Well its been a month since I picked up my new Z06 and the weather has finally started to take a turn. I don’t think I will be taking it out again until Spring so I’ve decided to summarize some quick thoughts on my experience with the car so far in the almost 2000km or 1200 miles I’ve put on it.
I got rid of my C7 Z06 and Blackwing to swing this car. I was very worried about getting rid of two manuals for an automatic as I love manual however so far that fear hasn’t shown up.
The DCT in this car is very good at providing the feel of a manual without the clutch pedal so as much as I’d love to be rowing some gears I at least am getting that feedback from the transmission I’m used to receiving from a manual car which helps a lot. First gear you can feel slipping as you get moving from a stop similar to how you would slip the clutch when getting going in a manual as an example.
I still miss having a manual but at least the experience of the DCT has helped to alleviate my primary fears with making this trade.
The next important thing is obviously the engine. I don’t know how else to describe the experience of it besides saying Holy Shit. I’ve owned a lot of cars but never anything exotic. I’ve never heard in a Lambo V12 or V10 scream or even an R8, I’ve never heard a Ferrari engine that wasn’t a turbo engine. I have owned a lot of American V8 cars and the sound coming out of this thing is just next level compared to them but that’s all I have to base it on since I’ve never heard an exotic engine in person before.
The engine does have pretty bad droning/buzzing at 2800-3000rpm, so don’t hang out there. On the highway it doesn’t shutup either even when cruising at 1500-1700rpm and I usually will turn off the exhaust which shuts it right up. Its actually a very quite car minus the road noise if you turn off the exhaust and just cruise.
The engine is incredibly loud, I’m not sure how this thing passes noise regulations and the car makes you want to just rev it out over and over. I don’t how anybody who owns this car could want an aftermarket exhaust. Its a racing engine for the street and the sounds are just insane, even during break in when I could only take it to 6500 I had a friend ask me what exhaust was on it and I had the pleasure of informing him it was stock and that it still had another 2100rpm to go, he couldn’t believe it.
I cannot express enough how utterly insane this car sounds. Give a good rip in first gear and let off and the sound just echoes off everything. It also does some super fast burbles and bangs whenever you lift off and you can be an absolute asshole in this thing around town just revving up in first gear driving around, never shifting to second.
Pulling both paddles at the same time puts the car into a pseudo neutral and lets you rev the engine while your driving all the way up to redline, perfect for when kids see you and start pointing (they do it a lot).
Every time I take this car out its an occasion purely because of the sound but also it gets a fair bit of attention because of the mid engine shape as well as the Z07 wing and front splitter/canards.
For a Z07, the ride quality is excellent. Its smoother then my C7 Z06 which did not have Z07 and it rides on par if not better then my Blackwing. The tires do still have a fair amount of road noise. I think I need to get an alignment check on it because it does seem to tramline a bit worse then my C7.
Fuel economy is terrible, even if you aren’t revving the crap out of it. I think this car is up there with the 392 Wrangler I owned, but that’s ok. Smiles per gallon are high.
Steering feels a bit heavier then my last Z06 or even the C8 Stingray I used to own. I am not a fan of the square steering wheel for regular driving, its a bit awkward to rest your hand on the top of the wheel due to the shape so I usually end up holding it at 5 and 7 but unlike the 992 911, I can actually see all my digital readouts so I understand it was designed this way for a reason.
The Ceramics during break in needed more effort then normal to get the car the stop but they now seem fine. Stopping power improves dramatically when they get some heat in them.
I personally am not a wing guy, I don’t think it looks good but its obviously functional. The little dip in the middle lets you put things in the trunk a little easier, still a slight pain and because its exposed carbon so I take my sweet time putting anything back there.
So far I’m loving the car entirely because of the engine, it dominates the experience and I don’t think I’ve smiled this much in any car I’ve ever owned. Hopefully it doesn’t get old. If I start to miss the manual once the novelty has worn off I might just get an Elantra N or something to occupy my left foot.
GM made a better 458 Speciale at a third of the price. If this were a German or Italian car people would go crazy. This is the car the 296 should be and not a boring turbo 6 cylinder hybrid.
Love to hear that you’re enjoying it! 1200 miles already, nice work :). I still haven’t gotten to hear an LT6 in person, I can’t wait. And coming from a wing guy: the Z07 pack wing looks sick! Maybe you’ll learn to love it more :)
On the alignment: tramlining could also be the tires fwiw, doesn’t the Z07 pack come with Cup 2s? That’s a known “issue” with those tires (as is noise). The alignment could be off, but it could just be reasonably aggressive factory specs. My 911 came relatively aggressive from the factory and when I replaced the tires I made the mistake of letting the dealer align it without asking for anything in particular… so they gave me THE most basic “don’t hurt yourself” alignment. The car was basically inert until I had it redone and specified what I wanted. It’s fantastic now by comparison, dynamically excellent on the limit versus criminal understeer before (at least, at autocross - 10/10ths on the road is not my game, and I’m still too big of a pussy / confident in my stupidity to track it).
Enjoy it in good health!
Being a former 458 owner I’m eager to drive it at some point. It really seems like the car Ferrari should have built instead of the 488.
I did get bored of hitting paddles in my weekend car though. So I went to the gt3. Manual weekend car and dct for daily stuff was a better combo for me.
So far I’m loving the car entirely because of the engine, it dominates the experience and I don’t think I’ve smiled this much in any car I’ve ever owned. Hopefully it doesn’t get old. If I start to miss the manual once the novelty has worn off I might just get an Elantra N or something to occupy my left foot.
I highly recommend getting one. Getting high performance economy cars like the Elantra N, GRC, and the CTR are so amazing and pair extremely well with having a crazy car. You get like 50% of the experience while still having good road manners.
Im glad you were able to get a Z06 and are enjoying it.
With the fuel economy, even though its bad what’s the range when its full? My GT350 gets around 11 MPGs and only 170 miles on a full tank of gas. Its really annoying that OEMs don’t increase the gas tank with these cars. Porsche is the only one I know that allows you to option in a bigger fuel tank.
But yeah the FPC V8 is amazing, it seems like GM really took the time to develop it properly and didn’t just bore out the LT1/LT2 engine, throw in a flat plane crankshaft and call it a day. I wonder if the firing order is the same as every other FPC V8. So many dudes I know have had their engines die from track use that it made me not want keep the car anymore since I want to start going to the track regularly. A C8 Z06 would be a blast to drive, but its a bit out of my budget, I am considering getting a Cayman GT4 at some point.
Range depends as it seems to be varying wildly since the mileage is so low. At the moment It seems to estimate 350km (220 miles) which sounds right after every fill up. Since I think I’ve filled it up 4 times already and it had a full tank when I picked it up that sounds close.
My lifetime fuel economy is around 12mpg I think last I checked.