Select members of the media were recently given some seat time in the 2015 Corvette Z06 at Road Atlanta, allowing them to stretch the car’s legs on one of the United States’ best and most famous road courses. GM brought along one man who is capable of doing a little more than stretching the Z06’s legs though, Cadillac Racing’s own Andy Pilgrim.
As you may know, the 2015 Z06 is available with the Performance Data Recorder, which will record your time out on the track and overlay it with telemetry data. Once your track day is over, all you have to do is pop out the easy-to-access memory card, slide it into your computer and upload the footage to YouTube.
It’d be a shame to not turn the Z06’s PDR on when a hot shoe like Andy Pilgrim climbs behind the wheel. He’s driven for Corvette Racing at Le Mans on multiple occasions and helped Cadillac Racing win the Pirelli World Challenge manufacturer’s championship this past season in a CTS-V.R. Luckily someone switched it on before he hopped in the car, so now we can virtually climb aboard for the ride.
Pilgrim probably wasn’t driving on the complete edge (it isn’t his car after all) but his time of 1:30.53 is pretty close to Motor Trend’s Randy Pobst, who posted a 1:30.18 in the Z06 around Road Atlanta. It’s entertaining to note that Pilgrim managed to get the Z06 up to 155 mph on the back straight before leaning on the huge Brembo carbon ceramic brakes, whereas Pobst was about 2 mph slower.
See how all the Z06’s tricky aerodynamic work translates into blistering fast lap times and uncomfortable amounts of lateral G in the video below.
Comments
It will be nice to see the Z06 struggling with the Ferrari 458 Speciale
Regards from Spain
it beat the 458’s ass by a ton. the special will be the same story.
I love Z06 , but I am a little disappointed that It seems to be slower than the previous ZR-1 and Z06 to the 0-150mph mark. Look after all, the 2015 Z06 is suppose to be faster in everyway than its predecessors, not slower by the time it reaches 150mph. After all, this car has a faster changing transmission than its peers.
Example: The 2013 Mercedes SLS Black Series hits 0-160mph in 19.1 seconds, while the 2015 Z06 takes 22.9 seconds to attained the same 160mph. Now GM engineers the SLS is also RWD and a little heavier than the Z06. So guys, just go back to the drawing boards and correct this insult of an effort for a car that is suppose to be faster than the competition.
However folks, if their is a reasonable explanation for this decline in urgency of velocity by the 2015 Z06 against other sports cars that are heavier, such as the SLS, Huracan, GT-R and 911 Turbo S. Then will someone please expain this to me. Fortunately I must say, that I am grateful that it has a Competitive 0-60mph and 1/4 mile times, but after that this car begin to loose its urgency compare to others.
So just tell me their is some glitch by Car & Driver that indicates the 2015 Z06 is actually slower than its predecessor, or it the damn downforce created by its optional bodywork is to blame.
insult of an effort? What a dunce. As a mech eng. this comment is just hard to read. Yes it’s the downforce. This Z06 carries far more speed through corners than the previous ZR1 despite having the same tires and an extra 190lbs of weight. Anyone with a basic knowledge of aerodynamics knows as downforce goes up so does drag, thus increasing cornering grip/speed at the expense straight line speed/acceleration. This thing would whoop a SLS Black on a track. The only car that came close to putting down similar grip numbers to this Z06 in Motortrend testing was the $900k+ Porsche 918. Million dollar Porsche, $100k chevy. I’d hardly call that an insult of an effort.
You really need to learn what you are discussing before you put your foot in it.
The down force is and has been discussed much here. The terminal velocity at some point is sacrificed for the down force the car makes.
So while this car may be slightly slower 0-150 it is much more stable in a corner and at high speed. Hence this is the fastest production car ever tested at the Lutz Ring at GM. It is much faster per lap than the more unsure feeling of the ZR1..
Results = Efforts and this car is the complete package where all it’s systems work together to produce a fast stable car lap after lap. It is sure footed in the corners. It stops repeatedly 60-0 in less than 100 feet with no fade and the engine keep the power going to keep the velocity up.
The ZR1 while a good car just did not have the sure footedness and often would jump out on a driver as it has a ragged edge. The new Z06 is much more reassuring and has a much higher thresh hold to its limits.
Motor Trend tested it and found 1.16 G on the skid pad a record for any and all street cars they have tested. It also did the Figure 8 test only 3/10ths of a second slower than the record holding 918.
You only do 0-150 on the first lap it is what you do on the remain other laps that count and that is what this car is all about. Even some of the best super cars are used up after a few hot laps. Brakes get hot, shocks fade as well as the brakes. The Z06 can give you a good lap and keep repeating it over and over and over again. There are only a few sports cars on the market that do this and none are under $100K.
By the way before you or anyone else says it. It is not the tires. They are part of the package but like the Z/28 there is a lot more to it.
This car and the Z/28 are examples of what GM can do once they enable their engineers to do what they can do not just what you limit them to. Get used to this as they have finally been set free of years of bondage to the limits of old GM thinking.
I own a ’11 ZR1 & a now ’15 Z06/Z07. The ZR1 is not faster in a straight line and what it can do on a track is amazing. A simple tune without increasing boost yielded another 75 hp/tq.
Pilgrim’s very clearly driving on the edge for lap time… I’m not sure how it can be said that “Pilgrim probably wasn’t driving on the complete edge…” He’s putting the entire car over the white lines at some points. Both Pobst and Pilgrim drive the car hard to get that time around 1:30. Pilgrim is just a little braver on the brakes.
Pilgrim’s 1st timed lap was 1:29.88 if you watch the whole video. Strange the timing started from a corner on the track rather than the start/finish line… must have yielded a faster lap time this way.
No one said they were not on the limit. But in the new car the limit is much higher hand much more controllable with the entire package Chevy has brought to the market.
You can take this car to the limit or edge and not feel like the car is about to step out on you at any moment. It is much more in control on the edge. This is the trait of a well tuned package and why it puts down much faster lap times.
It starts from the corner because the Performance Data Recorder requires you to set your own start point. You drive to where you want the start line to be, set a marker, then complete one full lap. After this, the PDR knows where the start point is and can begin to record your lap times.
Thank you Kevin G and company for your replies, but I am not a “dunce.” However, I do admit that I was a bit puzzle by the Z06’s somewhat reduce urgency towards its velocity, and as I did indicate in my latter paragraph, It was probably down force to blame.
Nevertheless fellas, I am still grateful for the various replies that did confirm my suspicion, an the insight into the cars performance advantages and disadvantage.
I have little racing experience, so it was surprising to me that it stops much better than it goes. I assume all race cars are like this?