What makes the 2001-2004 C5 Z06 Corvette Special❓
Transcript [Music] hello my corvette friends this is lyle from cns corvettes in sarasota florida i want to wish you all a very happy upcoming 4th of july weekend and for this week's video i'd like to talk to you specifically about a car that is very near and dear to my heart that would be the 2001 to the 2004 corvette z06 i've had a lot of people answer or ask me questions through the comments on my videos when was i going to do a video just about the c5 z06 and what makes it special okay so that's what today's video is i'm going to share with you some of the uh interesting individual qualities of that car and the differences it makes in the overall driving experience so to start with the z06 was introduced in 2001. uh it had 385 horses which was up 40 horses from the uh base model uh starting in 2002 it got bumped to 405 horses which it carried through to the end of 2004. include lots of things went into that it had different heads it had a new more efficient intake manifold that was adopted for all corvettes from 2001 and on lots of different things going on but basically the performance difference was it was half a second quicker 0 to 60 than the base c5 that means it was going to 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds versus 4.8 seconds i had a top speed of 150 in i'm sorry not a top speed but it could reach a speed of 150 miles an hour in 28 seconds which was 2.4 seconds faster than the base car top speed was actually down from the base car uh 168 versus 175 due to the shorter gearing that the z06 had to make it more lively on track some of the things that made that car special right things you may have heard of things you may not have one of the things they really focused on with this car was making it lighter they ended up saving roughly 130 pounds over the base coupe in the c506 how did they do this well they went real far afield in saving weight the windshield and the rear window glass itself is actually thinner than on a c5 regular car and saved weight there good luck finding one of those to replace if you need it they did a titanium exhaust which actually was the first time this was used in a regular production car uh one of the few other cars that actually had that as a production car was the mclaren f1 pretty good company to be in saved about 30 pounds on that the carpet in the back especially throughout the car is considerably thinner and lighter you don't have the three removable compartment lids in the rear just open wells they had lighter wheels even though they were an inch wider on each corner than the stock wheels they had non run flat tires now i'm going to take a minute and tell you about why that's important not only are non-run flat tires considerably lighter they're considerably grippier and they provide a much better road feel when the press tested this car when it first came out they couldn't believe the difference that the engineers had made between the base model c5 and the z06 the amount of g's that pulled in the corners uh like close to a 1.9 1.09 gs in a corner that's a lot i mean that's supercar territory especially back in 2001 too the main thing they did really the real difference was those at the time the goodyear f1 supercar tires were just really grippy and they improved and changed the ride and drivability of that car to a degree that i really can't express in an eight minute video it is if you drive the two cars side by side and drive them hard you won't believe the difference they didn't have run flats obviously so in one of the open wells in the back of the car they actually had a tire inflation kit with a can of fix-a-flat from the factory that's what you got that's why when i counsel people to take their regular c5s and c6s and get rid of the run flats i recommend putting those in the back your car so you have them they even went as far as putting a lighter battery in the car than the base c5 coupen convertible had some of the things they also did to improve strength and improve performance in the t-56 six-speed transmission the gearing was shorter so that you could row through the gears faster the differential still a 342 axle ratio just like the six-speed in the regular c5 but this had shot pain gears and shot pain shot painting is a relatively inexpensive process that can be used to really increase the strength and durability of the ring and pinion in a differential so it's a race car trick it's a racers trick and they did it on the c506 because they knew these cars would be out on the track running hard obviously some of the visual differences are pretty profound i mean you've got the the grills in the front openings on the front bumper you've got the fully operational rear brake cooling ducts uh that were then incorporated into every c6 but the intakes were not visible they were actually under the car unless you got a grand sport or a z06 driving the car hard is noticeably different noticeably more violent the creature comfort level of the c506 is not nearly what it is in say a 2003 50th anniversary convertible they're very very different driving experiences even with prices being as crazy as they are right now and i'm assuming that's going to change in the next 18 months but who knows at this point because the last predictions i made on prices were way off considering covet and everything else that happened but there is still almost no car on the planet for under 25 000 that can do what this car does consistently and efficiently i still get 31 to 32 miles to the gallon on the highway doing 75 miles an hour that's better than most the products chevy makes and this is their ultimate performance car from the early 2000s i've owned three of these cars the current one i have is a black on black 2003 it's got just under 250 000 miles on it and the car absolutely runs like a charm we've had it out at sebring we've pushed it hard and the car is just more than happy to do whatever you ask it to and i can't give you enough praise if you are a driver if you want to go really push yourself and your vehicle in a safe setting i don't think there is a better car on the market anywhere new or used for twenty five thousand dollars that can do what the c5 z06 can do it is got my hearty stamp of approval if you have other questions about the z06 or you're looking at a z06 or you have one and you have why is this happening or what's different about this car don't hesitate to email me at lyle corvettepartscenter.com or you know don't forget to like and subscribe and comment down there too because i do my very best to answer everybody who has a question it's been great seeing you here i will see you a week from now with new interesting content in the meantime enjoy your fourth of july weekend thank you very much [Music]