2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 First Look

After more than three years of waiting

Transcript

00:00 I'm Frank Marcus with Motor Trend and I'm here with the Corvette Z06.

00:04 This is the mid-engine Corvette that Motor Trend has been expecting since the 1960s,

00:09 just about.

00:10 And we finally got it in 2020, made it our car of the year, we loved it, said nothing

00:14 but good things about it, handles great, drives great, super value, etc.

00:18 But you know, fancy people, they think, "Oh, that car only has one camshaft, and it's way

00:25 down in the engine, there's pushrods and rocker arms."

00:28 Well this one solves that problem.

00:31 We've got a flat-plane crank V8, naturally aspirated, spins to a zillion RPM, makes 670

00:39 horsepower, only 460 pound-feet of torque, but the sound it makes is just amazing.

00:45 And they said, "Okay, we really want this to be an emotional car that those Lamborghini

00:49 people and Ferrari people will want to have because they like it, not because people said

00:55 it was good or it's a good value or any of that stuff."

00:58 So they really worked on the sound of this car.

01:00 In fact, they've redesigned the exhaust system very recently before the car went into production,

01:06 and they put this reverse megaphone thing in the rear exhaust tips that forces some

01:12 of that sound back into the interior.

01:15 Very frenetic, it's very much like a flat-plane crank V8 from a Ferrari, without turbos again,

01:21 so it doesn't muffle the sound, it sounds terrific.

01:24 But it also vibrates, this is a five and a half liter flat-plane crank V8, largest that's

01:31 ever been made in the modern era.

01:32 There was some Lincoln a million years ago, but don't count that.

01:35 Anyway, that thing vibrates a lot, they had a lot of work to do to quell that vibration,

01:41 to make things not fall off of the engine.

01:43 They left a little bit in there because when you're in the driver's seat of this car, you

01:48 feel a little vibration and a tenseness, and it just feels ready to go.

01:52 I'm Frank Marks with Motor Trend, and for more information on the C8 Corvette and every

01:56 other car and truck, go to Motortrend.com.