thinking of a Z06

[Gixer]

Great write up, really enjoyed reading that. Done the ring a few times both as passenger in Vipers and in my ZR1, not taken the Z06 there yet. The ZR1 is on coilovers which really help on the bumpy corners. Trouble with TV and video games is that they tend to flatten circuits somewhat. You can't really appreciate how much the elevation changes on some of these circuits until youve actually been there. Really dont know it that well although im starting to know stretches of it. Never managed to get on it on a public day thanks to it being so loud I always get noise tested and turned away. However we normally go with some of the Viper guys to a meet organised by some German Viper owners and some other nice machinery both classic and modern. They alternate the meet, one year we get to mess about all day on a huge old Cold War air field (now owned by GM) and then the next year we get about 2 hours of private ring time. One of the German guys has something to do with the ring. It's always the weekend there's a GT race on and thy use the full circuit including most the GP loop. They go out for morning practice then we go out for a couple of hours, come in and then watch the race. One big condition to us doing this is everyone is sensible and must not crash as it could obviously interfere with the GT race start time. A big plus to doing this is that not only is there the mix of cars and bikes etc you get on a public day but the circuit is also fully marshalled making it much safer.

I think with the Z06, as long as you're not being stupid and make sure you keep it well balanced, it's threshold is generally going to be above your bottle threshold.

Spa is the one circuit I've been wanting to go to for years and for some reason never make it there. Typically we are often not far away either. One day I will make it there.

[z06tim]

I too really enjoyed Roughrider's post. Thanks for steering me in the direction of this forum Gixer. It's been a bit quiet on here lately.

I took my C5Z on track for the first time last year at Bedford Autodrome, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Mine is a 2001, so the first of the modern day lineage of Z06 models, and also perfectly at home on track. I believe the C5Z was the first Corvette showroom model to break the 8min barrirer at the ring, so this puts it squarely with some pretty capable machinery.

Would also love to do a trip to Spa. For me, tracks with fantastic elevation changes are really appealing. For this reason I've never been a big fan of Silverstone, much prefer Brands Hatch, as a spectator at least (not driven there). I was however lucky enough to do some driver training at Millbrook on the alpine handling circuit, which is superb if you ever get chance to drive there.

[z06tim]

This is worth a read for anyone considering an older C5 as a track day toy.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/voices/columnists/avoi...