C5 Z06 stuff

[kevm14]

Probably because Ed and I looked up used Z06s recently, I somehow reminded myself that Edmunds bought a long term 2002 Z06 back in 2010 and ran it for a year.

This is one guy's opinion of the engine in this 9 year old Z06: http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... t-one.html

I particularly like this one:

Nowadays I really dig the power delivery. In particular the throttle response -- there's not a car in our fleet that can touch the Z06's linear and immediate response from the pedal. It's damned near as good as a cable throttle in this regard, which is even higher praise when you consider that this drive-by-wire throttle system is from the early, bad old days of such devices. I've mentioned it before -- this eight-year old car's drive-by-wire driveability shames that of the 2010 Camaro.

I don't think my CTS-V measures up in that regard, despite having the same engine. Different electronic throttle control calibration? Heavier flywheel? Heavier car? All of the above?

Behold the ridiculously beautiful gauge cluster:

z06_ip.jpg

I love the thin tip needles, and the way the speedo is labeled in 20mph increments after 100mph.

Edmunds also categorizes the posts for each car. Here is the maintenance category: http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... nance.html

I thought it would be interesting to summarize their maintenance experience with a lower mile Z06. In fact, here's the wrap-up article: http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... ap-up.html

They bought it with 41k and put 18k on it over just 12 months! They sold it for what they bought it for.

As far as the car itself, they all found the ride surprisingly compliant for a top-spec Corvette. And it's a marvelous highway cruiser, aside from all the performance it offers. So that's nice. Also they got a best of 29mpg. The average was much lower but I'm going to wager a guess that 17.4 mpg is what you get if you drive it in a spirited manner fairly often. I average more than that in my 750lb heavier CTS-V with the same engine.

12.5 @ 116mph. That is substantially more mph than my CTS-V, which the automags said was 109, but seems to be more like 105.

Onto maintenance.

Additional Maintenance Costs: $3,159: knock sensors ($50), MAF sensor repair ($280), 4 new tires ($1,043), wheel alignment ($110), water pump ($543), steering position sensor ($291) and brakes ($842)

The knock sensors and MAF are combined into the same symptom: audible pinging. There was a known (to GM) problem with the knock sensors resulting in a TSB that replaces the rear knock sensor and requests the mechanic to build a dam of RTV around it.

The knock sensor debacle:
http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... ottle.html
http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... g-gas.html
http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... rship.html
http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... -woes.html

After all that, they decided they were going to perform the TSB themselves.

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... ecial.html
http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... -poop.html
http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... pizza.html
http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... ether.html

That did not fix it. Nor did their car have the knock sensor problem.

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... -pros.html

Hmm, lots of positive fuel trim correction. Injector cleaning!

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... eport.html

Nope, that wasn't it either.

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... gress.html

You'll never guess what it was...

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... ction.html

Some goon bent one of the MAF sensor wires causing it to read funny (remember the 02-04 Z06 uses a factory descreened MAF, which probably makes it extra sensitive to air turbulence). So they bent it back. Fixed. That was a lot of running around for that.

Now this is a perfect example of the kind of problem I'm all too happy to fix myself: http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... fixed.html

Just bend a spring.

It needed a water pump: http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... fixed.html

By the way, a water pump is like $100. My water pump is original.

The check engine light came on for active handling related stuff: http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... rvice.html

It was the steering wheel position sensor. That was a $290 job. At the dealer.

That's about it. Nothing I would have a problem maintaining myself, that's for sure.

[kevm14]

So that was maintenance. How about other stuff? Michael Jordan writes great blog entries. Here's one about his drive up and down the CA coast with the Z06: http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... uring.html

Took a big drive in the Corvette Z06 over the weekend, about 1,200 miles to Northern California and back. Apparently this is some kind of sacrilege in a sports car, because I sure didn't see many other sports cars on the road once I got outside of L.A.

Maybe Porsche and BMW guys have better things to do; you know, restaurants that have to be parked in front of, like that. Maybe the Evo and WRX guys didn't have gas money. Maybe Corvette guys are old and have nothing better to do than drive around aimlessly.

Or maybe the Corvette is a better GT car than anyone gives it credit for.

We left just as the heat began to get bad, drove north on CA Hwy 49, the famous winding two-lane road through the Gold Rush country, and then cut over to Sacramento to have dinner with the kid going to school up there. Finally back to the Bay Area on Interstate 5 and back about 9 p.m.

Took about 13 hours. Went 364.3 miles, freeway and rural roads and a little urban driving. Nothing very fast (80 mph is about it), as this is California and the roads are full on a Saturday. Did it on one tank of gas. Averaged 46.8 mph, which is about 10 mph faster than the Corvette typically averages in a week of driving around L.A. Got 26 mpg even without any special balloon-foot driving technique and never even used the transmission's skip-shift feature (does anybody?).

[kevm14]

C5 Z06 burnout vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJbMWwgoRM4

Notice as he drives away in 1st he dumps it into 2nd and it keeps going. 2nd gear goes to 69 mph.

[kevm14]

Ed will like this post I think.

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... ekend.html

But beyond the numbers, I really fell for our Corvette during this trip. Road noise at freeway speeds over California's crummy concrete gets old, but everything else was an absolute blast. The shifter is deliberate and the pedals take some effort, but put them together and you're rewarded with a noise...oh the noise... let's just say that after a few hours hearing Corvette C6Rs and their E85-fueled 5.5L V8s thunder around, I was still grinning when our Z06 roared.

Would I want more supportive seats? Sure. But consider this: I sat on a shoehorn for 4 hours-- 4 hours! -- and had no idea. Now that, friends, is comfort.

Give it an iPod hookup and this is, hands down, the best car in our fleet. Period.

[kevm14]

This guy Michael Jordan creates some awesome posts.

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... otype.html

[kevm14]

Here's one on the superb drivability.

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... -work.html

I think the C5 Z06 probably is the standard for throttle response done right. And the whole pedal box is also done right. Which means even in slow traffic, everything works great, smooth and easily modulated.

[kevm14]

I found this old thread.

And Bob found his old Z06, again.

https://www.findcars.com/cars-for-sale/ ... 76584.html

Ok, $10k. Yeah I've found them around that price before. But the Carfax is where the real fun is.

This car has had....11 owners! And in that time, has been through the following states (at a minimum):
- Mass
- Maine
- North Carolina
- Kentucky
- New Mexico (finally spent some real time here, 07-16)
- Arizona
- Missouri
- Alaska (!!!!!!)
- And now for sale in Minnesota

That is just awesome. Wasn't it a Doug DeMuro video where he explained that it can be surprising what a Carfax will tell you about a random car? This one has a story, also. Plus, Bob owned it and I've driven it multiple times. In fact I was there he day he bought it. It had a little under 8,000 miles but was still priced really well. I do not recall exactly but I think around $34k. Imagine buying a 2 year old Z06 for $46k (inflation corrected), with under 10k miles on it. These were a good deal new, and a great deal used. I do wonder if this car was one of the cheaper C5 Z06s...I mean it was cheap when Bob bought it (for the year/mileage). So maybe it just moved all over the country as people sought a great deal on a C5 Z06. Makes perfect sense to me.

But it took a lot of time and a lot of miles to work its way down to $10k. So, since Bob was the 2nd owner with under 8,000 miles, and it was only $34k, I'd say it probably held its value pretty strongly for quite a long time, until sheer age/mileage/sketchy history caught up.

First accident says this in 2011:

Accident reported
Involving left front impact
It hit a parked motor vehicle
Minor damage reported

Then this happened in 2016:

Structural damage disclosed by seller
based on results of a visual inspection
Vehicle sold at auction
Vehicle offered for sale
CARFAX began reporting this information on 11/16/2016.


Structural damage may impact vehicle safety and reliability. Get the unibody or frame of the vehicle inspected by a professional.

Who knows.

There is also a lesson here. First, I see no real repair history outside of a clutch slave cylinder. But I want to point out that the entire Corvette internet was up in arms about the LS6 when it first arrived. Oil consumption, piston slap, etc. You'd swear these things would never survive 20k. Well, this one survived 11 owners and over 150k just fine. My CTS-V reflects the same sort of durability and trouble-free nature of these engines. Sometimes the internet is....misleading. So don't believe everything you read.

I think Bob should buy it back and make a mini-series of Youtube videos on it.

[kevm14]

Love this video.
https://youtu.be/FquFrOalAAY

Both Z06 and LS6 are storied RPO codes. This car marked the beginning of many other performance offerings in the 2000s.

Hydroformed frame. That was advanced for the time. Also TPMS, HUD and stability control. Titanium exhaust.
Drive by wire, of course.

Who knew the word "gymkhana" was in GM's lexicon...

Significant efforts to keep weight down.

The durability tests are cool also.

Adjustable camber and ride height. A lot of thought was given to this car going on a track. But it was a perfectly nice street car, too.

[kevm14]

This guy Michael Jordan creates some awesome posts.

http://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/corvet ... otype.html

These are still good reading.

Here is this one:

Comments (0)
2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06: The 165-hp Stereotype
October 27, 2010

1975 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray by GM.jpg

So I'm sitting around with a group of Mazda guys who are mostly talking about racing. They're always talking about racing because all of them race. Apparently this is what you do at Mazda.

(At the Monterey Motorsports Reunion, the Mazda company president helped push the GTP car onto the grid and then helped belt in the driver, who happened to be the director of dealer affairs. Meanwhile the vice president of product and R&D was putting on a radio headset so he could run the pits and told his director of dealer affairs that if he failed to put the car on the pole he'd be known as a total weenie forever. Fortunately the director of dealer affairs accomplished his mission.)

Anyway I'm with these other Mazda guys and the talk turns to the Corvette. It turns out that they'd never really driven one and now a member of their racing group has turned up with a ZR1 and they'd taken turns driving it.

And they couldn't stop talking about it..

They went on and on about the power (and the trick throttle body that added 50 hp), but quickly the talk turned to the car's practicality. They explained to me that it was quiet and rode well. They said you could get really good fuel economy just by driving around like a regular human being instead of a Mazda racer. They said that the Corvette was so practical that you could drive it like a real car.

I had to pretend to be surprised.

It seems like no matter how much you tell people about the modern Corvette, you can't get over the image of the 1975 Corvette Stingray that lurks in their heads - you know, the infamous Corvette strangled by then-new air emissions technology that produced only 165 hp. It's like everyone grew up on a street where a guy who dressed like a low-rent golf pro drove a very slow Stingray that had been turned from a sports car into a parade car. Even racers, the kind of guys who care deeply about performance, labor with these stereotypes of the past.

But as the 2002 Corvette Z06 reminds us, it's not 1975 anymore.

Michael Jordan, Executive Editor, Edmunds.com

[Bob]

This one is probably a better value than my old one: https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/d/ ... 45090.html