Does the 2019 Corvette C7 Z06 Still Overheat? | Track Review + Lap Time Record

I've always been a Corvette guy. My love affair started a little over 10 years ago with a victory red C6. I mean, I can appreciate all cars, but if I had to choose one sports car, it'd be one of these. The Corvette Z06. There are lots of great cars out there today, but this car is kind of a jack of all trades. You can daily drive it, it's fast in a straight line, goes around corners, looks good, and most importantly, it's attainable by anyone if you work hard enough. On top of that, it's also pretty reliable, easy to maintain, and for me it's almost the perfect track. But you got to admit, it's a little bizarre seeing an Asian guy driving a Corvette. It's not as rare nowadays, but about 10 years ago when I first got my C6, it was strange. Anyways, enough about me, let's talk about the car. 650 horsepower, 650 pounds of torque. It weighs a smidge over 3,500 pounds, so it's not exactly the lean fighting machine it used to be. But it still runs a mid-7 second 60130 time. Like all Corvettes, the aftermarket is limitless, especially with the 6.2 liter supercharged V8. The Grand Sport shares the same wide body, so the only way to really tell the difference is these clear Euro style taillights. If you follow anything z06 related, you'll probably know that one of the biggest issues is the whole overheating thing. Now I'm not one of those guys who generally believes everything I read on the Internet, so I have to experience it for myself. What I want to find out today is, is does the C7Z06 overheat on a track? And to do that I'm going to take it around my home track, the English Town road course. But I'm also going to try and kill two birds with one stone and run the car ten tenths for a lap time on our board. So what that means is that I'm not going to hold back at all. For the record, it's about 85 degrees Fahrenheit out, a little bit warm, but nothing out of the ordinary for a track day. So this is a 2019 model. It's got the eight speed automatic with stage three arrow all around. We're also gonna be running the factory Michelin Pilot super sports. They've got a few track days in them, but holding up pretty well. So not gonna be able to make any excuses today. Anyway, let's get started. We'll flip it into track mode, press the traction button twice. That'll bring up the PTM modes. I like to run Sport 1 when I have street tires on. I'll do Sport 2 when I run full slicks. But I never really like to go into full race mode because that's some hardcore Lewis Hamilton shit. And I'm not trying to die today. So shall we.

So what we'll do is let's warm up the tires a little bit because that's one of the most important things. It's a little bit hot today, so there's a good chance that. That my pressures might be too high because I started at around 29:30 cold. I like to drive this thing in sport one. It probably gives me the best balance of just everything. It's probably my favorite mode to go in. Sport 2 is good too, depending on the track and your tire setup. If I'm running on something stickier than stock summer tires, I'll run in Sport 2. But Sport 1 is, in my opinion, the nice middle grounds. But race mode, you don't want to be in that. This is how you end up dead race mode. Too much oversteer. But when it does oversteer, it's really nice and controlled. You know, it's very, very. It's very easy. The problem with this car is it's just too heavy for this track. You know, like in the corners, I'm starting to. I feel the weight, feel the car having trouble turning, like, especially like a tight corner like this. The only really way to get through is to oversteer. So remember kids, smooth is fast. Wow. Oil temp's 235 already. That's like lap two. That's crazy. Alright. Alright. Let's do this.

Okay. I just want to apologize for the shitty sound quality in this hot lap session. I was trying a new setup out and it didn't really work out for me. So that's not gonna happen.

It's it.

Okay. So I know it's a bit tough to tell from that cabin cam and I was concentrating a bit too much to kind of talk to you during the hot laps. But the answer to the question is yes. Yes, it does overheat. But it wasn't the oil temps that went overboard, it was the transmission. I found the threshold to be around 259 degrees. And the car doesn't immediately send you into limp mode. But what it does is, is it kind of lights up the dashboard and tells you how to slow the down. And that's what I did. I slowed down around lap six, which is a bit depressing because that's not even half a session at this track. Things probably would have been worse if I had left the car in drive and let the computer do its performance shift mode because it shifts much more aggressively and more often than I would. The good news is that the oil temp's capped out around 280 and that's usually where my manual Z06 ends up. And that car has never overheated by the way, ever. And it's seen over half a dozen track days in 95 degree weather. So how fast does the Z06 ran our test track? Well, the 2019 Corvette Z06 with the eight speed auto did a best lap of 120.66. I couldn't believe it at first. I had to cross reference the footage frame by frame, but that's the time and I doubt the manual Z06 would be any faster. It would last the whole session though. But if we're talking sheer performance numbers for the sake of competition, then the automatic is the way to go. At least until it overheats, of course. If this is your first time on the channel, be sure to watch some of my other stuff. I produce cinematic content for all sorts of performance cars, so if that's your jam, consider subscribing and ringing that bell icon for new episodes every Thursday. Thanks for watching.