Marina Blue

My experience has been the same Vet. In March my wife and I did a 3,000 mile round trip to Sebring, FL. The car amazed me. I never experienced a long trip where I didn't get tired of driving.

As far as quality, after 6,000 miles there are no problems. I never had a car without one problem in that mileage.

Chevrolet has a winner with the C6.

bigearl56

Thank you very much for that post. I love to take my C6 on the road. As previously posted car has been perfect with zero problems.

Vet

Thanks for all the responses!

Regarding the Z51 suspension: fortunately, most of the roads I was on up in the mountains were fairly smooth. Of course there's always occasional rough pavement, but the majority was smooth. The Z51 was perfect. The suspension is wonderful at high speed over hills, dips and through the curves.

The Z51 seems to feel very soft and smooth while still providing a tight crispy handling behavior. I'd say it is the "Cadillac" of high performance sports car suspensions.

However... heading home, coming over the Bruckner, Throgs Neck Bridge, Clearview Expressway etc... very bad. I guess you'd get the heck beat out of you regardless of suspension type. Any vehicle takes a SERIOUS beating on such terrible roads. Going through there in the Z51... it was like listening to a fireworks display on the 4th of July... when those big run-flats slam the ruts and holes, the shock is transmitted throughout the car and it makes a LOT of noise... it was very bad... I guess it is almost "tolerable" if you need to travel on such roads on rare occasion, but if you had to do it say twice every day to and from work... NO WAY.

It's amazing how sensitive the Z51 is to road TEXTURE. On one interstate, the roadway had a somewhat rough grainy texture. The road LOOKED smooth, but it apparently had a slight grain to it. The tires were making a heck of a lot of noise, all the "vibration" was transfered into the car. Was not pleasant, I had to raise my voice to talk. Couldn't hear the engine at all of course.

All of a sudden the pavement changed, the surface became smoother. Instantly the noise stopped and it was dead quiet in the cabin. It was such a severe change... was almost scary... I thought the car left the ground and was floating on air or something. Road surface LOOKED almost the same the whole time. Just made me realize how sensitive the Z51 is to texture in the pavement. It's just sensitive, period.

As I have said here at the forum before, people should choose their suspension based on the type of roads they plan to use most. If you like an aggressive suspension and will be on decent roads most of the time, the Z51 should be just fine. If you will be driving in citified areas often with ruts and potholes, and if you do NOT like getting shaken around violently and hearing lots of tire noise etc, absolutely DO NOT get the Z51.

The biggest thing I learned yesterday was how wonderful this car is when pushed hard on challenging roads. Since I've owned the car, I've been stuck on Long Island with it... no place to have real fun. Taking it up into the mountains and being able to really fly just opened up a whole new aspect of the car that I had not yet experienced. It is so apparent to me now that this car, and perhaps the Z51 package specifically, was designed to go VERY FAST around turns and over hills. The car just feels SO good in these situations. You may say, "of course, it's a Corvette!"... but it was just really enlightening to experience it first hand for the first time.

I will not reveal how fast I was traveling along route 22 up north much of the time (scenic farm road with nice curves and hills) because I don't want the moderators to pull my post... but let's just say I never would have dreamed of being able to go that fast in any four wheeled vehicle in such a situation with such a high level of control and confidence... and the car does everything so effortlessly with performance to spare.

I've NEVER driven a car that felt so good and handled so well when pushed so hard. It feels so "at home" on those roads at speed. Watch the C6 Nurnbergring video again... they were optimizing the car for that track... this all makes a lot of sense to me now... the car was indeed designed and tuned for that sort of thing... and I can really feel it in the car. You need to put the car in Nurnberging conditions and go very fast to really appreciate it.

I know many here enjoy modifying their cars for more performance and that's cool. But I must say, after my experience yesterday, one DOES NOT NEED and could NEVER USE any more performance than this car already has in stock form on a public roadway. The amount of power and handling a Z51 C6 provides is way above the limits that ANY public road will allow (other than maybe doing straight line accelerations on a dead straight road out in the desert somewhere).

The point is, when you spend your $50k+ for a brand new C6, you can feel confident that you are getting a LOT for your money and you really do not need to put any more $$$ into the car. You can feel confident that you are getting a serious high performance beast right out of the factory, ready to take on anything you can possibly throw at it on public roads (without doing anything suicidal).

For me, this car is the ultimate. After years of building hot rods, riding motorcycles etc, I feel I have finally reached the pinnacle of motoring with the C6. It does EVERYTHING better than any other vehicle I've ever experienced. Sure, other cars may excel in certain areas, but I feel the C6 gives you the best combo of what you want in a high performance road car. And the big American pushrod V8 seals the deal as the legendary GM brute musclecar it is.

Sorry for the long post, but the more I think about my car, the more I want to just drive it... and since I cannot go out right now, typing about it is the next best thing I guess. I think I am seriously addicted to backroad touring now, more than ever before... thanks to the C6.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Thanks again and I agree with everything you said. I too am seriously addicted to backroad touring now. This is where I get most of my enjoyment out of the car

This is truly where the MN6 Z51 is just a blast to drive. I cannot imagine how a C6 Z06 would be any more fun to drive on the same roads

Z06 L GO

Great story!

NoDoze

Nice post Thanks for sharing

Lightning Coyote

Sounds like a great trip. I agree, the C6 is truly a super traveling car. I just can't seem to get enough time behind the wheel.

fts

Great story. That is a terrific road trip. Thanks for sharing.

6spdC6

Great trip congrats to you!
As a person that lives 20 miles from lake George I know that area well.
Part of the reason I got Z51 package was to enjoy all the mountain backroads up here.

Now If you thought that ride was great, do it again in the fall when the leaves are changing color
You will not be able to go as fast though, as their will be lots of other leaf-peapers out there. Its worth it though as the ride will be fantastic anywhere by Lake george area or farther North.

JLinCA

You definitely picked a great place to ride to, it is gorgeous up here this time of year. There are loads of backroads to cruise on as well.

As to the Z51 suspension, I ordered it on my 00 and will not order it on my 07. I'm going with the F55 and will upgrade the sway bars. Unfortunately the roads up here are a mixed bag, and I've found the Z51to be just too stiff (especially with those horrible run flat tires).

You hit it right on the head when you said people should look at where they will be driving when they choose a suspension. I think a lot of people get caught up in the great track aspects of the Z51 suspension (I did), without giving a thought to what it might be like on real world roads.

Glad you had a great time up here!!!

Vet

Thanks again... I appreciate all your responses.

I can't wait to get back up there again. Upstate NY indeed has a lot of great roads. Next time I'm up there I plan to cruise the entire Adirondack Park area. Haven't done that in while.

Love cruising through Vermont and New Hampshire as well.... White Mountains, Green Mountains, etc.

I must admit, my favorite roads are in Wyoming and Montana. Northern CA has some great stuff too, but for me, WY and MT takes the cake. I go out there almost every year or every other year to race around and enjoy the scenery. Biggest problem of course is just getting out there because it takes time... about 2,300 miles or so from Long Island... but man, it's worth it!!!

Last time I was out west (2 years ago) we went up north through MT... through Glacier National Park... into Canada and stayed at Waterton Park. All I can say is WOW. Did it on a motorcycle. I would LOVE to get the C6 over there at some point. God created that land specifically for the C6!

Fortunately though, us New Yorkers do have the Adirondacks and other cool New England roadways close by... plenty of good stuff within fairly easy reach.

cfunkb

Sarcasm On:
But do you like the car?

Sarcasm Off

Thanks for all the positive remarks and great description of a fun day. Makes me wonder how I am going to wait until mine comes in (TPW 7/10/06).

Vet

Yeah, I know I probably went a bit overboard, but I am sincerely excited about this car. I've been building / restoring cars since I first got my driver's license (about 20 years ago), always trying to create the "ultimate" high performance street car... with emphasis on "street". My goal was always to create the ultimate blend of power and economy into a vehicle that could be considered a comfortable user-friendly daily driver... but thrilling acceleration and excellent overall performance was indeed high on the list.

My last creation was an old Trans Am... original bone stock 455 4-speed... resurrected from the dead... body off restoration. I rebuilt and blueprinted the engine to perfection using a not so wild cam, upped the compression, etc, plus lots of other tricks in order to yield an engine that made stump pulling torque right off idle and a huge flat torque band, but yet excellent street manners, smooth idle, even passed emissions with flying colors, etc. This was an engine that did not need to be wound up high in order to obtain pants wetting thrills... and that was the goal.

I then swapped in a Richmond 5-speed tranny and 2.56:1 rear gear for an ultra low numerical highway cruise rpm. I also lightened the car up as much as possible by removing everything that was unnecessary, adding some fiberglass and aluminum here and there, etc. Other than that, the car appeared stock.

Of course as a younger dude with not much money back then, this is all I had to work with. I did everything myself most often using parts off of wrecked cars. Even the Richmond tranny was swiped out of a wreck. Entire car cost me under $5k to build. Was a great car and ran perfectly (because I spent so much time fine tuning the whole thing), but let's face it... a 3,700 pound beast with a 462 cubic inch engine (455 with overbore) will NEVER be economical. And the car in general was just very antiquated by modern day standards.

You can see the evolution here... the new C6 is basically the car I was always trying to build... a relatively small GM car, big V8 engine for mucho torque, super high final gearing for great highway cruising, etc... all with excellent street manners, smooth idle, street legal, no headaches. Realize that such a thing did not exist back 20 years ago or so. Trans Ams and the like were super slow in stock form at that time... Mustangs started getting faster around that time but a 302 was no match for a 455 in terms of neck snapping torque... and as for Corvettes... well, I was not able to afford a brand new one back then anyway so it didn't matter ... and the ones from the late `70's to my knowledge were emissions laden pigs anyway.

When I checked out the C6 for the first time, I thought... "they built this car just for me!" ... the entire design is essentially built to order per my prefered specifications and desires.

On TOP of all that, the C6 has so far proven to be 100% excellent in everyway in and of itself.

Even on top of THAT... I am also a motorcyle fan, so the removable roof top, small size plus the incredibly agile handling make the car that much closer to a motorcycle.

In total, you can see why I am so thrilled about this car. It's a design right out of my dreams and actually works. This is why I consider it the "pinnacle" of 4-wheeled motoring for me. And I gotta have that big American pushrod V8 in a car which is why I have never considered imports. I just hope they keep making these big V8s for a while... we should enjoy `em now while they last because they will certainly not be around forever.

Say what you want about GM, but they sure built a winner with the C6!

My personal "evolution" of the ultimate road car

BuckGW

What a fantastic post! I wish you many happy years with your C6!

IwntmyZTV

You're long winded for sure... but I read it all, head shaking in agreement.

I have never driven a car that has given me that same throttle response i was addicted to on my motorcycle until my '06 Z51.

Great Post!

Monterrey Bill

framebender

Thanks for sharing. I agree the c6 is a great road car and we love our car and haven't had any problems.

su8pack1

Nice story

aero400

Thanks for the report!

Homes

Awesome story. I am doing a road trip through the Texas hill country in about a month. Just me and my C6. I feel like I am having an affair that my wife knows about and encourages!

The C6 is simply an excellent automobile.