This is not your standard brutal hunk of American muscle. This is the new Corvette Z06. Sure, it has brawn – 500bhp – but it also has brains and agility. It weighs just 1,420kg, that’s 300kg less than a Ferrari 575M.
The result, reckon Corvette engineers, will hit 60mph in under 4.0 seconds, and top 190mph. Grip isn’t expected to be an issue, given how well the standard ‘Vette does around a track and given this one has stiffened springs and dampers. Plus, lurking under the newly swollen rear arches are 335/30 19 tyres.
The engine is a hand-assembled V8, the most powerful street version ever of Chevy’s small-block (of which, GM tells us, it has made 90 million with a combined 27 billion horsepower). It revs to 7,000. It has titanium conrods and a dry sump. The compression ratio is 11:1. Those are proper exotic car specs.
To get the best from it, the chassis is lightened. Where the standard Corvette structure is a glass-fibre body built on hydroformed steel rails, this one uses aluminium for the rails, and the wings are carbon fibre. The roof is bolted down, and sits on a magnesium rollover hoop. With every generation, Corvette engineers prove they’re closer to getting the true supercar mojo. The current C6 is the best yet. It’s smaller than a new 911, it’s light, and the handling keeps on getting better. There are flaws – the manual shift is clunky, the ride a bit loud and the cabin finish a bit Corsa, but in America, at least, its price slashes and burns any European supercar.
Oh, and one more thing. There’s a Le Mans version of this. It’s yellow too. And a lot of people fancy its chances.