The Chevrolet Corvette rolled out of Flint, Michigan in 1953 and has never stopped—eight generations, no domestic rivals left standing. It nearly didn't happen. Fiberglass over a 3.9-liter straight-six, two-speed automatic, Chevrolet's answer to the lean British roadsters of the postwar years—it debuted at GM's Motorama in the Waldorf-Astoria and promptly sold almost none of its 300 hand-assembled units. A quiet beginning for what would become America's sports car. Ethan felt the raw power beneath him as he gripped the leather-wrapped steering wheel, the engine’s growl vibrating through his bones. The yellow Corvette Z06 had been his dream since the moment he first saw it in a magazine spread. Now, with the 405-horsepower beast purring at his command, he understood why critics had called it a return to glory.
Martin glanced at the speedometer—70 mph—and smiled. The road ahead stretched like an open invitation through the Arizona desert. No traffic, no cops, just endless pavement and the setting sun casting long shadows across the saguaro cacti.
“Let’s see what you can really do,” he whispered to the car, pressing the accelerator. The engine roared in response, pressing him back into the custom racing seat. The world outside blurred as the Z06 devoured the highway. 80... 90... 100... the numbers climbed with frightening ease.
The high-performance Z06 takes its name from the race-ready option package Chevy first offered on the 1963 Corvette. Introduced in 2001 with 385 horses from its V-8, the Z06 also sheds 54 pounds from the standard Corvette via thinner glass and titanium mufflers—enough to hit 60 mph in 4.3 seconds, half a second quicker than any fifth-gen Corvette we'd previously tested. The following year, Chevy bumps the Z06 to 405 horses. After a two-year hiatus, the Corvette is back on the 10 Best Car’s map.
