Chevrolet Corvette (C6 6.0) specs

As much as I love the C6 Corvette, it is not race ready without modifications. It seems to me that spending $5000 is too much just to do a track day. I have only 32 more Porsche payments.

At that point depending on the economy, I can either get a set of wheels and semi slick tires for the Panamera S or I can trade the C6 Corvette in on a C8 Corvette.

The C6 Corvette looks sleeker than the C8 Corvette, but the C8 Corvette looks more exotic. More importantly to me though is that the C8 Corvette has dry sump oiling and a dual clutch transmission. The C8 Corvette is race ready. The Panamera S is race ready.

I will need to see how the economy is doing in 33 months. I really want to do track days and set some lap times.

I am putting my planned custom alignment specs here so that I don't lose them, lol.

Front: 1.8 degrees negative camber, max caster, zero toe.
Rear: 1.6 degrees negative camber, 1/16 inch toe in.

This should be excellent for track and reasonable for the street as well. However, the Hoosier Track Attack Pro is not good in the rain, lol. I will be able to drive to and from the track, and on fun drives in good weather. The Carbotech brake pads will squeal, but oh well it is primarily a track car after all.

I have been doing more research on my Corvette track car project. The oil pan baffle, brake pads, fluid, tires and alignment will run a total of $4700 counting installation.

My Corvette already has a stainless steel Magnaflow Performance cat-back exhaust with X-pipe. A previous owner paid roughly $2200 plus installation for it, and it sounds great. I believe that this exhaust is ten lbs lighter than stock and adds roughly 8 hp and 6 lb-ft of torque. I am in California, and so it must not have a tune. It passes smog tests with no problem.

If I really wanted to max out the base Corvette platform, I could have a FAST LSXR intake manifold installed along with a Callaway Honker cold air intake. Installed this would cost another $2600. The combination is worth an additional 27 hp and 24 lb-ft of torque.

The combined horsepower would be 435, and the torque would be 430. Thus my LS2 Corvette would be roughly equal to an LS3 Corvette with the optional exhaust powerwise.

So the Porsche Panamera S will be paid off in about 2 and 1/2 years and I will have money available to track the Corvette shortly thereafter. Should I just do the basic track mods for $4700 or go for all of it for $7300?

I have been doing research on what is necessary to get some good lap times at Thunderhill West.

The 2007 Corvette Z51 has wet sump oiling which requires upgrading to avoid oil starvation in high speed sweepers. A track-proven, direct bolt-in unit like the Improved Racing C6 Wet-Sump Baffle retails right around $220. Required Hardware & Supplies ($100 – $150). Shop Labor ($800 – $1,400).

Brakes:
To purchase the parts and have an independent performance shop install the Carbotech brake pads and complete a full flush with Castrol SRF fluid on the 2007 Corvette Z51, the total out-of-pocket cost will range between $930 and $1,180.

A standard cost breakdown separates the parts from professional shop labor:

Track-Day Parts Cost (~$580 to $630)

Carbotech XP10 Front Pads: $265
Carbotech XP8 Rear Pads: $215
Castrol SRF Brake Fluid (1 Liter): Usually runs $75 to $90. One single 1-liter bottle is typically enough for a performance shop using a pressurized brake bleeding machine to fully flush out the old factory fluid.

Parts Subtotal: $555 to $570 (plus roughly $30–$60 for local shipping and taxes).

Pad Installation Labor: Swapping the front and rear pads takes an experienced mechanic about 1.0 to 1.5 hours (~$150 to $250).

Full Fluid Flush Labor: Safely purging the old fluid, cleaning the lines, filling with Castrol SRF, and bleeding all four calipers takes roughly 1.0 to 1.5 hours (~$150 to $250).

Labor Subtotal: $300 to $500.

Tires from the Tire Rack:

Hoosier Track Attack Pro set of four is $1722.

Tire Rack Recommended Chain Installers ($140 – $180).

Custom alignment:

A professional custom track alignment for a C6 Corvette here in Sacramento typically costs between $200 and $350.

So altogether it looks like I will need about $5,000 or thereabouts to turn my C6 into a supercar slayer at Thunderhill West.

Since my 2007 has the Z51 package it has a rear axle ratio of 2.73, here are the maximum speeds in gear at the 6500 rpm redline:

1st Gear: 47 mph
2nd Gear: 80 mph
3rd Gear: 124 mph
4th Gear: 165 mph5th Gear: 223 mph (Theoretical maximum — limited by wind resistance to 186 mph)
6th Gear: 285 mph (Theoretical maximum — pure highway overdrive)

My Corvette will reach 186 mph at exactly 5,415 RPM in 5th gear.

is every C6 non-convertible a targa top?

Here is a video of a C6 Corvette on the Autobahn showing why top speed is still so important. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HliQcrHyH8U&t=76s

@07CorvetteZ51 do you remember/know what tyres were on this from the dealership?

@07CorvetteZ51 plans of modifying this or buying a newer model?

For those who are interested in unsprung weight versus static weight:
https://hpwizard.com/rotational-inertia.html

The video below was a stock C6 BTG lap time done in 2016. This is from the driver on youtube: Aug 15, 2016
My first round at the nordschleife with the corvette c6. The car is in standard equipment. Shock absorbers are from 2005.

At mods please add: Zero to 130 mph: 16.9 sec. https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15132706/2005-chevrolet-corvette-z51-road-test/

@mods please add: Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 5.0 sec. https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/comparison-test/a15389908/2006-chevrolet-corvette-vs-2007-ford-mustang-shelby-gt500-comparison-tests/

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/videoDisplay.jsp?ttid=311

For those interested in track days and lap times:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/track-day-tire-test-nankang-goodyear-and-pirelli/

I decided to show off another photo of my Monterey Red C6 Corvette. It can be seen on the upper right. The photo is of the Corvette in front of Graeser Winery in Napa.

I used to be very competitive in the SCCA Solo2 Washington DC Championship series. I competed from 1995-2002 in a Neon ACR coupe, and after a bit of time living overseas, I competed from 2004-2005 in a C5 Corvette. My skills may have eroded over time, but next year I plan on doing a track day at Willow Springs so that I can properly explore the performance of my C6 Corvette. I estimate that on my current 320 treadwear Summer tires that I could do a lap time of 1:35.5 which is four seconds faster than Motortrend did with the original equipment run-flat tires. Switching tires will greatly improve on this. I estimate a lap time improvement of 3 seconds if I used 200 treadwear Bridgestone Potenza RE71RS tires. However, if I use 100 treadwear Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3R tires then I estimate a lap time improvement of 6 seconds (these are streetable track and competition tires). This assumes that my skills are still there. To summarize my estimates are: current tires 1:35.5; Bridgestone RE71RS 1:32.5; Goodyear Supercar 3R tires 1:29.5. Unfortunately the Supercar 3R tires are somewhat expensive at $1600 per set, but they will be worth it on track day. I am retired, so I am not concerned with having far less treadwear. The semi slick tread is fine for California Summers, but I may keep the old tires around for winter rain.

Randy • 14y ago

"I have a 2007 C6 a6 and I did 0-200km/h in 14.5sec and top speed of 304km/h on octane 98"

I have the window sticker for our Corvette, originally it cost $58,715. $58,715 in 2007 is worth $89,680.79 today.

Using a 1/4 mile and ET calculator (https://robrobinette.com/et.htm) it appears that our slightly modified Corvette should do the 1/8 mile in 8.4 seconds and the 1/4 mile in 12.4 seconds at 116 mph. From that it seems likely that 0-60 mph is probably in about 4.0 seconds and 0-100 mph in about 9.1 seconds. I have not calculated a 0-130 mph or 0-150 mph yet. For the 1/4 mile calculation I used a vehicle weight of 3440 pounds with 358 wheel horsepower. The wheel horsepower is estimated based on the Magnaflow exhaust (8 whp) and a tune (12 whp) added to the typical wheel horsepower for 2006 to 2007 six speed automatic Corvettes (338 whp).

Results from Car and Driver test:
2005 Chevrolet Corvette Z51

VEHICLE TYPE
Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door targa

PRICE AS TESTED
$54,240 (base price: $44,245)

ENGINE TYPE
Pushrod 16-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 364 in3, 5967 cm3
Power: 400 hp @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 400 lb-ft @ 4400 rpm

TRANSMISSION
6-speed manual

CHASSIS
Suspension (F/R): control arms/control arms
Brakes (F/R): vented disc/vented disc
Tires: Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar EMT, F: P245/40ZR-18 88Y R: P285/35ZR-19 90Y

DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 105.7 in
Length: 174.6 in
Width: 72.6 in
Height: 49.1 in
Passenger volume: 52 ft3
Cargo volume: 22 ft3
Curb weight: 3288 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 4.1 sec
100 mph: 9.6 sec
150 mph: 25.0 sec
Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 5.1 sec
Top gear, 30–50 mph: 10.3 sec
Top gear, 50–70 mph: 9.6 sec
1/4 mile: 12.6 sec @ 114 mph
Top speed (drag limited, mfr's claim): 186 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 164 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.98 g

C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 18 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/city/highway: 21/18/28 mpg
The original equipment run-flat tires gave little grip compared to modern performance tires. The run-flat tires were also 3 pounds heavier than non-run flat tires. 3 lbs. at each wheel is actually slightly significant. Modern summer tires can improve both the braking and skidpad figure significantly. Lap times with modern tires also would be quicker.

There has been much discussion about tires, here is the guide that I use: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/track-tire-buyers-guide/

Currently our Corvette has Sumitomo HTR Z5 tires and a beastly sounding cat-back Magnaflow exhaust with x-pipe. I estimate current WHP at 346 to 348. I estimate cornering grip on a 300 foot skidpad at 1.05 g. Sometime in the future, I plan to take the Corvette to a track preferably Willow Springs. I will probably use Hawk brake pads and Motul brake fluid. I plan to lower the current lap time at Willow Springs for the C6 Corvette. I will switch tires to extreme performance tires, probably Bridgestone Potenza RE-71 RS. The current lap time of 1:39.50 is ridiculously slow. I expect to drop that by at least seven to nine seconds. The Motortrend journalists who ran a 1:39.50 were not competition drivers. Superior driving skill should drop the time by at least two or three seconds. I believe that the RE-71 RS tires are worth at least 5 or 6 seconds over the O.E. run-flats. This will take me some time though. I think that with good driving, and the RE-71 RS tires that our 2007 Corvette will get a lap time at Big Willow of approximately 1:30.50 to 1:32.50. I think that with my current tires that 1:35.50 is possible. Modern summer performance tires are so much better than the O.E. runflats it is amazing how much grip is available. In any case, someone needs to beat that slow lap time in my opinion.