{"id":6187,"date":"2022-11-02T00:10:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T00:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corvettenewsforum.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/02\/tested-2023-chevrolet-corvette-z06-convertible-dazzles-the-senses\/"},"modified":"2022-11-02T00:10:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T00:10:31","slug":"tested-2023-chevrolet-corvette-z06-convertible-dazzles-the-senses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corvettenewsforum.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/02\/tested-2023-chevrolet-corvette-z06-convertible-dazzles-the-senses\/","title":{"rendered":"Tested: 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Convertible Dazzles the Senses"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the November 2022 issue of<\/em> Car and Driver.<\/p>\n

Around here, we sit through a lot of presentations about automotive trends. Charts and speeches detail the long-term march to electrification and how the move toward small-displacement, turbocharged engines is bridging the gap until we get there.<\/p>\n

We hear boasts about platform sharing and production efficiencies realized. What no company ever says is, \u201cYou know what we decided to do? Draw up a big-ass V-8 that revs to a million and will only go in one version of one model. We\u2019ll build it by hand, and pretty much not a single part will be compatible with anything else. It\u2019ll have way less torque than its predecessor, and it\u2019ll get worse fuel economy. But nobody will care because it\u2019ll sound so righteous at 8500 rpm that you\u2019ll forget your own name.\u201d We might be paraphrasing a little, but that essentially is Chevy\u2019s pitch for the<\/p>\n

2023 Corvette Z06<\/a> and its singular LT6 V-8. We can\u2019t believe General Motors actually built this thing, and maybe neither can GM.<\/p>\n

Chevrolet could have powered the new Z06 with an evolution of its supercharged 6.2-liter V-8, which made as much as 755 horsepower in the previous-generation Corvette<\/a>. That would have been easy and effective, the obvious move. Instead, engineers started from scratch on a naturally aspirated 5.5-liter screamer with a flat-plane crankshaft and 32 valves. At a heady 8400 rpm, the LT6 generates 670 horsepower the all-natural way, and it makes its 460 pound-feet of torque at 6300 rpm, nearly the redline in a regular Stingray.<\/p>\n

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HIGHS: Sounds like the Monaco Grand Prix all by itself, deliciously linear power delivery, flared fenders are always a winner.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

From the moment the engine barks to life, it sounds impatient, its ragged flat-plane idle suggesting a pit stall at the Rolex 24 at Daytona or perhaps a pair of Suzuki Hayabusas sitting at a stoplight. While the Stingray\u2019s pushrod LT2 V-8 uses bimodal muffler valves\u2014loud or quiet, a binary decision\u2014the Z06\u2019s muffler valves can continually adjust in two-degree increments, fine-tuning the sound. Wide open, it sounds like a Ferrari 458 Italia that hit puberty. An engineer told us that during testing at the N\u00fcrburgring, the Z06\u2019s wail could be heard all the way around its lap. The N\u00fcrburgring, we should point out, is almost 13 miles long.<\/p>\n

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