Bill Dearborn

Almost 4 year old thread started up again.

Bill

USMC-0311

had the same question in April 2019. Drove both, was instantly comfortable with a C7 Grand Sport. Was instantly respectful of the z06 and the power, brakes, handling. Went with the z06 - we call it the beast and it's a thrill a minute, the stingray or grand sport are both fantastic, just not nearly the same on the street as the Z06. Go Z06 and enjoy the thrill!

GeorgeR_Zed06

if you can afford a Z06, get a Z06. If you are really looking at saving money (incl insurance), but want some performance, there's nothing wrong with an LT1 car. I know because I had one prior to the Z. Z's are fast, but, with all that extra power, most people can't put it down to the ground anyway. My Z51 ran good with a couple bolt ons and was fun nonetheless. My buddy's "modded" LT1 SS 1LE will beat most stock Z's. Good luck...

23/C8Z

Lol. That would be one highly modified SS camaro. That's funny.

GeorgeR_Zed06

Yup, full bolt on and cammed manual car with E85 and drag wheels. That thing moves out.......lol! It won't touch my car, but it will hurt feelings on some stock Z's out here!!

23/C8Z

So a Fbo and cammed (internal mod) E85 on lightweight wheels? Lol.. at that price he could have went ZL1 and been faster with a far better foundation. But to each his own I guess.

hogurt

My modified SS makes my Z look like a child’s toy. I was running right at 800whp, but even dialed back to 700whp, the SA was definitely a faster car straight line.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Z and am falling more and more in love every time I drive it. In fact, I would say it’s about perfect for the most fun on the street. It reminds me of the Camaro performance when I was running 600whp. Have to be careful in first, but with reasonable weather and some nice road, can get into it in second.

Several of my modified cars went too far. They were loud; they had no traction unless I was on DR’s or perfect conditions.

It is funny, I had all of the parts sitting in my house to upgrade my Stingray. Blower, cam, pistons, fuel, e85, etc. it would have been significantly faster than my Z, no doubt. But with the Z, I will change the pulley, add e85, and get retuned. With that, I would imagine 600-650whp is reasonable and yeah, true, it’s technically slower than my Camaro...but will be way more useable and fun on the street.

In hindsight, I should have bought the ZL1 and Z06 to begin with. I would have spent less money, had cars that retained value better, and if I wanted to upgrade already had the fuel and forged internals along with lower compression. With the Stingray, running 800whp is doable, but by the time all add-one’s are made, you could just buy the Z. My issue really came down to this, I could easily make my car outperform the Z in a straight line. But I liked the fatter wheels/tires and rear fascia. I liked the way it looked. Once I started looking at adding widebody options to the stingray, it just didn’t make sense any more.

I just sold all of the parts I had sitting ready to install and bought a Z instead. However, I wouldn’t fault anyone for taking the other path. It’s fun to make a car your own. The fact the Z has a shitty cam and a way undersized blower makes topping performance easy. But everything on the Z just works...performance is good enough to be a blast without having to deal with or troubleshoot issues.

GeorgeR_Zed06

Yeah, but at the time, a 65k car vs a 38k car!! Lol, big difference there bud. Also, he's a young GM mechanic and all work was done by him. Honestly, he doesn't really have a lot invested like you would think. The wheels are race stars and are not that expensive, but the car looks way sharp!