>> Is this the American Ferrari? Or the perennial midlife crisis ride? Well at zero to 60 in 3 point 7, are you going to argue? Let's check out the new Corvette Z06.
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>> Now a Z06 is a strong technological tour de force, just not necessarily in the cabin. We'll get under the hood in a moment. We do have the navigation system option in our vehicle. You have a disk player behind the screen. You've got a single slot for audio disks and of course your slot below down there for the DVD data for the GPS nav system. Another system you can get would be a six-disk changer. Again, Bose branded, seven speakers, AM FM, XM is available. That would obviate the navigation system. Frankly I would take that. And here's why. Six disk is important to me. This navigation system isn't worth the real estate. It's a crummy looking interface. It's crudely draw. It just looks like a Fisher Price product. Now it's not a bad system to use. It is touch screen. I find the menus and the icons to be cryptic. It feels like yesterday's technology. You can only make an entry of a destination and many of the settings changes while you're stopped. I'd pass on this. I'd go for the six disk that would replace this in the same location. Now a huge part of the Z06 story lives under this door, in the engine bay. Here's the seven liter, LS7 Vet motor, 505 horsepower, 470-foot pounds of torque. Zero to 60 happens in 3 point 7 seconds. That's super car territory and way faster than even a Mustang Shelby GT 500. That's how fast this thing is. Part of it is the power delivery. Part of it is the low weight of the car. A lot of competitive car touches of this engine, one that you won't see very often in production cars is a dry sump lubrication system. So instead of the oil living down in the pan underneath the motor getting pulled up by a pick up and an oil pump, it's an off loaded reservoir that gets pumped in under pressure. You do that when you're under high Gs, you don't want oil starvation from all the oil sloshing up to one side or the other of the pan. That's serious thinking for the track crowd out there.
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Transmission choice is simple. Six-speed manual, that's it. Take it or leave it or don't buy a Z06. Blessedly you are saved from being even tempted to get the six-speed automatic, which is available on lesser corvettes. The brakes are also a very businesslike operation, giant cross-drilled rotors, all around. Six pot calipers up front, four pots in the back. Now one of GM's favorite tricks that actually came off really nicely in this car is the heads up display. Standard on a Z06 by the way. It's very bright and clear. You've got three different layouts. There's a street mode and two track modes that give you different layouts of speed, tachometer, and notice the bottom there, that's an accelerometer to give you a read on what kind of lateral Gs you're putting out when you're cornering. That's pretty cool. Okay, let's price our little red rocket. The Z06 base is at 69200 or so plus destination. Then the tech options are pretty straightforward. You can get this GPS nav with the single disk CD for about 1800. Or the one I prefer, the six disk, Bose changer with MP3 disk, no nav for also about the same price. And the only other major option we spotted would be the communication thing which is the OnStar with hands free calling and one year of safe and sound, that's 695.
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