C8 Z06

Had the same thoughts actually. I’m on the list for both, I guess whatever comes first!

 

all were idling at the same time. some louder than others

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Below freezing temps .... Randy Pobst ...... detailed comparison, on track, section by section

Spoiler: Z06 is 'bang-for-the-buck 'winner' (even tho it loses, no surprise )
They should have used a different car than the CSL. A 'regular' GT3 would have been more 'apples to apples'.

click 'Show more' for time stamps


.

 

So the C8Z in one tenth quicker than the C7Z? Great job Chevy. All that talk about how mid engine is where you needed to go that the FE platform was maxed out.

 

ummm, was the C7 tested in BELOW FREEZING temps?
.

 

Yes, it's been shown that there's only a tenth of a second (or two) between best lap times of equivalent trims of C7's and C8's.

If I recall correctly, Matt Farah tested the base C8 against the time of a base C7 and the delta in lap times (in similar conditions) was only a tenth of a second. I think Matt said the C8 instilled more confidence throughout the lap but was not appreciably faster than the equivalent C7.

Maybe the C8 will be more durable and/or capable of sustaining pace over multiple laps compared to an equivalent C7 but I highly doubt a C8 will be significantly quicker on a one lap basis.

 

The vetrte did really well, amazingly close to the 3 rs which is in a different zip code due to all that downforce. Yeah the "slowest" car had quickest laptime, cause laptime is very much about corners, and on a shorter or tighter track the difference woudl be even bigger, and over multiple las as the vetets weight works against it and its tires the lead would grow more marked.

But as you and others say the real compro would be to a regular Gt3, and there the vette would undoutably be quicker for the first laps. Two points of note, there was that weird thing with the vette brakes going into one of tyhe corners, and they noted several times that everything on the proche is just dialed in from shocks springs suspension brakes etc.

Vette did amazingly well, impressive its so close really impressive. Now we just need to see how much of a big heavy Gt car is in its blood vs and how much is truly track honed. Really impressive. Will the fcatory one day do that last 3-5% of honing, or will we owners. My only question si wtf happend witht be brakes and how lkong will this car sustain vs a Gt3, its clearly going to be measurably fatser than a Gt3 for a few lpas.

The BMW, a whole lotts $ for a german mustang. Yeah its got svage power, but simply too big and heavy.

To give an example of where BMW is at. last week drove my lowly 190 hp Elsie on R888R tires to Lrp. There were maybe 10-15 cars out, so not a whole lota traffic. There were two BMW M2s, which for sure had way more go down any straight, but it was not an issue to get past them in the 12yo elise. Those BMWs are just too heavy to maintain the cornering speeds, and esp transitions. LRP is a track that rewards momentum far more than Hp.

Meanwhile no one in a road legal car was getting past the zl1 1lt camaro, and when that car passed me the supercharger whine was epic music. So yeah a big heavy car can work, if its been really honed. Fastest car track modded Deman cayman, it had the aero suspeion, tires weigh and hp, never good to compare any road legal car to a pure track car.

 

Here you go: Both versions of the C8 are considerably quicker than their C7 counterrparts.
Lightning Lap Results 2006 to 2023: Every Car, Every Lap Time (caranddriver.com)

Real results. Not Matt Farah...
And a typical test...make sure Porsche wins...Why not the GT3 (which is still considerably more expensive than the Z06)?

 

I have an admission to make. I'm starting to question the Z06 on the basis of size. I just got back from our local car show where one of the guys had brought his new Z06 out. Loved the sounds, looks great, but it's a really big car. I've recently admired the C8 Stingray styling, which has grown a lot on me now that I see it in person reasonably often, in part because of its smaller presence on the road. Even if it does drive kind of big, it doesn't look too much bigger than my F430. On the other hand that Z06 looks pretty huge in person. Not just in width, but overall. Maybe I'm getting this impression because it was parked next to a lot of older Corvette's and classic cars. I don't think it's the same treatment as the C7 where the wide body didn't seem to increase the overall size, just the width. I can't quite put it into words yet, but the word "big" just keeps coming to mind. Any one else feeling this way?

 

It's a big car, there's no doubt about it. It's dimensionally larger than a 458 in every way: about 6.5" longer, 3.7" wider, and 0.6" taller. When my buddy and I measured the width from the outsides of the rear tires, we found that about 3" of tire will stick off each side of his storage lift, and his lift is larger than a "standard" 4 post storage lift (it's meant to accommodate trucks as well). It does look large in person, especially in the context of being next to other cars.

While it's comfortable inside, the inside does feel more cramped than many other mid engine cars (despite the car's overall size) due to the central tunnel (and to some extent the wall of buttons). It personally didn't bother me from the driver's seat, but it does feel small from the passenger side.

 

I know exactly what you're talking about. There are parts of the C8 (either Stingray or Z06) that are clunky looking, especially the 3/4 view looking down the side (from the front). The Stingray's hips look big...the Z06's hips look HUGE. The Z06 makes that view look worse IMO. While the "wide body" C7's (GS/Z06/ZR1) looked better than the C7 Stingray (in coupe form), I thought the C7 Stingray convertible looked better than "wide body" C7 convertibles.

FWIW, I've had my C8 convertible for 2 years now and would not move to a Z06 for any reason. I'm way too old to track, the Stingray is PLENTY fast, and I think it is better looking.

 

Your measurements there also make me wonder how hard it will be to get into my third car garage. The width is a little tight on the F430. I assumed the Z06 would be roughly the size of the 458, but those dimensions make a big difference visually.

Maybe I'm getting older, but I'm having a new appreciation for the stingray's across the board. I'd also been looking at manual C6 and C7's in their wide body forms. Only last week did I suddenly start seeing the C7 stingray (manual) as something that appealed to me. With the C8 Stingray (vs Z06) I could buy the C8 Stingray and a Manual C6 Z06 with the LS7, or a manual Boxster, or any number of older fun cars to scratch the manual itch.

 

I wish I had kept this one...7 speed manual! What's nice about the C7 Stingray convertibles is that pronounced "boat tail" line going from the hard boot, trunk, and the small duck tail spoiler. You lose that when you start tacking big spoilers and such on them. And you are correct, for the price of a nicely optioned C8 Z06, you could buy a new nicely optioned C8 Stingray AND a nice C7 Stingray manual or a C6 Z06 (manual only)
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

based on looks alone i would not go from my c8 sr to a z06.

 

Have no idea about how accurate this is, but for what its worth,

 

There’s too many on the used market with markups. Went by the local dealer over the weekend and they say 1-2 month wait for a stingray build. Why would one pay a markup for a used C8 that’s not exactly how you want it? There’s three for sale locally at a dealer, one with 6k miles, but still more than msrp. That’s one issue I have with trading my F430 in.

On a similar note my sales guy didn’t seem concerned with Z06 production when I mentioned being worried about waiting years to get one. He does have one unclaimed allocation for a Z06, but they want a $50k markup for it. No takers so far.

 

I'm not a huge fan of relying on two online auction sites as your primary sources of information, but I do appreciate that you can track how many cars sold and at what price. The closest Chevy dealer to me has two new C8s listed on their website--a 2LT Stingray at MSRP and a 3LZ Z06 convertible for about 77K over. I tend think the Z06 hype will continue for a while, but again, GM is in the business of selling volume cars. They're going to crank out as many of these things as they can over the years, and I still think that pretty much everyone that wants one will eventually be able to get one. Anyone that wants a Stingray at this point just needs to pick up the phone and do some legwork. If you can't order a car at MSRP from your local dealer, try another one. You'll get one for MSRP. You don't HAVE to go to one of the big three either, where the lists are years long.

Also, I'm not sure I buy that there's "problems" with the LT6. A couple failures on early cars but they've delivered a couple thousand cars, so I don't know how relevant the statistic is.

 

All of which tells us dealers think there are still a few more suckas out there to pay premiums.
Its also interesting because z06 production by defintion means stingrey production is reduced, yet its now a relatively short wait for a stingray at list. tellls me that eys some customers who would have bought stingreys are getting z06s, and also that a lot of stingrey excess demand has been filled by now.

the smart companies are building as many of the cars customers wnat to buy as possible. Gm is cranking out vettes, excalde Vs Honda s definitely not limiting CTR production. Meanwhile Genesis is filling the gap of lux cars the germans are too stupid to build cause they want to limit supply, now theyre just limiting their market share..

Someone has to pay for all those electric car fantasies, might as well build and make profit on cars people really want to buy while you can.

meanwhile over at porche apparently they'd rather you buy a vette or some other competing marque, than make decent numbers of Gt cars.

 

I think one can cherry pick pockets around the country where C8 sales have stagnated...but you could do that 2 years ago.
My dealer here in Charlotte (top 20) told me that when they get a Stingray in on trade (invariably for a Z06), the Stingray is gone within 3 days. BUT...they don't act like a used Stingray is some kind of rare car either (price wise).
Four years in, the Stingray is holding up, value wise, amazingly well...but it's not a drive it 2 years for free either.
The thing that's crazy to me is how well C7 prices are holding up (especially manuals). I thought they would have flattened out by now (I want to buy a Stingray convertible manual) but even 2014 convertible manuals (if you can find one) are priced 75-80% of what they sold for NEW.

 

I would have ordered a Boxster Spyder, but they decide to limit sales and closed the order banks. The one or two year old ones are selling for more than msrp. Sure I can get a 4-Cyl Turbo Cayman/Spyder for the same price as a well optioned C8, but I don't consider them in the same ballpark. Don't see the point in spending 50% more for a base 911 cabriolet, which is the real match for the c8.

They must be selling them for their depreciated actual value. In Austin, they're sitting in the mid $90k's. Maybe it's just the HTC's sitting as that's what I"m looking for. When I search Auto Trader for the HTC they're all sitting there for about the same price.

 

Yeah the Germsn are smockign crack. Who at prche thought a turbo flat 4 was a good idea in a premium car. Thats the thing, the Euros still struggle to understand usa customers.. The simple solution is to make more 6 cyl boxters, but nooo.

 

They (my dealer) are selling used Stingrays around their original MSRP or a little below, depending on color, options, etc.
I do think the day is gone where one can consistently sell used Stingrays for over MSRP. I'm sure it still happens now, but not like it did in 2021 or even early 2022.

 

I don't know how the Cayman/Boxster twins do in the rest of the world, but they have NOT sold well in the U.S. for many years now.

A base Cayman is $68,300 MSRP, a C8 Stingray is $64,500...not really a contest in any shape, form or fashion.

 

Yeah was at the track 10 days ago. there were two c7s sitting next to a c8. For one thing the c8 looked massively bigger, just more bulk. For another the c7 is a looker, Ferrrai would have loved the F12 to look nearly as good. Add to that the manual option on the c7..

theres all this talk about the corvette brand. Would have been ncie if they made a Fe maniual car and the c8, maybe a modded cadillac as a 4 door corvette, those 3 are probably 100k units per year in sales.. Instead we'll reputedly get some warmed over electric.

It must be somewhat concerning for MBA's who make plans at manufactuers that the hot areas of their sales(and margins) are sports/fast/evocative cars or various forms while they're trying to convince the public to be happy with a TV screen in a ****box that looks like a roach.

Thats the thing, for 80% of peoprl a car ois an appliance, and like appliances sells for comodity prices. The action that brings people in, and where there are good margins is in cars people desire. True that luxury cars are desired too for different reasons to gearheads, but if youve seen the new mercdes ev on the road, all you can think is wtf, looks like they tried hard to copy poor korean design from the early 2ks.

 

the cayman in base motor is and always was a chick car.
the Gt4 and 4Rs are great, arguably the type of car a company like ferrari used to make. But porche only reluctantly made the Gt4, seemed embarrassed to be doing it, and still dont want to make too many. The also make the cayman s which has the same motor as the Gt4, so why not just make more Gt4s

interesting factoid, the Gt4 doubled cayman/boxter(combined) sales in 1 year.
I guess for some the vette is just big(depends where you live) and for the valet parkign crowd a porche has more cachet.