2023 Corvette Z06 Gross Vehicle Weight Rating Comes in at a Portly 4,000 Pounds

Dry weight is far less, but this gives us an idea of the true running weight of the 2023 Corvette Z06.

Back in October of 2021, GM revealed a number of details about the 2023 Corvette Z06, including its dry weight, which comes in at 3,434 pounds for models equipped with the Z07 Performance Package. At first glance, that’s a pretty solid number, but there is one giant caveat – it’s a dry weight rating, and doesn’t include any fluids, let alone the weight of the driver. On the flip side, the NHTSA is more interested in gross vehicle weight ratings (GVWR), as its focus is on safety, not fuel economy or emissions like the EPA. In that case, the 2023 Corvette Z06 is a bit portly, as Corvette Forum member Telepierre pointed out in this thread.

According to this chart, the 2023 Corvette Z06 GVWR comes in at 4,021 pounds for the coupe, while the convertible maxes out at 4,146 pounds. The addition of fluids and a driver adds 300 pounds in this particular case, which means that the dry weight of each comes in at 3,721 and 3,846 pounds, respectively. Why the deviation from the EPA’s curb weight numbers? Well, according to the OP, there’s a science in how both agencies come up with these numbers.

“Two different agencies measuring or labeling two different weight attributes. EPA wants U.S. curb weight to measure the car’s fuel consumption and emissions. For the EPA, it is important to weigh a real production car in real road weight situations. NHTSA is a safety agency. The GWVR sticker on each U.S. car is there to ascertain and communicate GWVR which stands for Gross Vehicle Weight Rating which is frequently but erroneously interpreted as the car’s curb weight. The reason the NHTSA annotates the GWVR on the door is to communicate tire loads for safety reasons. U.S. curb weight is a car fully tanked full of fluids. GWVR is a car fully tanked full of fluids, full of passengers, full of cargo, plus towing capacity. Therefore GWVR is numerically abundantly larger than Curb Weight.”

This is exactly why GM wanted to test the Z06 coupe/convertible and aero/non-aero cars separately terms of EPA fuel economy, because there is a notable difference here. In fact, it resulted in a lower, $2,600 gas guzzler tax for the regular Z06 versus $3,000 for Z07-equipped models, which we imagine non-aero buyers will appreciate.

Photos: Chevrolet

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