Hooniverse Reminds Us Why the C5 Corvette Z06 is Terrific

If you walk Corvette Forum’s digital hallways, you will encounter a lot of blue-faced individuals. We’ve talked ourselves blue about the Corvette’s preeminence as the auto world’s performance bargain, not just among sports cars, but all vehicles on sale.

Heck, you could buy a brand-new Z06, pinball it off a bunch of roadside trees (click for must-see video of that), forgo insurance compensation, buy a replacement Z06 the next day, and you would still have spent less money than the guy who’s got a quarter-million-dollar 2016 Ferrari 488 GTB on order.

Considering how much of a performance bargain a new Corvette is, start putting the image of a used ‘Vette in your mind, and think about the nuclear shockwave of value that represents. Used Corvettes like C5s and C6s are performance bargains on top of performance bargains. Perhaps the pinnacle of used Corvette performance bargains is the C5 Corvette Z06.

If I could put the C5 Corvette Z06’s value-for-dollar efficacy into an image, it would be this famous David Hasselhoff Recursion GIF.

Even that GIF isn’t enough to demonstrate how much of a performance bargain the C5 Corvette Z06 is … still, maybe it’s enough to traumatize you.

My friend Jason Connor from Hooniverse was aware the C5 Z06’s bargain power needed storytelling, so he shot and hosted a video to remind us how the C5 Corvette Z06 is some of the best fun you can have for about 20 grand (for something like the 2002 model featured in this video).

You may recall 2002 was a good year for the Z06. Chevy pumped up the LS6’s output from 385 horsepower to 405. Torque went up from 385 pound-feet to a plump 400. While the power was sufficiently plump (even by today’s standards 13 years later) weight was anything but: 3,118 pounds … 12 fewer than the 2001 Z06. Blame some of that weight loss on the Speedline spin-cast alloys introduced that year to replace the forged wheels of the same design from 2001.

Less weight, more power, and in 2015, a digestible cost of entry into one of the greatest Corvettes ever, if you can get past the Star Trek by Fisher-Price interior. But who’s paying attention to the C5’s insides when there are billowy masses of tire smoke making large swaths of land disappear behind you?

Chime in with your thoughts on the forum. >>

Follow @manuelcarrillo3