MotorTrend Explores The Z06 Corvette At The Racetrack

The Corvette Z06 was MotorTrend’s 2023 Performance Car of the Year (PCOTY). Normally, when the magazine names an “of the Year” vehicle, they keep a press car for several months to a year to see how their winner is to live with. However, since the Z06 has a price that breaks six figures, Chevrolet wasn’t willing to just give one up for a year, but they did lend the publication their PCOTY winner for a shorter amount of time. The editors cooked up an idea that would compare the Z06 with a Porsche 911 GT3 RS and a 700-hp track-modified 1991 Acura NSX in a time attack competition at the Radford Racing School track in Arizona’s Maricopa County. Porsche backed out of the comparison, and the racing Acura had mechanical trouble, so its owner replaced it with a Lotus Elise that was track-modified with a Honda K20 engine tuned to 400 hp. Let Barry’s Chevrolet take you along for this thrill ride.

Even a high-performance model like the Corvette Z06, complete with the Z07 Package, must be prepared for a timed track run. MotorTrend had a local dealer prepare the Z06, which involved the removal of some aero pieces, a track-specific alignment, lowering the vehicle, and burnishing the brakes. The brake burnishing involved 20 runs of braking from 60 to 15 mph with 0.8g of force, which the Z06 has a setting to show you just that. You then drive the car at 60 mph for 10 miles without touching the brakes. 

The final and easiest part of the track prep is setting the tire pressure to 30 psi, which the driver/author admits he first forgot to do. After noticing the front end not tracking as securely as expected, the front tires were lowered from 40 to 28 psi. The rear behaved just fine, so the tires were left at 40 psi.

The author had plenty of praise for the Performance Traction Management (PTM) system. It offers five preconfigured settings that manage the traction and stability control, transmission, brakes, electronic Limited Slip Differential, and even the engine output. Of the Wet, Dry Sport Race I and Race II settings, the author selected Race I, which limits some of the V8’s power for the practice laps before switching to Race II for the official timing, at which point he also set all four tires to 30 psi.

Next came praise for the latest version of Magnetic Ride Control, which the Z06 is equipped with. It also has the Z07 Package, which includes stiffer springs and thicker roll bars. 

And then there is the engine. The LT6 flat-plane V8 produces 670 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. Such numbers typically come courtesy of turbocharging, but the LT6 is normally aspirated. In fact, as they mention, “… it’s quite literally the most powerful naturally aspirated production V-8 the world’s ever seen…” The normal aspiration  means the power is both immediate and predictable, adding considerably to a sense of control, which is particularly welcome when one isn’t tracking a car on a regular basis. The power combined with the fast-acting dual-clutch transmission, which the author operated manually, made the Corvette’s power distinctly manageable.

A time attack involves one warm-up lap, where you cross the start/finish line at speed, and the stopwatch begins. The following lap is the only one you get for your best time. The author was new to this, while the Lotus owner was described as a “Global Time Attack National Champ.” Though the Z06 has 270 more horsepower, the featherweight track-prepared Lotus actually had a better power-to-weight ratio. The author wants you to know all this before he admits the Lotus and its driver beat him by two seconds in the competition. Still, he has nothing but praise for the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06/Z07, which he calls “one hell of a fantastic track car.”

The Z06 MotorTrend named their PCOTY had an as-tested price of $164,805, though a maximum performance model is available for $138,175. Neither amount is for the faint of bank account. Nevertheless, they point out that the 911 GT3 that backed out of the challenge starts at $10,000 more than the fully-loaded Corvette, and the McLaren 765LT, which took the previous year’s PCOTY, and the Corvette matches in several performance parameters, cost $490,810. So, as always, value is relative. The same can be said for Corvette Stingrays, which aren’t quite as full-blown as the Z06 but still provide incredible thrills for the money. You will find those in Barry’s Chevrolet inventory, and they offer more bang for the buck than almost any non-professional driver could ever want. Still, the Z06/Z07 is available by special order.