GrantG

The gearing of the Z06 is absurd for a high-revving motor. 3 of its gears are superfluous cruising over-drive gears according to this:



Was this required to post better fuel economy numbers or just to let Americans drive at freeway speeds with the engine quietly idling??

1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears are reasonable, but the rest are a mess.

greatfox315

I noticed this too. It’s essentially a 5 speed. Welcome to 1988!

Ksdaoski

they kept the same gearset as the base engine

GrantG

They use the same gearing for an 8,600 rpm engine as a 6,500 rpm engine (or they have different final drive ratios)?

Ksdaoski

gearing is same, final drive is different; 5.56 vs 4.90
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ked-about.html

https://www.speedcolumn.com/car-gear...-Corvette-2023

https://www.speedcolumn.com/car-gear...-Corvette-2020

GrantG

That's unbelievably lame - 388mph gearing??

So, the R&T data is wrong for the 4 top gears. In 5th, the car does not reach redline (even this gear is too tall for top speed - max speed of 189 mph would be reached at 8,250 rpm, but peak power is at 8,400 rpm). In the top 3 gears, the top speed and rpm are progressively much lower.

This car is already very impressive in a straight line. Imagine if they had used the 8 gears properly (8th gear should be slightly lower than the current 5th gear and achieve top speed of about 190 mph at 8,400 rpm and the other gears should be tightly packed together to minimize rev drop on upshifts).

Unfortunately, this gearing can't be fixed with a shorter final drive (this would just make the low gears useless instead of the high gears). This engine and car deserve a whole new close-ratio gear stack. They must have run out of budget for this...

Larry Cable

I concur @GrantG

mr965

I would like to add one to the garage to terrorize friends on the track

Ksdaoski

No Z07 allocations right now

Bents

Both basically impossible to get for 99.9% of people right now so who cares. May as well play Top Trumps.

Axis

Crazy how the rs would have been up there with the vette if they gave them both cup2r's. Those struts are putting in work.

Alan C.

It appears base vs. base the Cayman GT4 and the Z06 are almost the same price. In that scenario I’d take the Z06 In a heartbeat.

Underblu

The Z06 is a remarkable achievement particularly at the price. I wish GM would take a page from Porsche and do various iterations. Like a Lightweight MT Z06 with a slightly detuned engine. I think Ferrari and some of the other exotic car makers have lost their way. 700hp+ turbo’s, electric motors, how does that improve the visceral connection to the car and the road. I mean its just silly numbers that are unusable.

The GT4/Spyder, GT4RS, Z06, GT3, even the 3000lb? Lambo. Those are the cars I’d want to own and drive. Kudos to Chevy and Porsche for building cars that still have character.