We were pretty impressed when Chevrolet told us that its 2012 Corvette Z06 was capable of shaving about three seconds off of its predecessor’s time at the Nurburgring in Germany. But we’re even more impressed with today’s news that the significantly cheaper and less powerful Z06 could navigate the world’s most difficult track just three seconds slower than the ZR1.
Corvette engineer Jim Mero recorded a 7:22.68 time in the revised 2012 Corvette Z06, which benefits from many of the same upgrades as the 2012 Corvette ZR1 – namely, a set of new, ultra grippy Michelin tires.
The Corvette Mero drove around the ‘Ring was optioned up with the new Z07 suspension package, which includes the staggered Michelin Pilot Sport Cup ZPs and Magnetic Selective Ride Control, as well as carbon ceramic brakes, a special traction mode and a few other goodies. Compared to the last Z06 Chevrolet took around the ‘ring – back in 2005 – the 2012 raced back to the start/finish line 20 seconds faster. Its 7:22.68 time is just fractions of a second away from the previous ZR1′s time, proving that the ‘Ring isn’t as much about power as it is about having a precise track tool.
“There’s a lot of legend and speculation about Nurburgring lap times, so we wanted to provide sports car fans with a video look inside one complete lap in the new Z06,” said Tadge Juechter, Corvette vehicle line director and chief engineer, in a statemetn.
“This is just one of a multitude of ways we test, but there’s nothing like the Nurburgring in terms of severity, speed and notoriety around the world. In this particular test in Germany, we were validating new content for 2012, doing many days’ worth of tuning and development work. As a small part of that effort, we had a brief opportunity for Jim Mero to record lap times with a clear track. We ran three of those complete and continuous laps, two in the ZR1 and one in the Z06, captured by on-board videos.”
Chevrolet confirmed that Mero’s Corvette was a standard Z06 with no non-factory upgrades.
The 7:22.68 time makes the Z06 the eighth-fastest production car to make its way around the ring (not including Porsche’s unconfirmed 7:18 911 GT2 RS figure) – and certainly the least expensive since, well, the last Z06.
