Chasing the Corvette C7 Z06 – GM’s Pursuit of Auto Perfection

INTERIOR COMFORT

If there is a complaint that Corvette owners seem to be consistent on throughout the years, it is that the great US muscle car has lagged far behind the interior comforts of higher end European cars.  This actually seems to be a North American trait and is very evident to anyone who has sat in the Dodge SRT Hellcat lately.  The 2015 Corvette Z06 has made the 2015 Z06 much more than a track capable race car and it has now become one of a very luxurious interior as well..  From different choices of leather, seat choices, to even hidden compartments, the new Z06 is as sweet as it looks here:

Our Z06 is a 2LZ interior in kalahari mulan leather..  The Z06 comes standard with a flat bottom steering wheel and touring seats as seen here, however competition seats can be added for a premium and the seats leather blend can be upgraded to the softer napa from the standard mulan.  Something totally unexpected was the hidden compartment behind the touchscreen with a button to the left that dropped or raised the screen into the dash:

We’de like to pass on a thought to those considering the competition seat upgrade from the standard touring seats.  Join the forums, read owner opinions and try to experience both yourself before you decide.  We travel quite a bit for long distances and decided against the admittedly much better looking competition seats for the standard touring choice.  Our decision was initially based on several in the forums who reflected that the competition seats, although ideal for track and city, were not the most comfortable on long trips.  Having sat in both, I found the competition seats to be much harder and not have that firm yet formed feeling one enjoys.  Having said that, I even find the center edge of both sides of the touring seats to be a bit hard on the legs after a while and seem to be alone, my better half crediting my bow-legged stature for this.

Last but not least, I am sure I am not the only one who had the wife come out to the garage late the first night asking if I might like a blanket and pillow as well.

GM TECHNOLOGY

The new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 comes with OnStar 4G LTE Wi-Fi that enables a hot spot and is valid for a 3GB limit for 3 months before OnStar wants you to pay for the service.  In addition, your Z06 has its own built-in cell phone with a minimal plan that can be upgraded to 200 minutes for $14.99 (Cdn).  This plan is actually an incredible value as those 200 minutes are good for a year from activation, even if you decide to discontinue other OnStar Features.  If you live close to a border, as I, it gets even better (according to OnStar) as there are absolutely no long distance or roaming charges anywhere in Canada or the US.  To do this on your cell alone would cost a mint.

Audio is pushed through Bose’s premium 10 speaker system which includes an SD Card and USB ports for your own collection, bluetooth capabilities to connect your cell or audio devices, and the sound is surprisingly good once you configure it properly.  Many have complained about the initial sound quality and it almost seems that GM has preset values for the sound that are released as soon as one starts to adjust the bass, mids or treble themselves.  We find that, even at full volume, there is no distortion to even include very low base songs when one can see and feel the car visibly shaking.  Quite frankly, this is normally unheard of (get it?)

Navigation is spot on and we were presently surprised to see 3D navigation late one night as we cruised the downtown area of Toronto.  Navigation (and OnStar) has up to date traffic advisory activated and we saw this first hand when returning home from the dealership the first day.  We were audibly and visually warned that Hwy 401 between Ottawa and Toronto was closed and I, the knowledgeable traffic guy that I am, laughed it off as the highway is frequently being upgraded and lanes reduced during the early morning hours.  Well…it was a road closure and luckily OnStar warned us a few exits ahead as we could see the stopped traffic ahead when exiting that last exit.  The detour supplied was dead on.

PERFORMANCE DATA RECORDER (PDR)

The Corvette Z06 Performance Data Recorder is available as an option in the 2LZ package and standard in 3LZ.  2016 models will have the added benefit of twin curbside cameras on the lower left and right of the front bumper.  The initial Z06 releases contained software that depicted a very green image, albeit still HD 720P.  This was the subject of a fix in April 2015 and the picture is now much better as can be seen in this daylight demonstration:

For those with the initial software release, you can attend your dealership where they will do a simple software flash.  For those unfamiliar with Corvettes Z06 PDR, its intended use is that of a track recorder and monitor and one can see the speed, brake and gas application, gear, G-Force as well as steering angle on this screen.  In addition, a GPS tracking map can be used and, for unfamiliar territory, a start and finish point can even be input.  Although the PDR will be the subject of a later article, we thought this quick night demonstration of our corvette run in Toronto might assist just a bit as well.

Lastly, the SD card for the PDR is not included when you buy your car and the slot is located inside the vehicles glove box.  It MUST be formatted in a much older FAT 32 format and I use a 256GB SD card which works fine.  It gives me a total of 105 hours recording time.  The PDR records in MP4 format, easily read by any PC, but one can easily use a microSD card with SD adapter and later simply watch the recordings on their phone of it has a microSD slot.

Are you aware that there is FREE software called the Cosworth PDR Toolbox that enables you to analyze your PDR performance data on your own PC?  Better yet, check out GM’ PDR How-To Video to get to know the PDR better.