The 2008 Corvette Z06 was the beast unleashed by General Motor in a final attempt to create a strong image of a dying breed: the large V-8 engined American sports cars.
Back in 2008, General Motors was in deep trouble. The world financial crisis took its toll on the American carmaker who faced the difficult decision to pull back from Europe. Despite that, the management approved the Z06 project, and it wasn’t just a “let’s put a bigger engine and call it a day” situation. It was much more than that. After all, they were selling the most iconic American sports car of all time, the Corvette.

The engineers made the Z06 with the best materials and best solutions and resulted in a Corvette as fast as an Italian supercar. The carbon-fiber bumpers sported a broad air intake to cool the massive engine under the hood. There was a gap behind the doors to open them on its sides since there were no visible door-handles. In the back, there was no massive, show-off wing on the liftgate.

GM didn’t want to make an expensive interior. Sure, it used leather-clad sport bucket seats with high bolstering. Its plastics from the dashboard were similar to those existing in budget or fleet cars. But it added a head-up display that showed a G-meter on the windshield, not on a separate panel. The infotainment unit offered a navigation system but not a touch-screen.

But the Z06 was mighty for its performance-oriented details. GM used hydroformed aluminum elements for the safety cell, magnesium, and high-strength steel for the chassis. After GM did everything to make the car lighter, it dropped a 7.0-liter V-8 engine under the hood and sent 505 hp to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual only. Its magnetorheological dampers increased the cornering speed and proved that the Corvette was not a straight-line racer. It could do corners as well with over 1 g lateral acceleration and still keep the trace.