The Z51 Performance Package is a very popular option for the C8 Corvette Stingray. As GM Authority exclusively reported a few days ago, over 60 percent of customers are willing to pay the extra $5,995 for the items it contains.
The Package carries RPO code Z51 (for obvious reasons) and includes the following equipment:
- Z51 Performance brakes (J55)
- Z51 Performance suspension (FE3)
- Performance exhaust (NPP)
- Performance rear axle ratio (GM7)
- Electronic Limited Slip Differential (eLSD) (G96)
- Z51 rear spoiler, front splitter (T0A)
- 245/35ZR19 front and 305/30ZR20 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S high-performance tires (XFQ)
- Heavy-duty cooling system (V08)
Apart from relying on the fact that a passing C8 Corvette Stingray has a better than even chance of being fitted with the Package, are there ways to tell if it actually does? Well, yes. Of course, they don’t involve investigating the cooling system or rear axle ratio, as these would be problematic endeavors.
By comparison, the rear spoiler and front splitter are more reliable clues. One might also notice the optional brakes, which are visible through the wheels. And if the vehicle is stationary, it will be relatively straightforward to see whether it rides on the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tires rather than the Pilot Sport All Season 4 rubber equipped to the non-Z51 C8 Stingrays.
The performance isn’t exactly visible, but even if it were, it wouldn’t serve as a useful guide. That’s because the item is also available as a standalone option, priced at $1,195, and is chosen by nearly 90 percent of buyers. As such, there is approximately a one in three chance that a C8 Corvette Stingray fitted with the exhaust does not have the Z51 package, though it’s easy to check this by looking for the rear spoiler and front splitter.
However, the rear spoiler can cause confusion too. Chevrolet will offer a low-profile spoiler for the 2022 Corvette Stingray which be fitted to a C8 Corvette Stingray with or without the Z51 Performance Package. For maximum confidence, looking for the Z51 front splitter is the way forward. If the car is wearing that, then it’s a Z51. If not, not.
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Comments
Slow news day.
In my case, It was a choice between Z51 or HTC. Choose wisely, weedhopper.
The visualizer didn’t allow choosing the low profile spoiler with the Z-51 package when I tried.
When is Corvette going to bring back the manual transmission that all true enthusiasts love and want badly!!!
Go take a test drive in the C8 and feel the dual clutches clunk as they engage. It is manual.
No torque converter (like an automatic would have). Paddle shifting manual transmissions are current
technology. I will be glad to never have to press a clutch pedal again.
Totally agree. I’m a manual transmission die hard, vut this DCT is phenomenal. If you think about it as a conventional automatic – you may be disappointed with low speed shifting, but once you accept that it’s actually a manual (actually two of them) and it’s just that the clutch is electronically controlled – you can totally relate to what’s going on. The car would be way cool with a manual tranny – but it’s also way cool the way it is.
What is a “true enthusiast”? All of my track cars are manuals (RX7FC 5-speed in my Spitfire, Miata NB 6-spd, ’84 944 w/S2 transaxle and shortened 5th gear, 4-spd Jericos in my Panoz and my Busch stock car) and I love them, but, the DCT is vastly superior in every performance related way to ANY manual.
Who cares, just get me mine! 16 months and counting.
They should have called it Corvette and created a smaller Stingray model that was front engine (similar to 911 and Cayman) to keep the front engine heritage alive. C8 a great car, but a huge departure from its lineage.
I called for keeping the C7 platform alive as a Solstice with a V6 or TLG Turbo-4.
But the honest problem is where would it be built? Bowling Green wasn’t tooled to be a high production facility.
The problem with this idea is that it would have made the C8 a lot more expensive. And that wasn’t GM’s goal.
The goal of the C8 is to be an affordable swan song gas car, with EV being the future. Four motors at the wheels also isn’t Corvette heritage, but it’s where pretty much every car will be 20 years from now.
I can’t take my wife and small dog in C8.
Given the demographics of who buys Corvette I’m sure there are many others in the same predicament.
These sales won’t matter to GM now with the backlog of orders but eventually GM might be looking for orders.
I like that the C8 is one car. Mustang, Charger, Challenger, and others, offer multiple versions with multiple engines so people can have a cool looking car without a huge price. Corvette C8 is like a model T, one engine
for everyone. All of them are powerful and a pleasure. No 4 cylinder turbos as an option.
If you want a sports car rocket, you buy a C8.
If you want a sedan rocket, you buy a CT5-V.
You see, you can have your cake and eat it too!!
Have you considered getting rid of the wife?
Zora always wanted the Vette to be a mid-engine and began producing prototypes in 1960, but GM brass keopt shooting it down due to cost. One of his prototypes with a mid-engine V8 and AWD posted a 214 MPH top speed and a 0-60 time of 2.8 seconds in 1964. 1964 1964
The Corvette lineage is beating the best the world could throw at it on a race course and the C8 is the cat-daddy of that particular feat.
Please understand, I love previous Corvettes and understand your point. I have owned, or driven extensively, Vettes from ’62, ’66, ’67, ’72, ’74, ’81, ’84, ’86, ’96, ’03 and, currently, a ’22 Z51.
The tires the car is sporting may not be the most reliable indicator of the Z51 package. I live in an area that has a lot of rain, but more importantly winter temperatures can dip well below 40. What most Z51 owners don’t realize is that the tread and rubber compound of summer only tires is pretty useless below 40 degrees – and – for those occasions when the temperatures are below 20 – don’t even think about driving on them. Many tire manufacturers will tell you that even normal driving on summer only tires at temps 20 and below will actually damage the tires. This all in addition to the poor wet road performance of summer tires. So… I had my tires changed out for the All Season version – but I still consider it a Z51. While I am a very aggressive driver – I do not track the car – and performance is uncompromised with the AS tires.
You are 100% correct!! I watched a lot of my friends learn that lesson a few months ago at an MSF instructor school at NCM. Temps were in the low 20’s at night and barely above 32 during the time on track. We even had snow flurries on Saturday. I was in my 2016 Cayman S with Continental 320TW highway tires and having a ball, but the guys on R-specs were frustrated to say the least. My Chief Instructor left his 911 GT3 in the trailer the entire weekend because it wore Pirelli slicks. HE is a very wise man.
Look inside the passenger side air duct behind the door, Do you see a radiator ? Then it is a Z51. Far as I know the heavy duty cooling is not available as a stand alone option. And is visible , easily, on any C8.
Tires are being swapped out by plenty of people, I am looking to replace my Z51 summer only tires with non Z51 all season.
The exhaust is an option anyone can have, but the disk brakes on a Z51 are larger, you should be able to tell.
My tip is check that 3rd radiator and the disk brake size.
One Z51 package for me, hold the spoiler.
Good luck on that. Neither the build your own 2021 tool or the 2022 visualizer allow the removal of the spoiler while maintaining the Z51 package. The visualizer wouldn’t let me even choose the low profile spoiler. The high spoiler is an allowed option, making access to the trunk even more paralysis.
I’d love to see the meeting minutes from marketing as to why this is so. Why not mount the aerobling to the hatch? So many questions.
If it is a Z51, it is labeled “Z51” on the brake calipers. At least that is the case for my 2022 Z51.