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With the new Corvette ZR1 about to hit the streets, the Z06 is sometimes forgotten. Is the $72,000 Chevy still as special as when it launched in August of 2005?

We want to know your thoughts...  

Of course it is special, but maybe a nice evolution would be to take the ZR1 and drop the LS7 in there as the next gen Z06. Maybe dump the fancy shocks for some adjustable coil overs and lose the leafs. Maybe direct inject that LS7 and have stripper interior with some racing seats and a steering wheel that is not from a Malibu, in other words a hardcore version for those that want it.  

I might get killed for this post, but in my opinion, the Pratt & Miller C6RS (sort of a Z06 "Evolution") is everything I'd want a Corvette to be.

For whatever reason, I think the ZR1 is too kitschy for my tastes; C6RS strikes a nice balance between two of my favorites (Z06 and C6R).  

Ahh, the Z06. I'm a huge fan. I grew up around small-displacement european iron, and the C6 Z06 is everything I had always hoped a 'Vette would be: Big but not too big, crude but not too crude, and a decent stopper/handler that happens to have one hell of a fantastic V-8 under the hood.

That said, most of my C6 Z06 love probably dates to a bunch of early Corvette encounters (C3, C4, C5) where I snagged rides as a teenager and was ferociously disappointed with what I found. I was expecting some all-American rocket that did most things well and launched itself like a bat out of hell, and instead, I got a shoddily built fiberglass house that had no steering feel and even less suspension refinement. My love for the C6 (in both Z06 and base form) probably stems from the fact that it's the first 'Vette that really and truly competes--ergonomically, dynamically, stylistically, and from an interior standpoint--with the best of Europe. For me, as imperfect as it is, the C6 is the first Corvette that's lived up to the hype.






p.s. Yes, I know, the C5 Z06 is/was a hell of a car, and a dynamically good one, at that. But for some reason, there's just something missing...


p.p.s. To answer the actual question in the earlier post, I think--and I'll probably get killed for this--I'd rather have a Z06 than a ZR1. Evan's right; the ZR1 is just too tacky-looking, 600 hp or not. C6RS? Hot, but I want something that, should I tear a fender off at the track, I don't have to pay an arm and a leg to fix.