So, how long do you guys think it will take before a 06 Z06 will fall under 50k?

 

It will be quite a while. You're looking at a 28% reduction from minimum base price and many sold for much more. I'd guess by '10 or certainly by '11, maybe earlier if GM pumps up the 09 version with noticeably more power and makes the 06 something a bit less than equal to the current model.

 

While I'm looking to be sort of frugal I guess, I really hate the interiors on Vettes, but the C6 got really awesome. I don't have a Corvette and this will be my first, how do you like your 02 Z06?

And btw, I have a complex that won't allow me to buy a regular Vette, I have to have the z06. [&:]

 

Well, I like it to the point I will never get rid of it, after spending a total of $110K on it and the engine and other mods. The interior is crap -- it was fairly low quality to begin with and on mine a couple of minor plastic peieces have cracked (largely from being removed and replaced so many times), the added instruments are neatly but not elegantly installed and it shows, and the driver's seat has split as most do (https://www.corvetteforums.com/m_33629/tm.htm). Still, stock and new it was a great car. Modified it has God's own torque curve and its just very satsifying to drive.
Personally, I bought the vette because: 1) I think the LS V8s are the best overall auto engine in the world, period, and certainly the best for hod rodding, and 2) among the various platforms I could buy for an LS engine, the 'vette was the best.

I know lot's of people with that complex and its hopeless and any satisaction is fleeting. Whether its the "I have to own the most powerful Corvette" complex or the "I've got to have thefastest car on the street" complex, realize the ZO6 will provide limited pleasure: Chevy will always come out with a more powerful model -- not just the Blue Devil or whatever they eventually name it, buta flick of the designpen and the '08 or '09 ZO^ could be (should be) 525 HP, or540. by the time the current model is below $50K, they will have done this at least once, maybe twice.
Andeven today, a stock ZO6 will get sand kicked its face by a lot of stuff cruising the streets on aFriday night, even a few extreme Ricers. 450 RWHP and mid 11 quarter miles are good but a lot of low cost (less than $10K in mods) F-bodies and Mustangs can do that easily and there are plenty of ten-second cars cruising. then there are the rarer but much much faster cars (mine, at ten flat in the quarter,is far from the fastest around, just the only low-ten car I know that drives completely like stock).

 

Well, once I got the money I wanted to have a SC'r put in it and maybe a few other mods, and I don't have to have the fastest car around either though. But I do want to be able to own just about anything on the road, I wouldn't mind getting beat by a Ferrarri, but I would never want a Mustang or a ricer to beat me, heh. Oh, and it's not really about having the faster Vette, I just want that z06 badge because you know what comes (or came) with it.

Do you think I'd be happier getting a C5 and modding it a bit or getting a C6 Z06? How much money would it take to get the C5 Z under 11 in the QM, or even under 4 in the 0-6.

BTW, what other kind of cars have you seen that are faster than your vette?

Thanks again for your help Lee.

 

I'd get a standard coupe and modify it. Install ZO6 rear fenders so you can fit wider wheels at the rear, replace the engine with a stroker (an LS3 block with a 4" stroke will give you 418 cubic inches) with bulletproof bottom end. With good heads and cam, etc., you can have about 550 RWHP NA. You will have something unique and more power, and have spent less money than on a stock ZO6.And you can now supercharge it to more than the stock ZO6 bottonm end can take .

only rela thing you need to decide is if you will eventually supercharge it when you build the engine up: if so go for no more than 10:1 compression, otherwise you can go 11.5

 

And I also figured out why I hate the interior, the radio that's standard on other chevies (I hate it cause it's in my crappy chevy venture van) and the shifter ****. Both of those can be easily replaced. Also I like the fixed lights alot better, but oh well.

Do you have a site with any info about getting one of those engines, and is it easy to sell your stock engine? Or, if I had a c5 z06 completely stock, would I need to rebuild the bottom end to get a SC'r and not worry about my car blowing up?

 

With either ZO6, you can supercharge it a bit: the C5 to about 475 RWHP (just barely more power than a stock C6 ZO6 makes, a bit less than one with headers makes); the C6 to about 600 RWHP.

I had a Magnusen SCr on my C5ZO6's stock engine for two years. It was a very sweet set up, reliable, torquey, no fuss. But friends with the same exact set up who went to smaller pulleys and more boost blew their engines quickly (and spectacularly).