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Sunday, December 21, 2014

Is 2015 Corvette C7 Z06 a better ZR1 at lower price?

In spite of carrying the Z06 moniker, the newest +General Motors Corvette flagship is conceptually closer to the last ZR1 than to the Z06.  +Tadge Juechter and his corporate leash holders tried their hardest to stick to the Z06 replacement objective but obviously, due to the excessive weight and inability to come up with a LS7 engine update, this attempt was always DOA.

Why would anyone aim at the lower of the previous generation top models as the objective for the newest flagship?  The answer is very obvious: the performance objective could have been lowered, using inferior figures that could still make the car look better in buyers eye than the previous Z06 and still claim it as a flagship, justifying a hefty six figure pricetag (the mythical 79k base price claimed as the "bargain" does not happen in real life).

Of course, this plan is firmly dead, in spite of GM's attempts and Juechter's bullshit, the car became the new ZR1, at least in the eye of the typical kool aid fed ignorant Corvette enthusiast.  The typical logic that circulates among Corvette inbreeds implies that the new car is a better ZR1, at considerably lower price.  Is this really the case?  Does the supercharger and gaudy ground effects and artificially widened body make the new Z06 the ZR1 replacement?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!  In reality, what this new car ended up being is nothing more than a factory supercharger conversion of the base Stingray.  Of course, the results of this strategy are already make the wave of surprise and disappointment through the internet and translate into considerably smaller sales than prophesized by Tadge the Mouthpiece just a couple of months ago.

So how much of a bargain the new Z06 really is?  How is it possible that a ZR1 successor could be so much cheaper (at least at the base MSRP level?).  Unfortunately, the reality is that cost cutting and cheaper parts (with lesser performance) have been used to build this car.

Here is one example and at least partial explanation why the previous ZR1 carried a higher pricetag.  The case in point is the intercooler pump.   This is information that neither Juechter or anyone at GM would like others to know but the fact remains that the Z06 intercooler water pump is an upgrade of current Camaro ZL1 pump instead of last ZR1 pump.  What is the problem here?  Well, the problem is with the flow rates and packing.  Not to many Corvette enthusiasts realize how much of a technological accomplishment had the ZR1 intercooler pump been.  Size wise, the pump was very small but... it was also extremely well made, durable and it generated unreal flow rates, about 5.8 GPM.

For comparison, the ZL1 pump flows about 1 GPM less.

So why would GM not continue with ZR1 originated pump and increase its flow rate even more?  After all, the small supercharger is more of a heat pump at higher RPMs than actual air compressor.

Here is the problem, the PRICE.  The ZR1 intercooler pump costs about 980 dollars versus ZL1 pump costing 300 dollars.  This is a huge difference.  Needless to say, the new ZL1 based pump flow rate is about 4.9 GPM which is a far cry from the last ZR1.  Given choice between price and performance, it is obvious which consideration won and how the low price tag was possible.

The real life results are already a big disaster and true PR nightmare for GM.  Was this cost cutting approach worth it?  Judging after the mass internet hysteria, no, it was not.  Certainly, it would help the Corvette enthusiasts to understand what gave with this so called Z06 to claim that lower price. 

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