[rpoz-29]

My Camaro has been a body shop for two weeks getting the top painted under warranty. It's a hardtop and this is the second time. I shouldn't have told them I was in no hurry. Anyway, I was griping about it during lunch at a "Street Survival" school I was helping with. Another club member overheard me and offered me a ride in his '02 Z06. WOW. I'm just kicking the idea around right now, but is there a year to stay away from? Any preferred years? Is a Z06 that much better than a standard Corvette? Just wondering!

[tjZ28]

My Camaro has been a body shop for two weeks getting the top painted under warranty. It's a hardtop and this is the second time. I shouldn't have told them I was in no hurry. Anyway, I was griping about it during lunch at a "Street Survival" school I was helping with. Another club member overheard me and offered me a ride in his '02 Z06. WOW. I'm just kicking the idea around right now, but is there a year to stay away from? Any preferred years? Is a Z06 that much better than a standard Corvette? Just wondering!

If you want to leave the car (close to) stock and run SS or T1 or things like that, YES a Z06 is "that much better" than a standard C5. Lighter, more power, better spring/shock/sway rates etc. I also happen to prefer the FRC/Z06 body lines over the hatch-back targa a lot, but that's obviously personal preference.

So if you plan to stay close to stock an '02+ is preferable. The '01s were rated at 385HP, the '02-04 were 405 hp due to a different cam and getting rid of the "pup" cats ('01s have 4 cats, '02-04 have 2). Of course, if you're going to mod the car w/ a cam and headers that doesn't really matter. The '01s were prone to an oil-burning problem. But by now most '01s that were going to have issues would have had them and would have been re-ringed. Also, there was shift-fork TSB out on '01s. But don't like that scare you away from '01s if you plan to mod anyway, they can be had stupid-cheap.

In nearly stock form a '02-04 Z06 is a very amazing AutoX/track car. To stay in SS for AutoX you can only do a front bar and shocks, but they run CRAZY fast w/ just those mods (and 710s/A6s). Keep in mind the stock suspension design of the C5 allows them to be lowered/corner-weighted on 100% stock parts with no mods (you need 'lowering bolts' to go really low, but that'd toss you outta SS).

So anyway, how will the car get used? Goals? Budget?

-TJ