CAR magazine UK compares the Chevrolet Corvette ZO6 with the Porsche 911 GT3 RS with pictures, peformance specs and details
For the first time ever, the hot version of the definitive US sports car seriously could beat the range-topping 911. Chevrolet’s new Corvette ZO6, complete with a flat-plane V8 and super-serious performance engineering is the closest any one car has come close to taking on Porsche’s ultimate 911. But will the Corvette topple it?We’ve driven the new mid-engined Corvette before, but never in Z06 spec – a suffix synonymous with Corvette motorsport since 1963 and currently Corvette’s most potent C8.
Limit handling is shot through with surprising finesse, but there’s bandwidth to ace long hauls too – CAR deputy editor Piers Ward just drove this left-hooker from Germany, noting: ‘Tour mode is surprisingly comfortable, with decent flex in the suspension to make a long stint bearable.’ Our test cars continue those bloodlines, officially as the next best things to the Corvette C8.R and 911 RSR contesting the World Endurance Championship’s GTE class.
Patience, patience. That flatplane crankshaft conspires with heavily over-square cylinders to let the Z06 rip to 8600rpm, while 670bhp isn’t just 20bhp up on the previous Z06, it makes the LT6 the most potent naturally aspirated-production V8 ever. At least the steering is punchy off-centre and combines fluidity, moderate weight and feedback to settle nerves, and the damping has a robust sort of compliance, supporting the body in compressions that’d karate chop the sumps from some cars. Shame there’s so much secondary patter on trickier surfaces -– it would be interesting to drive the same roads with the heavier stock rims.
Tramlining remains a minor distraction, but the more confident I am to hustle, the more casually I steer, the more it fades to the background. Plus you can roll so much speed into downhill corners I swear I’ll be ejected through a side window before these Cup 2 Rs let go – it feels wide, low, elbows out.
But with its wild wings and vents, a radiator filling what used to be a boot and even specially contoured double-wishbone front suspension, the RS generates a claimed 860kg of downforce at 178mph, double the last GT3 RS . Kilos might not have the pub kudos of bhp or mph, but aero is key to the GT3 RS’s performance.
My worry is just how much of this can be enjoyably tapped on the road versus a vanilla GT3, and if the seriousness of it all might actually detract from the drive. Power and torque are both down versus the Corvette and delivered near identically on paper with best-’til-last 8500rpm peak power and tippy-toes 6300rpm peak torque. Thing is, the Porsche is way lighter with its 1450kg DIN weight , and much peppier in normal driving.
It works a treat. There’s one section of road with a run of washboard bumps that’d kick some hard-charging track cars into the valley below. The Corvette deals with them deftly enough, but even as I brace for the worst, the GT3 RS takes the hits like a punchbag – elastic, controlled, instantly ready for another upper-cut to the chassis. Plus it tracks calmer than the Z06, flowing deftly over this surface.
Yet because the aero is doing very little at typical B-road speeds, it’s still malleable enough to be steered on the throttle, not some one-dimensional grip monster that wants to spit you off the road the second it lets go. But a UK Z06 is likely to land bang in GT3 territory. That’s a big ask when the – albeit much improved – interior quality and infotainment still lag behind its German rival, and the powertrain can’t sing quite like a GT 911 can.
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