as republished from Car and Driver
It’s as if this car exists solely for Lightning Lap
Lap Time: 2:44.6
Base Price: $93,480
As-Tested Price: $100,245
650 hp | 3550 lb | 5.5 lb/hp
Dateline November 2015: Seconds before the Corvette Z06 crosses the start-finish line to begin its hot lap, you’re subjected to 1.20 g’s of lateral acceleration for six full seconds through Hog Pen. A silence falls over the switchboard in your head. Every neuron lines up to get the Z06 moving through space as quickly as possible. Gone are the employment doubts, the mortgage-payment anxieties, and the hair-thinning concerns that clutter up your daily thoughts—domestic worry is not possible at 1.20 g’s. Belt into a Z06 with the Z07 package like this one and the automotive-induced enlightenment lasts exactly 2:44.6.
This isn’t a peaceful, monk-on-a-mountain experience, though. It’s like being caught inside your own personal earthquake. And in 100-degree heat, as we don’t run power-robbing A/C while lapping. Did we mention that you have one chance to perfectly execute a quick lap before the fresh $2200 set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires lose their maximum potential?
It’s not until the lap ends that the steering comes across as heavy. Or that you realize that the brake pedal needs a mildly excessive amount of travel before biting. Or that you’ve sweat through your antiperspirant. Still, this Corvette is exactly right. There’s simply no understeer anywhere, with grip of 1.20 g’s or more in several corners. Tall gearing—second is good for 93 mph—means that you can get on the throttle earlier in the slow corners without the fear of lighting up the tires. It’s as if this car exists solely for Lightning Lap.
Carbon-fiber feathers cover the body—not for flying, but to keep the car grounded. Gurney flaps, spoilers, and splitters push the car into the tarmac and make the impossible possible. You can, for example, accelerate through the last half of the Climbing Esses, which eats the speed of lesser cars. In the Z06 you enter at 134.8 mph, average 128.4 mph, and leave going 122.6 mph while cornering at 1.47 g’s. That’s a drop of just 12 mph versus the McLaren’s 34-mph speed loss. Imagine tripling the speed most people drive on a freeway on-ramp and you’ll have an idea of what it’s like to drive a Z06 through those esses. Even a supercar like the Lamborghini Huracán can’t hang with the Vette there; one of us tried it and ended up mowing a Lamborghini-wide fairway through the grass.
With big downforce comes big drag. Even marshaling 650 horsepower, we could only hit 153.5 mph on the long straight. Wind resistance, attributable to and commensurate with the downforce produced, is so extreme that the act of shifting from fourth to fifth eats 1.3 mph. Think about that: The brief lift off the throttle during the shift is a 0.3-g braking event, which is about how much stopping power most drivers use on the street. Fortunately, the seven-speed gearbox accepts ridiculously quick shifts. On the back straight, from clutch in to clutch out, the shift from third to fourth takes 0.4 second.
Going 4.1 miles in 2 minutes and 44.6 seconds means an average speed of 89.7 mph. That’s higher than any speed limit in the land. As you might imagine, driving at road speeds is seriously boring after a fast lap in this car.
May the Downforce Be With You
Downforce is a drag, man. The vertical-wheel-position information recorded on our data file reveals speed-sucking downforce at work. As the Z06 accelerates down the Grand West Course’s back straight, the difference between the front- and rear-wheel positions shrinks. In other words, the tall wickerbill-equipped spoiler on the Z06’s tail increases rear tire loading with speed, driving the body closer to the ground. At 145 mph, the rear of the car is more than an inch lower than the Z06’s static height. The spike in the rear-height trace at the end of the straight shows the car pitching forward, the result of load transfer during braking.
