Chevy’s latest edition of the Corvette—the Z06 Convertible—might be one of a dying breed, despite its wonderful construction.
THE NICE THING ABOUT Corvette, from a social-theory standpoint, is it requires no interpretation. Chevrolet’s plastic fantastic sports car, in its 62nd year, is obviously an American fertility symbol, and never more so than in top-down, convertible form, when it looks like something out of a bachelorette-party gift bag.
Anthropologists might argue that all two-seat sports cars are plumage, coded attempts to enhance status and mate desirability. The Corvette is just a little more frank, with that silhouette, a little less is-you-is-or-is-you-ain’t? You definitely is.
For real horn dogs, there is this week’s test car: The Corvette Z06 Convertible ($94,235, as tested), powered by the mightiest eight cylinders in the inventory, the supercharged 6.2-liter LT4 pushrod V-8, kicking the slats with 650 hp and 650 [...]
From the March 2015 issue of Car and Driver
Fahrenheit Z06: The Maximum Operating Temperatures for the Corvette Z06 Are Insane! The 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 posts some impressive performance numbers thanks to its 650-hp, 6.2-liter supercharged V-8. It also posts some impressive BTUs. A byproduct of that flame-breathing engine is heat, and lots of it, generated primarily by combustion, friction, and intake-air compression. These and other factors, such as the low hoodline and pinched frontal openings demanded by stylists and aero engineers, contribute to the complex thermal-management task faced by engineers working on nearly all of this car’s varied subsystems. To assure that the Z06’s maximum performance is attended by minimal risk of failure, GM performed heat-related stress analysis [...]
