Cars and Supercars: Chevrolet Corvette Z06 2006

There are two kinds of motoring enthusiasts in the world. One is the kind of people who like watching Jackie Chan flicks. They love it when the tiny action hero from Hog-Kong very adeptly disposes an army of goons, each one ten times his size, with a blitzkrieg of complex martial arts moves. It’s the rapid, yet classical way in which the action hero moves that leaves you spellbound. It’s dramatic, but in a scientific way.

The other kind is the people who want to see Arnold Schwarzenegger marauding a city single-handedly and coming out victorious. He’s the human incarnation of a bulldozer, no, an M1 Abrams battle tank. Bullets don’t injure him, shells doesn’t hurt him. He doesn’t even need to move as the teeny pests from the opposition shower him with flurry of slugs. He just devastates everything that comes his way, kills the villain with a mild punch in his nose, frees his abducted girlfriend and walks away without a trace of emotion on his face.

While the former group of mortals are usually seen driving around in the Supras, the Celicas, the Imprezas and the Skylines of this world, the latter would do with anything on wheels which has an engine capacity of more than 6.0-litres. Trucks are the best suited to buying groceries with the family in the evening – for example.

For these gentlemen, traction control means thicker and wider rubber, global warming is a tool used by politicians to garner votes and ten years is an eternity if the fuel on earth was to get exhausted in that time span. Units like kmpl and mpg obviously are too complicated to understand, so they are better left to scientists and philosophers to worry about.

The Chevrolet Corvette then, is the best car in the world for these friends of ours. With a seven-litre engine – bigger than the ones used in some tractor trailers – this machine is the best exponent of what some prefer calling ‘American Muscle’. And man! Does it rock!! With 505bhp of raw power oozing out from that colossal engine, it’ll take just 3.7 seconds for this car to breach the 100km/h mark, and this screeching, growling, wailing monster won’t slow down before it lands in the supercar territory by kissing the 200mph mark.

But what’s so special about the fact?

You could say that there are dozens of cars which can do the feat with about half the Z06’s engine capacity.

And at about three times the price – I would answer.

This car with the base model priced at $65K is nothing less than day-light robbery. Any other car from an Italian or a German marque with similar or lower performance specs will cost you anything from three to five times more. That’s the power of American muscle –you just have to replace the expensive electronics, software and other nonsense with a large piece of metal and lo! - You’re as fast as the world’s fastest supercars while having to spend only a faction of the money.

But there’s nothing new about this fact. The Z06 has always been known as a car which provides supercar performance at a heavy discount. The new thing, however, is the fact that the Z06 is no more the bad handling monster that it used to be. With all the straitjacketing software and hardware bits in proper place, this car could actually be driven by normal men. It’s nimbler, lighter and more fun to drive than it ever used to be. These facts have hurt the campaigners of American Muscle, but this still happens to be the best option available to them (the second best option after trucks to buy groceries). Using materials like Magnesium for the frame, Balsa wood for the floor and carbonfibre for fenders means that it’s almost time for Schwarzenegger fans to give in. Only tendons won’t work in the times of Toyota, there has to be some tact too, and this car is a sumptuous blend of the two.

The Corvette Z06 then is an absolute hoot to drive, and can make mincement of most other cars in a straight line. There’s a reason why that car is cheap though, so avoid getting too egoistic on windy roads and racetracks.