2023 Chevy Corvette C8 Z06: Here's a Thorough Tour of this Beast!

this is the new 2023 chevy corvette z06 and it's a big deal the regular c8 corvette has already been a big deal for its fantastic performance and mid-engine design but now the z06 is here the high performance version of the c8 corvette and today i'm going to take you on a tour of it [Music] before i get started be sure to check out cars and bids which is my enthusiast car auction website for cool cars from the modern era now with free listings you can list your car and auction it for free on cars and bids and we've had some great sales recently including this wonderful cadillac cts-v which sold for sixty-two thousand dollars this lexus isf brought twenty six thousand dollars we've done great with isf's and this wonderfully modified mazda rx-7 brought just over seven thousand dollars if you're looking to sell your cool enthusiast car from the modern era the 1980s and up cars and bids is the place to do it check it out carsandbids.com so let's talk zeo6 unfortunately i can't drive the new z06 yeah it is this is a pre-production car and it's just been revealed to the world a few hours ago but i can tell you all about it and more importantly i can take you on a tour of it under the hood the z06 has a new v8 it makes 670 horsepower which is a huge boost over the regular c8 corvette at about 500 horsepower and now the regular c8 is pretty fast it does 0-60 in around 3 seconds this is of course much faster chevy is saying 0-60 in around 2 and a half seconds and of course this car is a lot more impressive than just that in addition to more power than the regular c8 for better acceleration this car also comes with a lot of other upgrades designed to maximize track performance and of course it will likely come at a significant price boost compared to the standard c8 when it goes on sale next summer for now i'm going to take you on a thorough tour of the z06 and show you some of those track focused upgrades along with some other quirks and features all right i'm going to start the quirks and features of the new z06 up front where we have a redesigned front end compared to the regular c8 that's a big deal because no previous z06 model has had a different looking front end compared to the regular corvette z06s have had changes in other parts of the car but never the front this one the changes to the front are mainly intended to improve cooling you have larger openings up front intended to get more air into the vehicle into the engine to cool down stuff as you're driving along and that's why you have an updated front end now it's also worth noting that this particular z06 is equipped with the zeo7 performance package which is an optional package that helps the car realize its maximum track potential and included in the z07 package you have a few items worth noting up front one is this front splitter all the z06 models have a front splitter but it's larger if you get the z07 and it's the same deal with these canards on the side of the car you can see they're finished in carbon fiber this and the front splitter are intended to improve downforce to keep the car on the ground improve your track times and they come with the z07 package although it's worth noting it's not just the z07 package that'll get you these features you can also get them if you add an optional arrow package which you can buy separately of the z07 package but if you get z07 the aero package is included by default and so you get these cool aerodynamic touches up front but it's not just the front end that's been revised for the z06 the rear end has also been changed which again is a first again prior z06 models kept the regular corvette front and rear ends but in this car it is different and the most noticeable way the rear end of the new z06 is different from the standard model is it's wider quite a bit wider in fact chevy says 3.6 inches which is a pretty significant increase usually wider rear end cars maybe there's an inch or two extra this thing is almost four and as you might expect there's good reason for that one is they had to open up these vents on the side of the car in order to once again get more air and cooling in for the engine and so these vents are a lot wider than they are in the standard c8 which caused the body to widen and thus the car to look meaner and more muscular but it's not just that it's also for tire sizing this car has much wider tires than the standard c8 as you might expect obviously that helps to enhance grip but it also puts a better contact patch to the ground for better acceleration wider tires needed a wider body to hold them and that was also part of the reason why this car has a wider rear end it's wider in front too because the front tires are also wider than they are on the regular c8 chevy says 30 millimeters wider in front and 40 millimeters wider in back this car has 345 width rear tires which really is a pretty big size for a corvette and since we're talking rear end design and styling back here i want to touch on the exhaust situation just like the regular c8 you have four exhaust pipes back here although they look like they're sort of floating suspended within their little housing and chevy says that was a very important design decision in fact their press materials said that this floating design was key to the precise tuning for the exhaust note whether or not that's true i'm not entirely sure but the look of these is definitely a special one in back and also around back something you obviously notice right away when you come back here is this massive rear wing this huge carbon fiber wing is absolutely huge and it dominates the visual presence in the rear of this car as you might have guessed this is included on the z07 package and it's also included in that aero package which you can get separately from z07 or which comes standard if you upgrade to z07 you have this massive carbon fiber rear wing and it really is huge and when you think about the design of this car it kind of has to be the rear of the c8 this area back here there's a cargo area back here and this tailgate opens up and so the wing has to be sort of back behind the tailgate in order for the tailgate to clear you can see it just barely does clear the wing and they've got a very small tolerance here which makes sense with the design but that's part of the reason why the wing sort of hangs back off the rear of the car because it has to steer clear of this like opening trunk in back and yet it still has to be large enough to provide effective downforce now speaking of wings this giant wing in back comes with the z07 package like i mentioned or with the aero package but even regular z06 models without those packages do come with a wing and it has kind of a cool adjustability feature it also comes with like a gurney flap that you can install yourself in order to control your car's downforce so even if you don't opt for this large wing you do have an installable gurney flap that you can use to kind of control your car's aerodynamics and downforce on the track which is a pretty cool feature and by the way speaking of downforce one other interesting item if you get the aero package or the z07 package which like i mentioned includes the aero package you get some extra downforce underneath the car chevy says that z06 models equipped with arrow or z07 will have strikes underneath the car to help channel air improve aerodynamics and improve downforce you can't see them but they're there helping you to get a better track time that's pretty cool and next up still a few more interesting things on the outside of this car let's talk wheels there are several different wheeled designs and finishes that are offered but even the most basic setup has 20 inch wheels up front and 21 inch wheels in back staggered wheel setup and chevy says the largest wheels ever fitted to a corvette now you can get the regular standard wheels and they look pretty cool you can see them here or you can upgrade to these wheels these are carbon fiber wheels same size as the regular wheels but much less weight chevy says saves around 40 pounds if you upgrade to the carbon fiber wheels you can see it printed on the carbon fiber wheels the word corvette just to remind you precisely what you're looking at these carbon wheels are only available if you get the z07 package they don't come standard with z07 but you can't get them unless you get z07 so it's really only going to be offered to the highest performance track drivers and by the way since i've mentioned the z07 package a few times throughout this tour i should just go ahead and tell you what else it includes i've already said that it includes the aero package which comes with this aero upgrades in front and the large spoiler in back and it unlocks the ability to order these carbon fiber wheels but there's a lot more to z07 than that it really is a track focus performance package for the most track oriented drivers for one thing you get better tires these michelin pilot sport cup 2r tires very grippy intended for the very best race track times you also get a slightly differently tuned chassis chevy says it's upgraded chassis tuning specifically developed for race track driving and you get carbon ceramic brakes that comes standard with z07 and you can see it on this car carbon ceramic brakes for reduced brake fade when you're at the track after stopping hard over and over and over again in various different laps and by the way one other note about the aero package this is the way to maximize your downforce with this car if you get the aero package or z07 which includes it you get up to 734 pounds of downforce which chevy says is the most downforce ever in any corvette that's delivered at the maximum speed for this car 186 miles an hour which is also a pretty impressive figure but serious downforce serious track performance if you upgrade to z07 and next up i've covered a lot of upgrades to the new z06 but i haven't yet touched on probably the most important upgrade of all and that would be the engine now it's back here under this tailgate trunk thing and specifically it's under glass back here as you can see you look through the glass you can see the engine and the glass actually says on it 70 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the corvette for the 2023 model year which is a cool little touch and by the way speaking of cool little touches on the glass how about at the base of the windshield and driver's side you can see it says team corvette which just makes you feel special you're part of a team dedicated to this corvette and i kind of like to see those little easter eggs there for the few people who will probably notice them but anyway you open up this rear tailgate and you can see the engine and this is a big deal 5.5 liter naturally aspirated v8 chevy calls it the lt6 and it makes 670 horsepower that means that this is the most powerful naturally aspirated v8 road car ever ever made it's the new z06 they didn't want to go turbocharging or supercharging they just got all that power out of an nav8 engine which is pretty impressive now they were able to get this much power out of a naturally aspirated v8 in part because they went with a flat plane crank which is a cool engine development some rivals have used it and it allows them to ratchet up the redline this car's redline is 8600 rpm which is absolutely huge for a corvette gone are the days of those big old-school v8s with low red lines now this thing is pretty peaky and to drive that point home the torque figure is only 460 pound-feet not an improvement over the regular c8 corvette it's all about power and high rpm with this engine now two other things worth noting with this engine for one thing it shares its basic architecture with the c8r race car this vehicle here and that is pretty cool you don't often see race car engines really informing road car engines especially in terms of sharing parts and architecture but that is the case here it also has a little plaque on it as you can see this little plaque here with a signature installed at the top of the engine this is the person who built this engine all of the z06 engines are hand built and this plaque represents the person who built this one i guess all of the builders have their own little plaque with their signature which is kind of a cool touch a few other brands do this but now the z06 does it too for a little extra personalization and humanizing your engine but maybe the most important thing about this engine at least right now since i can't drive this car is how it sounds a flat plane crank v8 always sounds good and previous z06 models have all sounded pretty good too the combination must be wonderful especially because chevy says in their press materials the direct quote engineers spent two years crafting a distinctive rich exhaust tone unlike anything ever heard from a corvette let's take a listen and see if that's really true [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay so the z06 does sound good it has a lot of upgrades that you can see on the outside of the car and there's even more than just that for one thing suspension has been upgraded over the regular c8 you have gm's newest magnetic ride control suspension system which allows for a pretty comfortable ride in normal circumstances or a harsh punishing track focused ride if you want it i've driven previous cars with previous versions of magnetic ride control i've always been very impressed so i'll be interested to see how this one does as well of course you also have additional chassis tuning for the z06 model and you have upgraded brakes even if you don't get the z07 and the carbon ceramic brakes just the regular z06 has upgraded brakes for even better stopping power everything to enhance performance for this car and next we move inside the z06 where there are quite a few more quirks and features to cover for one thing there were a few z06 logos throughout the car on the door sill you can see zeo6 not just corvette reminding you what you're getting into at the base of the steering wheel again z06 reminding you you're in the special corvette and between the seats another z06 badge as you can see not too many z06 badges they haven't overdone it but enough to remind you that you're not just in a regular old c8 like some plebian but probably the most interesting and important thing to cover in here is a massive focus on personalization and customization options for the z06 chevy has clearly taken a page out of the porsche book they realize they can make a lot of money by offering all sorts of different personalization touches and they have done that in the z06 for one thing you have several different carbon fiber interior packages to add various levels of carbon fiber in this interior and you can see this car filled out with carbon fiber the door panel has a lot of it you have a lot of carbon fiber in the center console same deal around the gauge cluster even more carbon fiber and this car has an optional carbon fiber steering wheel as well which both looks cool and feels pretty cool to touch not too many cars have a carbon wheel but this one does that is just one of the many personalization options with this car though chevy says there are a lot more for example you can get this interior in seven different colors there are three different seat types available probably ranging from not so sporty to very sporty there are six different seat belt options you can see the seat belts in this car are yellow but apparently you can choose between several different colors there as well there are two different levels of carbon fiber package as i've already mentioned and for just another example of this car's personalization on the outside you can choose between seven different brake caliper colors this car is all about personalizing it how you want and i'm sure that chevy hopes that'll help run up the options prices and the profit on each car and it goes beyond just the regular stuff in this car like changing the interior color the seats or the brake caliper you can go more personalized than that for example this car has a lot of stitching you can see the seats yellow stitching just about everywhere all over the seat same deal on the dashboard you can see yellow stitching all throughout the passenger side of the dashboard the steering wheel filled with yellow stitching which all can be customized this car even has yellow stitching on this little hand rest for the infotainment system which looks really cool and you can customize that and there's even yellow stitching in the roof this car has a removable roof like all of the c8 corvette coupes you can take it off but when you have it in place alcantara with yellow stitching which looks cool and which you can personalize they're really trying to go in that direction with the z06 like so many other sports cars have and by the way speaking of the roof i mentioned a second ago it was removable and indeed it is you can store it in the back just like the regular c8 but you can also get a full convertible just like the regular c8 once again chevy will be offering the z06 as a coupe this car or as a convertible which looks like this you can see it here i saw the convertible looks very cool just like the regular corvette convertible one cool thing about the convertible chevy says that for the convertible model no additional suspension tuning was necessary in order to get the convertible to handle as well and drive as well on a racetrack as the coupe because it's just so rigid so unlike in some previous convertible models where you're giving up some rigidity some performance to get the top down you don't do that here you still get amazing structural rigidity even if you decide to go for the convertible which frankly i probably would and finally i want to talk through a few more general items with the z06 starting with styling when chevy showed the very first image of the new z06 a few weeks ago it was this picture i saw a lot of complaints about it online and elsewhere people were saying they didn't do anything to it it looks just like a regular c8 they haven't really changed it all that much to make a z06 people were kind of disappointed that they hadn't done more well i can tell you that may be true of the regular z06 but it certainly isn't true of this car with the aero package with z07 with the giant rear wing and the front splitter that's huge and these carbon fiber rocker panels which are an option as well this car has a lot of upgrades that distinguish it from a regular c8 it looks very very different and certainly distinctive and the extra width is a lot easier to spot when you're standing next to the car it certainly does look a lot different from a regular c8 and the conspiracy theorist within me starts to wonder if maybe they kind of dumb down the look of the regular z06 in order to make people spring for the z07 and for the aero package spend a little bit more money for a more special and exciting looking car that certainly could be true as for the rest of the quirks and features in this car it's important to point out that i have done a full and thorough review of the new c8 corvette which i will link in the description below and that video goes in depth about a lot more corvette quirks and features in case you're interested but i do want to cover a few highlights that are worth mentioning even in the z06 one of them is the rear view mirror which can be a regular rear view mirror or a camera for better visibility you can see right now it's in its rear view mirror position but if you flip this switch it becomes a camera and then all you see is rear wing the intent of the mirror camera is to improve your visibility but because of where they mounted the camera and because of how huge the wing is you just see wing back there it's probably the only time i've seen the rear mirror camera not really help that much in terms of visibility other interesting quirks in this car you have the same strange gear selector from the regular c8 where reverse is this little like handle that you pull up and it's the same thing with drive and then neutral and parker buttons it's very unorthodox and kind of weird and certainly distinctive to the corvette and speaking of central controls you have this giant line of center buttons and switches going down the middle of the dashboard this is all of your climate controls you can change your temperature here turn on your heated and cooled seats adjust where the air is coming out how much airflow all that stuff with this strange line of buttons in the middle very distinctive c8 feature also a distinctive c8 feature is just how much this interior is like a cockpit turned towards the driver with all of the controls the center screen everything so driver focused previous corvette models have also been like this with a driver-oriented interior but nothing quite like the c8 it really does feel almost like a fighter jet cockpit with everything pointed towards the driver in this car and speaking of driver controls another interesting one is the steering wheel which has this sort of square shape to it like other c8 models not actually a wheel not actually circular just sort of more squarish hexagonish which just kind of interesting and sort of verging in race car territory and finally one last item worth noting in this interior is how you get out just like in previous corvette models you don't have a traditional door release instead it's this button you push it and it electronically pops the door open and then you push it the rest of the way you don't have like a handle that you pull like virtually every other car which maybe makes you a little nervous what happens if the battery dies or the electronic mechanism fails how do you get out of this car there is a manual door release in the footwell you can see it here if the button isn't working or if the electronic popper fails you just pull this this is a mechanical release and it will open up the door so you can climb out in the event of a door popper emergency and so that's the new c8 chevy corvette z06 i love the c8 corvette and this looks even more impressive both in person and on paper it's been great to spend some time with the new z06 and check it out but i'm really excited to drive it likely sometime early next year for now there you go that's your most thorough tour yet of the new z06 [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 1,941,808

Keywords: c8 z06, new z06, new z06 review, c8 corvette z06, c8 corvette z06 review, c8 z06 review, 2023 z06, 2023 z06 review, corvette z06, new corvette z06, new corvette z06 review, new z06 tour, doug demuro, demuro, doug de muro

Id: oL2nSvCN2RY

Length: 22min 48sec (1368 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Lionkingjom]

I've haven't clicked a link so fast since I found out my high school crush had a free onlyfans.

[u/No_Equal]

Dougs color grading looks whacky in this video. The handheld (iPhone?) shots make it look neon yellow while from the tripod camera it looks almost pastel. What's closer to reality?

[u/hundredjono]

670HP from a naturally aspirated V8

Imagine the ZR1? It's scary to think what GM will do with that one!

[u/Uptons_BJs]

Quite frankly, I think Chevy hit a grand slam on this one. If they can keep it under 6 figures for a mid trim 2lt Z06, it would be easily an all time great sports car.

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You see, coupes as a mainstream body style is unfortunately dead. I love coupes, I love coupes more than anything else, and as long as I don't have any kids (that I know of), I will always try to drive a coupe. But we all have to admit that 2 doors are no longer a popular body style with mainstream appeal.

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Back in the day when there were 100 coupes on the market and each brand had multiple, each 2 door had a specific niche they could target. For instance, there's sports cars, roadsters, muscle cars, GT cars, personal luxury coupes, compact commuters, etc, etc.

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Unfortunately, nowdays brands are lucky to have even 1. Which means that for something like the Corvette, it has to hit every single niche if possible. Chevy has gotten really, really close to coming up with a brilliant car that does all of it, and with the C8 Z06, it even hits the "exotic feeling engine" point.

[u/BoomerBillionaires]

The regular models proportions look a little awkward but this looks pretty good.

[u/imped4now]

I knew before clicking that he wouldn't be driving it, yet I'm still disappointed he couldn't drive it.

[u/taticalgoose]

Clearing up a few errors here:

1) He presented the plaque that is signed by the builder as something new, "a few other brands do this but now the z06 does it too." This has been going on since the C6 Z06 when all LS7s had a plaque.

2) Doug says "no previous z06 model has had a different looking front end compared to the regular corvette." This one baffled me because both the C6 and C7 Z06s had different front ends.

[u/Fishinabowl11]

Tire shot @ 4:50; This looks like it would be TERRIFYING in the rain.

[u/jv9mmm]

Wow, talk about an improvement in an ability to review the Corvette. I remember last time when the C8 came out, Doug had a really hard time getting one to review. Now he is getting to review one before most major publications.