-right-left kink known by the name of the stream you cross at its lowest point, Eau Rouge.

We never did get what we'd call a representative lap of what the Z06 could really do, though Belgian racer Didier Theys encouraged me to find a good line through Eau Rouge at about 115 mph, just fast enough to squeal the tires at the top of the hill while drifting to the outside of the turn. The car got light, but still dug its claws into the track like a scared cat clinging to drapery. There must've been some front-splitter downforce at work because it didn't behave like a standard C6. On the same lap, we whisked through the double-apex at Pouhon--inside curb, outside curb, and back to the inside curb--without moving the steering wheel one degree. On a subsequent and less successful lap, the Z06's tremendous grip allowed it to make mid-corner adjustments despite Pouhon's off-camber inclination.



On a racetrack, the tautly sprung Z06 is smooth and predictable. But on real-world roads, the ride is tolerable at best, skittish at worst. The stiff suspension sometimes skips like a stone over sharp pavement seams--first at the front, then at the rear--which can erode the confidence it exhibits at the track. The lack of sound-deadening materials fills the cabin with the whine of gnashing gears, road noise, and (mostly intake) engine roar. It feels a lot like a race car made just street legal enough to get a license plate, a bit like a 21st-century Ferrari 250 GTO. And with a claimed top speed of 198 mph--though 191 mph is the number for now until further certification is completed--it's certainly fast enough.



Fewer than 10,000 Z06s will be produced in 2006, and a good chunk will be headed to Europe. Make no mistake, it's not a car for somebody who simply wants to drive the fastest Corvette ever to work. A standard C6 is far more livable, much quieter, and still able to scare the khakis off your neighbor in less than a city block. The 2006 Z06 is a specialized car for a specialized buyer: Somebody who can appreciate its more-than-tangential relationship to the C6R race car, a person to whom 6.2 pounds per horsepower means something more than a power-adjustable passenger seat. A Z06 buyer won't mind paying $65,800 for the privilege of yelling to his passenger above 60 mph.



Naturally, the hard-core Corvette faithful will be lining up to buy the Z06. However, there just might be some Viper, F430, or 911 Turbo converts out there who could easily satisfy their performance hunger at a huge-percent discount. Ferrari performance at a Chevy price: That's what makes the Z06 such a standout.


2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
Base price $65,800
Price as tested $65,800
Vehicle layout Front engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door coupe
Engine 7.0 L/505 hp/470 lb-ft, OHV 3 valves/cyl V-8
Transmission 6-speed manual
Curb weight, F/R dist 3147 lb, 51/49%
Wheelbase 105.7 in
Length x Width x Height 175.6 x 75.9 x 49.0 in
0-60 mph 3.5 sec
Quarter Mile 11.5 sec @ 127.1 mph
Braking, 60-0 mph 104 ft
Lateral Acceleration 1.05 g avg
EPA City/Hwy Fuel Econ 19 / 28 mpg

General Motors has sent a memo to dealers informing them that Corvette wheel supply has “experienced significant disruption” and production of certain models could be delayed as a result.

GM says the wheel supply situation has caused it to make “several adjustments affecting wheel options, production volumes and production schedules.”

Dealers will have to change Corvette orders based on wheel availability. Wheel company Amcast, which went into bankruptcy on Dec. 2, supplied the wheels.

GM says wheel supply is still uncertain, and thus GM’s order fulfillment and distribution department is unable to follow the normal process of returning orders to dealers for necessary changes.

Polished wheels will not be available from GM’s new supplier. GM is changing all orders scheduled to be built after Jan. 3 from polished wheels to silver painted wheels. Further, the much-anticipated chrome wheel option will be postponed until “late spring production.”

GM says any substitution of a lower cost wheel will be reflected in a reduced MSRP and invoice. Additionally, overall wheel availability may delay production dates of orders already in the system.

GM says the impact on Z06 production is still undetermined.

But that's not the only upgrade. There's also a new six-speed paddle-shift automatic transmission for the 6.0-liter Vettes, one of the more effective examples of this two-way tranny technology we've encountered.

Chevy officials at the Chicago auto show aren't comfirming that a higher-performance version of the Corvette Z06, called Blue Devil, is under development. But they certainly are not downplaying the possibilities.

"We'd love to have it," said Ed Peper, Chevrolet general manager.

Sources say the Blue Devil might go with a supercharged version of the Z06's 7.0-liter V8, producing upward of 600 hp. Look for lightweight carbon fiber body parts to reduce weight to about 2900 pounds.

Pricing will likely start somewhere around $100,000 if and when the car makes production in 2007.

"My guess is we're going to find a way to do something beyond the Z06, that would be at a much higher price point, and which would compete with some of the leading high-performance cars of the world,'' GM vice chairman Bob Lutz told us last July.