The power of the 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is like that of a 30-foot boa constrictor. The driving force, the brute strength of it feels as though you could knock down a wall with a single, smooth and silent strike.

Don’t try that at home.
Instead, try taking the Z06 out to a track, or at least a good long open road with some twisties on either side. You’ll find that from hair-on-fire acceleration to carving a turn, it is among the most well-balanced and just plain fun cars available, at any price. While the Dodge Viper has rawer, wild power, the Z06 is more forgiving and easier to drive, despite a shifter that can be balky at times. Our drive from downtown San Diego to the Anza Borrego desert featured a little bit of everything, from city driving to lovely long straight-aways and hair-pin mountain roads. In the city, the Z06 showed its tame side, handling stop-and-go travel easily and comfortably. It took a few minutes to get in sync with the transmission’s clickety-clack shift character, but once interplay with clutch, shifter and power base was aligned, driving the Z06 proved smooth and easy. You do sit quite low in the cockpit, however, so long stretches of traffic or stop lights become quite tiresome. Then there’s the patience factor: you know what you have at your fingertips, and that darn truck is keeping you from your appointment with the Speed God…

Arrrggh. When you do make it to your appointed time, the Z06’s 7.0-liter engine is ready to play and you head straight for glory, exercising the six-speed manual transmission and dipping into its ample well of power. There’s nothing quite like it, and at just $65,800, the experience is quite a bargain: open up the throttle and the Z06 pushes you back into your seat with authority, accelerating like a sling shot but giving you the confident feeling of control. The cockpit is comfortable, and seats supportive, during aggressive driving. A major benefit is GM’s head-up display, which keeps eyeballs on the road and is very easy to adapt to; with it you rarely look down at the instrument panel. That’s a good thing, too, because the Z06 is like owning a tame tiger: you know what the beast could do, but you feel pretty good that, just as long as you keep the whip out, that tiger won’t turn. For the Z06, the whip is a stability control system that’s among the best, with a “Competition Mode” that gives the Z06 a disciplined sense of wild and crazy fun. Few people can drive the Z06, with its 505 horsepower and 470 lb.-ft. of torque, to the edge. Nor should you try, unless you’re on a track. The Competition Mode allows you to really stretch the envelope within the safe confines of the stability system, stretch your driving talent and do so in a much safer setting. But if you do something stupid, it’s not gonna save you.

There’s more to the Z06 than the price and the powertrain, however. Weight also factors into its performance. The Z06 is lighter than the regular Corvette coupe, thanks to the extensive use of carbon fiber, aluminum, and magnesium that improve stiffness and cut out some of the weight. As a result, the Z06 is more nimble, and gives a great accounting of itself during tight corners. This is not a typical straight-line-to-glory Chevy, but a true performance car in every way. General Motors says that the Z06 generates 1.04g of lateral grip, and, after a day spent whipping the thing around corners only to have its big tires mock us, we believe ‘em. Thanks to those big tires, and the Z06’s light and stiff structure, the steering is also razor sharp, with a precise feel of the road and instant response to commands. Stopping is also impressive: with 14-inch brakes up front and 13.4-inch brakes in back, the ZO6 gives excellent feel during a slow down, with prompt stopping and zero fade no matter how hard you step into it, whether on a hairpin turn or pulling up on a straight-away.

The 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is simply a great car to drive for people who can afford the ultimate level of street power and performance, yet have never quite experienced it. For a tick under $66,000, you can take this car to Ferrari-land in just 3.7 seconds – and to the grocery store as well. That sort of combination is a rare find, and a true American jewel.