The wait is almost over for those early bird customers that put a deposit down for a 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. The cars started shipping out to dealerships across the country yesterday, with Chevy telling us that some lucky customers will have the keys in their hands as early as this week.
The latest Z06 is assembled at General Motors Company’s [NYSE:GM] Bowling Green Assembly plant in Kentucky, where all Corvettes are built, and is described as the closest link yet between Corvettes built for racing and the road. Many of the performance upgrades were developed using lessons learned from Corvette Racing’s C7.R, which the Z06 closely resembles.
Not only that, but the new Z06 also offers the most choice for customers in the model’s history. In addition to offering a convertible option for the first time, the new Z06 is also the first to offer an automatic transmission, in this case a lightning-quick eight-speeder with paddle shifters. It’s also the only performance car rated at 650 horsepower or more to offer more than one transmission type. Yes, the good ol’ manual is still available for the purists out there.
Power comes from a supercharged 6.2-liter LT4 V-8 engine rated at 650 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque, and with the auto trans the car accelerates to 60 mph from rest in just 2.95 seconds. That figure drops to 3.2 seconds with the manual. The quarter mile, meanwhile, is 10.95 seconds at 127 mph, once again with the auto (11.2 seconds for the manual), and when it comes to stopping power the Z06 needs just 99.6 feet to halt from 60 mph. Note, these figures were all achieved using the car’s available Z07 Performance package, which adds things like Brembo carbon ceramic brake rotors and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires.
To see how that performance relates to the track, enjoy this video of Corvette Racing's Tommy Milner driving the new Z06 at Road Atlanta.
If you’d like to see one these beauties parked in your driveway, pricing for the 2015 model starts at $78,995 for the coupe and $83,995 for the convertible. Both prices include destination.