Next week at the 2014 New York Auto Show, Chevrolet unveils what they hope will be yet another showstopper: the 2015 Chevy Corvette Z06 Convertible. Already one of the most powerful cars on the market, the Corvette Z06 convertible hopes to steal some of the market share from its foreign competitors by offering supercar performance with an open air experience, something that not many vehicles with over 600 horsepower can do.
The standard Corvette Stingray has been offered in both convertible and coupe versions for many years, but this is the first time that Chevrolet has offered the more powerful Z06 model with a drop top. You could order Corvette convertibles with the Z06 option package in 1963, but that did not include a more powerful engine than those without the Z06 package, making this a first for Chevrolet.
Chevrolet says that “Until recently it was not possible to create a lightweight, open-roof structure strong enough to cope with the braking, cornering, and acceleration of Corvette’s top performance models.” However, computer software advances in the past five years have helped them create an all aluminum frame that is strong enough to withstand the performance of the giant 6.2L supercharged V8 with 625 hp and monster 635 lb-ft of torque. The convertible Z06 is also no heavier than the Z06 coupe, a rare feat in modern cars. The convertible and the coupe share the same chassis tuning, power output, driver aid technologies, and equipment options, showing that Chevrolet means business when they say that the convertible is every bit as capable as the coupe when you want to drive it hard.
The aluminum frame upon which both the convertible and the coupe are built is the result of four years of work and was designed to the specifications of the Corvette Stingray, Corvette Z06 and the Corvette C7.R, Chevrolet’s racing Corvette. It was designed to be lighter than the previous generation’s steel frame yet strong enough to handle the increased performance of the seventh generation. The frame was developed with the use of computer-aided engineering software and is the result of 186,000 computational hours of modeling.
Check out this insider TFLcar video of the 2015 Chevy Corvette Z06 coupe from Detroit.
