ZO6 is Back

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 body, straight-six engine, two-speed automatic, and at its Waldorf-Astoria debut, almost none of its 300 hand-assembled units sold. Chevrolet brings the Z06 back to the Corvette line for 2023, and it is not playing around. The 5.5-liter flat-plane V-8 sitting behind the passenger compartment produces 670 horsepower—a number borrowed from the vocabulary of racing. Both coupe and convertible body styles are on offer, the convertible hiding a power-folding hardtop. Optional carbon-fiber wheels, 20-inch up front and 21-inch in the rear, are stiffer and lighter than the standards, shaving unsprung weight with the ruthless logic of a car that has no patience for excess. An eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission sends all of it to the rear wheels.