I’m a huge fan of Corvettes, I have loved since I was a young girl and I even gave our Performance Car of the Year to the C8 Corvette 3LT Stingray Convertible in 2024, ahead of the likes of the Aston Martin DB12 and Ferrari 296 GTS. Suffice to say I was extraordinarily keen to drive the “ultimate” version of the C8 Corvette, the Z06, when the opportunity arose. The Z06 is powered by a naturally aspirated 5.5 litre high output V8 flat-plane crankshaft engine, known as the LT6 engine. But why is the flat-plane crank engine in the Corvette Z06 so special?
Well, this is the first time GM has ever produced such an engine and it was developed with a focus on track performance, drawing heavily on the experience of Corvette Racing’s C8.R race car. For the most part, flat-plane cranks are typically found in high-end European exotic cars, whereas in American V8 muscle cars, the cross-plane crank engine dominates. Cross-plane cranks give American muscle cars their distinctive rumble, while flat-plane cranks are faster and higher revving compared to cross-plane cranks.
The mid-mounted LT6 engine produces a maximum of 475kW of power and 595Nm of torque and has an 8,600rpm redline, 2,000rpm higher than Stingray. But if you’re only driving the Z06 on the road, you’re unlikely to see the red line often as you will be exceeding most speed limits in anything other than first gear when you get to it. The Z06 will do 0-100 km/h in 3.0 seconds and goes on to a top speed of 313 km/h. And at the end of a good drive in the Z06 your garage will be filled with the pleasant odours that a performance car pervades when you park them up, you could say this is a pheromone for a petrol head like me.
To be honest I don’t think I saw anything near the full potential of the Z06 during my time with it. My fuel figure would agree with this conclusion as the official combined fuel use for the Z06 is 15.7L/100km and for time with the with this American beauty I used 18.9L/100km. I also saw the projected range on a full tank of fuel improve significantly between when I picked the Z06 up and when I dropped it back.
I really liked that I could see the engine from within the cabin and from outside and when you lift the bonnet there is nothing between you and that meaty goodness. There’s a zingy bark from the exhaust on startup before the engine settles into a nice rumble. The one thing that did disappoint me about the Z06 was I felt the engine was too quiet both from the inside of the cabin and the outside thanks to the unique exhaust system with outboard tips, rather than North America’s bespoke centre-exit arrangement. You really need to drive this vehicle on a racetrack to appreciate it fully as it has just too much speed for the road.
But when I did push the rear-wheel drive Z06 I felt it was solid underneath me and I’m sure this is in part due to one of my favourite features on the Z06, the fat rear tyres! These are Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tyres and they are 345/25 21” on the rear and made the tyres on my C 63 S look like bicycle tyres. On the fronts the Z06 has 275/30 20” tyres that are wrapped around gorgeous carbon fibre wheels. And suffice to say hitting a pot hole in these wheels was another reason I didn’t fully explore all that the Z06 has to offer while driving on the road.
There are six drive modes to select from in the Z06, which are selected using the rotary switch under the leather palm pad, and these are Weather, My Mode, Tour, Sport, Track, and Z Mode. Understandably in a track focused car like the Z06 the ride is firm even in Tour mode. My Mode allows you to configure the steering, suspension, brake feel, and engine sound. And when you select Z Mode using the ‘Z’ button on the steering wheel you can also configure the engine/gear change and PTM (Performance Traction Management).
In Z Mode the Z06 holds a lower gear for longer, so it’s ready for instant acceleration that is very rapid indeed and you’ll appreciate the shift lights in the head up display to visually prompt you when to pull up the next gear if you have the 8-speed dual clutch transmission in manual mode. The Z06 allows you to aggressively pull up and down the gearbox using the beautiful wheel mounted carbon fibre paddle shifters.
This aggression is matched by the looks of this Arctic White 70th Anniversary Edition of this Z06 and I got plenty of smiles and thumbs up while driving it. This 3LZ coupe has the Z07 Performance Package fitted as well and this includes Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes with larger rotors (15.7-inch front, 15.4-inch rear) and FE7 suspension, with its unique Magnetic Ride Control 4.0 calibrations.
The Z07 package also adds my fav bits on this Z06 with a carbon fibre aero package that includes a larger front splitter, front-corner dive planes, side skirts, a rear wing, and underbody strakes, a visible carbon fibre Targa roof that is removable and fits in the rear boot. Plus, those aforementioned Carbon Revolution carbon fibre wheel, which are manufactured right here in Australia. To protect that front splitter the Z06 has a nose lift kit with the option to remember a location so will automatically lift when you get to your driveway and an excellent front camera so you can be extra sure that your clear from obstacles.
The cabin of the Z06 also smells nice thanks to the Jet Black Competition seats that are upholstered with Napa leather and suede. This is the Stealth interior trim and there’s plenty of carbon fibre on show in here as well including on the seats, steering wheel, around window controls, near drive mode selector and around the driver’s dash. The Z06 offers plenty of head and leg room and is definitely a super car for taller individuals and it even isn’t all that hard to get in and out of.
Both seats have power adjustment for recline, forward/back, single seat height, side bolster and two-way lumbar adjustment with the driver’s seat also getting additional seat height adjustment and two memory positions. They are heated and cooled, with the cooled operation working well, but they are a bit noisy to operate, so on par with other vehicles who have them. The steering wheel is also heated.
The Z06 has a Bose performance stereo with media sources from AM/FM radio, Bluetooth, and smartphone. The wireless Android Auto worked well for me and wireless Apple CarPlay is also available to connect to the 8.0-inch touchscreen. The voice control worked well for me for making phone calls, changing the radio station, and setting a destination on the sat nav.
There’s limited storage in the cabin with a cubby under the arm rest for your phone with one SD card slot, one USB-C port, one USB-A port and an AUX plug, with a wireless phone charger between the two seats. Other than that, you get two cup holders and a cubby in the doors for sunglasses. Externally the Z06 has a front and rear boot and I noted that only rear boot lid had soft close, unlike the standard Corvette, which had soft close on both boot lids.
The Z06 has standard cruise control, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert and in addition to the front view camera there’s a rear-view camera and rear parking sensors only and digital rear view mirror.
The C8 Corvette comes with a 3 years or 100,000 km (whichever comes first) warranty and 3 years roadside assistance. The C8 Corvette has been designed for track use in mind, but before you head to the track it is recommended that you go through the Track Preparation set up for the vehicle. Track events or competitive driving may affect the vehicle warranty. Servicing costs may vary for many reasons such as vehicle use; between Dealers due to labour rates; and transactional parts pricing.
This track born street ready C8 Corvette Z06 with the Z07 Performance Package takes an already iconic American super car and adds all the extras to create a tasty offering for you to savour on every drive you have in it. As tested this C8 Corvette Z06 vehicle was $435,915 excluding on-road costs and demand continues to be strong for GMSV’s popular C8 Corvette models, but there are some Corvette Stingray and Z06 vehicles on hand at GMSV dealers that are available for immediate delivery. GMSV estimate a maximum 6 month wait time for customers who place an order for a Corvette E-Ray through a GMSV dealer. Contact your preferred GMSV dealer for more information.
| Pros | Cons |
| The aggressive looks | The exhaust wasn’t loud enough |
| So much beautiful carbon fibre goodness | I was too anxious driving it |
| The odour in the garage after a good drive | Only has soft close on the rear boot |
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.