Blue Bullet Blog–The C6 Z06 Ownership Experience

[XLR8]

WOW! Congrats on the new Z06 Hib! I like the Carlisle Blue too!
I'm looking forward to following along as you share your impressions and experiences.
And take lots of photos on your cross country trek too.
Enjoy!
Jane Ann

[BigJimZ16]

We saw Hib's new Z06 this afternoon in BG, it's a winner to be sure!! Congrads Hib!! It's a beauty!!

[catbert]

I looked for the beast and didn't find it.

[BigJimZ16]

I looked for the beast and didn't find it.

It was out on the circle in the afternoon...

[catbert]

We didn't arrive until about 3:30. Maybe Friday.

[THowie]

That's an awful purdy car you got there, Hib.

[NORTY]

Hib, I would have sub'd PS2's for your road trip. They work very well, and last a long time. Your "cups" are going to be junk by the time you get to Santa Barbara. That's a shame because those cups are great tires, just not for the purpose you're using them for. Oh well, it's too late now, enjoy your trip! (How's the cabin heat?)

[Hib Halverson]

Hib, I would have sub'd PS2's for your road trip. They work very well, and last a long time. Your "cups" are going to be junk by the time you get to Santa Barbara. That's a shame because those cups are great tires, just not for the purpose you're using them for. Oh well, it's too late now,(snip)

So far the Cup tires have proven to be far better in the wet than I thought. Also, with 1100 road trip miles on the car so far, I think the 3000 mile tread life might be a little to strong a critique. Of course with tread life as well as fuel economy, "your mileage may differ" but, the PS Cups on my Z06 still have near full tread depth. So far we've driven though lot of wet weather. It's rained each day here in Bowling Green...isolated thunderstorms. Also, on the first day of our trip (last Sunday) we drove though six hours of rain from Shanksville PA to the Richmond VA area. Through light to moderate rain, with very limited standing water in a few spots, at 70-75 mph, there was no hydroplaning issues. In talking with Michelin engineers on Thursday, I was told to avoid heavy rain and areas of standing water. In fact, the Corvette guys (Harlan Charles and the gentleman who works with Jim Mero on ride-and-handing) told me the same thing.

I'm going to keep the tires on the car until they wear out, then I'll decide what to do. There is no question in my mind, after driving the car 1000 miles or so, that the Cup tires offer a level of yaw response unequaled by the PS2. The only other Michelin which comes close to the Cup tire in that respect, is something called a Pilot Super Sport. It's a non-RFT which, at this point, is not available in the Z06/Z07, ZR1 sizes.

enjoy your trip!

So far, we are. Even took the time to stop off at Auto Masters of Bowling Green, (best Corvette service shop in town, IMO) and have a few mods done. I put set of Weathertech Floorliners in the footwells. I know, I know...a lot of people will question the astetics of them but for folks who do a lot of road trips with their cars, they really do a great job of keeping the carpets clean and in good condition. After a few days on the road, especially if the weather is crap, you simply lift out the Floorliner, shake the dirt, stones, trash or whatever out of it and stick it back in the car. If they are muddy, I turn the hose on them, then wipe them dry with a towel. We also put one of Weathertech's cargo liners in the back. I have those things in my C4 and in my S10 Blazer and they are great for vehicles in which you do long road trips and carry a lot of baggage/cargo. Again, the advantages of the Weathertech cargo liner are: 1)easy to clean and 2) keep the underlying carpet like new.

There are other "rip off" products out there which look the same but I like Weathertech stuff because 1) it's made in the USA 2) I never have a problem with fit and 3) the stuff is incredibly durable. The Cargoliners I have in my C4 and my Blazer are 15 or so years old.

I've got a little over 1000 miles on the engine so it was time for the first oil and filter change. Typically, I do the first change at 500-1000 miles. I had Auto Masters replace the 5W30 engine oil with Red Line 10W30 and install a new AC PF48R oil filter.

(How's the cabin heat?)

"Cabin heat"?
We don't need no f&%king "cabin heat".

[Hib Halverson]

We didn't arrive until about 3:30. Maybe Friday.

Hey Catbert....your Wife gave my Wife you cell no. I'll try calling you later this morning. We're going to so the S12 seminar then I'll try giving you a ring.

[Hib Halverson]

That's an awful purdy car you got there, Hib.

Thanks "THowie"
I see you've only made two posts.
Welcome to the CAC

[Hib Halverson]

Last night (Saturday)my Wife, Sandra the Red, Duchess of Goleta, and I had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Catbert and the owners of C-Magic Wax, Kermit and Shirley Dye, at the Outback in Bowling Green. There was plenty of beer, Outback 'ritas and juicy Outback steaks. A good time was had by all.

This morning, at 0-dark:30, we fired up the Carlisle Blue Z, went south on 65 to Nashville, then west on 40 headed for Chechotah Oklahoma. Turns out, that was a great place to stop because right now (10:02 PM Central) there are T-storms, big hail and tornados to the north and west. Hopefully, the severe weather will have dissapated by early tomorrow and we can continue on our trip to Santa Fe NM where Sandra the Red is going to do some power shopping.

I decided to name the car "Blue Bullet 2". It's running great. We've gotten 21.6 mph for a combination of city and highway.

As for more of my impressions....

We've got 1847 miles on the car at this point so, today, I did several off-then-on-again tests along I-40. That big 427 is a freakin' animal between 5000 and 6800 rpm. I'd accelerate hard in first gear from a roll. Because we've got so much weight in the car, it won't spin the tires. I'd shift to second go all the way to 7000 then short/short/short shift to sixth and coast down to 70 or so. What a hoot!. While running to 7-grand is fun, we've got to get out of Oklahoma quick as the OKSPC (Oklahoma society for prevention of cruelty to bugs) is going to be looking for us this morning as, looking at the front of our car, we kill a billion or so bugs.

DSC_1722.jpg
Insects were killed in the process of producing this blog. Image: Sandy Rubel.

Now a shout-out to the GM people on the Corvette Team both in Michigan and at B.G. Assembly. By our 3rd or 4th day of ownership, Sandy and I had noticed that under some lighting conditions, the Carlisle Blue (also known at "Space Blue" to some in GM) on the hood didn't match that on the front fenders and front fascia.

Through Kermit Dye at C-Magic Wax, I met Eric Millette, who works at B.G. Assembly on exterior finish issues. He and I went out to the car, which was parked on NCM's lot, and together we looked at the car from different angles. He said he wanted to get a second set of eyes on the hood so he called the Plant's Engineering Manager, Tom Hill, who also came and looked. We all agreed there was a problem. Later another paint expert from the Plant showed up with a device which measures the light reflected from a painted surface. He took measurements which would help the B.G. paint shop learn more about the specifics of the less than optimum paint match.

So...what's the origin of the problem? Tom Hill filled me in...

The CF hood used on the ZR-1 and Z06es w. B92 is the only two-piece CF panel on the car. It's made of an outer skin (in the ZR-1's case there's a hole in it) and an inner panel to which all the hood hardware is attached. The bonding agent which holds the two parts together will not tolerate the high temperature in the drying ovens through which the rest of the body parts are sent. Consequently, the hoods are painted off-site, by the hood's supplier which is somewhere in Ohio, I think. Additionally, the process used to paint and dry the panels in Bowling Green is not the same as that used to paint the CF hoods. As a result, with certain of the Corvette's metallic paint palette which are difficult colors to match (Carlisle Blue being one of them), there have been paint match problems on cars with CF hoods.

What Tom and Eric decided to do is ship a second hood to my local Chevrolet dealer in California. When it arrives, I'll take the car over there, they'll swap the hoods and return the old one to GM. This all will be covered under warranty.

I appreciate the efforts the B.G. Assembly Plant people made on my behalf. It saved me the trouble of starting from "square 1" with my dealer.

Heck, it's Tom Hill's "fault" I had to buy this car in the first place (see Learning Launch Control....How any Writer can be a Great Drag Racer) The least he could have done was help me get a better paint match on the hood....and he did!

Thanks to all the GM men and women from both Detroit and B.G. Assembly for all they did to make the Bash weekend educational and enjoyable for all the 900+ Corvetters who attended.

And, as for "Paul T"... don't worry to much, Paul, about having a yellow car instead of a much faster blue one. You can always add nitrous oxide to your engine. I hear there are several aftermarket vendors who've taken pitty on yellow Z06 owners and will discount by 10%.

[catbert]

It's really cool that GM is stepping up with a new hood so early in the game. That's a great looking car.

[Paul T]

It's really cool that GM is stepping up with a new hood so early in the game. That's a great looking car.

Last night (Saturday)my Wife, Sandra the Red, Duchess of Goleta, and I had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Catbert and the owners of C-Magic Wax, Kermit and Shirley Dye, at the Outback in Bowling Green. There was plenty of beer, Outback 'ritas and juicy Outback steaks. A good time was had by all.

This morning, at 0-dark:30, we fired up the Carlisle Blue Z, went south on 65 to Nashville, then west on 40 headed for Chechotah Oklahoma. Turns out, that was a great place to stop because right now (10:02 PM Central) there are T-storms, big hail and tornados to the north and west. Hopefully, the severe weather will have dissapated by early tomorrow and we can continue on our trip to Santa Fe NM where Sandra the Red is going to do some power shopping.

I decided to name the car "Blue Bullet 2". It's running great. We've gotten 21.6 mph for a combination of city and highway.

As for more of my impressions....

We've got 1847 miles on the car at this point so, today, I did several off-then-on-again tests along I-40. That big 427 is a freakin' animal between 5000 and 6800 rpm. I'd accelerate hard in first gear from a roll. Because we've got so much weight in the car, it won't spin the tires. I'd shift to second go all the way to 7000 then short/short/short shift to sixth and coast down to 70 or so. What a hoot!. While running to 7-grand is fun, we've got to get out of Oklahoma quick as the OKSPC (Oklahoma society for prevention of cruelty to bugs) is going to be looking for us this morning as, looking at the front of our car, we kill a billion or so bugs.

DSC_1722.jpg

Now a shout-out to the GM people on the Corvette Team both in Michigan and at B.G. Assembly. By our 3rd or 4th day of ownership, Sandy and I had noticed that under some lighting conditions, the Carlisle Blue (also known at "Space Blue" to some in GM) on the hood didn't match that on the front fenders and front fascia.

Through Kermit Dye at C-Magic Wax, I met Eric Millette, who works at B.G. Assembly on exterior finish issues. He and I went out to the car, which was parked on NCM's lot, and together we looked at the car from different angles. He said he wanted to get a second set of eyes on the hood so he called the Plant's Engineering Manager, Tom Hill, who also came and looked. We all agreed there was a problem. Later another paint expert from the Plant showed up with a device which measures the light reflected from a painted surface. He took measurements which would help the B.G. paint shop learn more about the specifics of the less than optimum paint match.

So...what's the origin of the problem? Tom Hill filled me in...

The CF hood used on the ZR-1 and Z06es w. B92 is the only two-piece CF panel on the car. It's made of an outer skin (in the ZR-1's case there's a hole in it) and an inner panel to which all the hood hardware is attached. The bonding agent which holds the two parts together will not tolerate the high temperature in the drying ovens through which the rest of the body parts are sent. Consequently, the hoods are painted off-site, by the hood's supplier which is somewhere in Ohio, I think. Additionally, the process used to paint and dry the panels in Bowling Green is not the same as that used to paint the CF hoods. As a result, with certain of the Corvette's metallic paint palette which are difficult colors to match (Carlisle Blue being one of them), there have been paint match problems on cars with CF hoods.

What Tom and Eric decided to do is ship a second hood to my local Chevrolet dealer in California. When it arrives, I'll take the car over there, they'll swap the hoods and return the old one to GM. This all will be covered under warranty.

I appreciate the efforts the B.G. Assembly Plant people made on my behalf. It saved me the trouble of starting from "square 1" with my dealer.

Heck, it's Tom Hill's "fault" I had to buy this car in the first place (see Learning Launch Control....How any Writer can be a Great Drag Racer) The least he could have done was help me get a better paint match on the hood....and he did!

Thanks to all the GM men and women from both Detroit and B.G. Assembly for all they did to make the Bash weekend educational and enjoyable for all the 900+ Corvetters who attended.

And, as for "Paul T"... don't worry to much, Paul, about having a yellow car instead of a much faster blue one. You can always add nitrous oxide to your engine. I hear there are several aftermarket vendors who've taken pitty on yellow Z06 owners and will discount by 10%.

Sounds like you're making good time and sticking with the schedule. You must have caught a draft with a yellow Corvette.
Paul

[Idaho Slim]

WOW! What an awesome Tru Blu Corvette for a Tru Blu Corvette man! Congratulations Hib!


As a C4 man, I never cared for the other body styles, but man-o-man these C6's are REALLY growing on me, I LIKE!!!

[Hib Halverson]

WOW! What an awesome Tru Blu Corvette for a Tru Blu Corvette man! Congratulations Hib!


(snip)

Thanks, Slim! But...I don't feel "blu".


At this point in time, we've had the Blue Bullet II home in Goleta CA for about 10 days. The rest of our road trip, after we left BG was just a great time...even with somemore bad weather we had in Oklahoma. Man was it bad. We rolled into Checotah after a 10-hr run from Bowling Green. To the north and west were thunderstorms, hail and tornado warnings. Good thing we hadn't intended to drive another hour or so to OKC or we'd have gotten hammered.

767.03.jpg
We woke up to this on the Wunderground site's radar page. The night before was even worse! Image: Sandy Rubel

As it was, the next morning there was more thunderstorms and hail–but no tornadoes thankfully–but this time it was right on top of us. High winds, lightning, thunder, hail and torrential rain. We decided to delay our departure, sit out in front of our hotel room sipping coffee and watch the rain and lightning for a while.

767.01.jpg
In this kind of weather, with PS Cups on the car–we wait. Image: Sandy Rubel

Once the high winds and hail abated we got rolling west on I-40. I'll say that, this trip was an unexpected but educational "work-out" for the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires we had on the car. I was surprised at them working reasonably well in the wet. The Cups exceeded my expectations, in fact, so I thought I'd spend the test of this post to this little C6 Z06 blog on those tires.

A Pilot Sport Cup is a soft-compound, street-legal, quasi-racing tire designed to enhance a C6Z's steering response and increase its lateral grip. Cup tires were a key part of the ZR-1's 7:19 time at the Nurburgring and enabled the Z06 to be right behind the supercharged car with a 7:22.

The Cup's tread is divided into two areas. The outer section is a "kinda-sorta racing slick" with some little "cups" or "divots" in the tread. It's that outer tread section which makes Cup tires stick like crazy. The inner tread section is more like a traditional tire in that it has tread blocks and water channels, but the blocks are large and the water channels are quite shallow–5/32-in. on the fronts and 6/32-in. on the rears.

The tread compound used by Michelin on the PS Cup is very soft. This is why this almost-a-racing Michelin has a low tread life rating, but it's also part of why a Z06 shod with these gumballs generates 1.18g lateral acceleration. To put the PS Cup in a motorsports perspective, it's like a road racing "intermediate".

PilotSportCup_ZP-cutaway-sm.jpg
This shows the tread construction and the various layers underneath. Image: Michelin North America.

What would you feel the first time you get in a Z06 or ZR1 with Cup tires? Well–most people are not going to take the car on a race track the first time they drive it but, they will immediately notice a difference in steering response. You touch the wheel and the car, reacts with a seemingly instant change of direction. Oh, sure, "regular" Pilot Sport 2's have good yaw response, but cars with Cups, are even better. The tires are a little more noisy, but not to the point of annoyance. In tight turns at slow speeds, such as maneuvering in parking lots or making U-turns, they may "thunk" or chatter when the steering is at or near full lock. Racers used to running on slicks will be familiar with the feeling, but those who've never been on slicks might find it a bit disconcerting, but it's normal for wide tires with slick or partially slick treads.

Big tread blocks, limited tread depth and sticky tread compound adds to the Cups' grip on dry surfaces but limits their practicality in wet weather and makes them unsuitable for use on snow or ice. Because of this, in a perfect world, Corvetters would drive Cup-tired cars only on race tracks or on the street in nice weather–since this is a "perfect" world, they'd regularly airfreight their cars to Germany for playful romps on the Nordschleife, right?

But…we live in the real world and there are C6Z owners out there who checked the Z07 or PDE boxes even though they rarely run their cars on the track or only occasionally drive hard enough on the street to really use the Michelin Cup tires' extra margin of at-limit handing. A lot of people who own cars with Cups are going to use them in normal, everyday, Corvetting. If that's you, know the Cup tire's advantages–the handing improvements discussed above–as well as the tire's limitations, of which there are three : 1) reduced tread life, 2) limited wet surface performance and 3) they are unsafe on show or ice.

The Cup tires' tread life issue has been exaggerated in some anecdotal accounts. It is true that the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup ZP has an 80 tread wear rating but all that means is, if the government-mandated "Course Monitoring Tire" (CMT) lasts a given number of miles, a PC Cup will last about 80% of that distance when driven over the same test route (a 400-mile course on public roads around San Angelo, Texas) under the same conditions. Problem is: the tread life of a CMT is not widely known and the manner in which tire companies process the test data leaves much to be desired as far as consistency, thus the government-mandated but tire-company-manipulated tread life ratings are simply a "wear ratio" and, for the most part, useless information in the real world–unless you drive your car around San Angelo, Texas.

In a practical sense, if you're a hardcore street/track driver on PS Cups, you'll be hard-pressed to get 3000 miles out of a set. On the other hand, if you use them mostly for normal driving, the tread life, while not near as long as that of the Pilot Sport 2, used on the Z06 with F55 and the "standard" ZR-1, is not as bad as many naysayers would have you believe. The CAC has a Z06 with Cups in a long-term test. The car is driven aggressively on the street on an occasional basis but for the most part, to date, has seen normal driving. The set of Michelin PS Cup tires we're testing has 3600 miles on them. The rears have worn 2/32 of an inch and the fronts have worn less than a 32nd of an inch. Looks like we're on the way to a tread life of 8,000-10,000 miles.

DSC_9396.jpg
The Michelin Cup tires on our Z06 after the 3500-mile trip to California: Image: Sharkcom

The next question we wanted to answer is how bad, or…how good are the Cup tires on the street in the wet. As part of our test of Michelin Pilot Sport Cups, we've driven the car in two periods of bad weather. One of these was that wet morning in Checotah when we awoke to a severe thunderstorm with hail. The first part of the weather–high winds, violent thunderstorms and hail–was, clearly, not safe driving so we made some more coffee and waited out the heavy weather. On the Interstate, we could see a few trucks moving slowly though a torrential downpour. Forty minutes later, the high winds and hail stopped and the rain went from torrential to just "heavy", so we got on 40 headed west. Trying to keep the tires from hydroplaning, we could only manage 40-mph. If there were little or no traffic, 35 or 40-mph in heavy rain might have been acceptable, but on an Interstate with heavy trucks whizzing by at 60-65 in poor visibility due to tire spray, going that slow was a death-wish. Fortunately, as the weather was moving east and we were headed west, we soon drove out of the back of the storm into light rain. Would we do that again? Not on your life! In the real world, in heavy rain, with other vehicles present driving at the speed limit, PS Cups are unsafe. Try to match the speed of traffic, you risk frequent hydroplaning and loss of control.

767.04.jpg
Forty miles an hour in the Interstate to keep from hydroplaning? Never again! Image: Sandy Rubel.

The other bad weather in which we drove the sticky Michelins was a six-hour drive from south-central Pennsylvania to Richmond ,Virginia through light to moderate rain. Most of this was on the highway but, in Richmond there was some city driving in a light rain. With no significant areas of standing water on the road, we mostly drove the speed limit and had no problems with hydroplaning. Light to moderate rain is clearly within the PS Cup's performance envelope as long as they are not worn below the tread bar indicators.
767.05.jpg
In light to moderate rain, provided they have some tread depth, Cup tires are reasonably safe. Image: Sandy Rubel.

This discussion of the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup in wet weather needs some closing, cautionary statements. These tires are not for everyone. They are a very aggressive, near-race tire with short tread life, lots of grip, and increased tread noise. To drive them in bad weather requires some wet weather driving experience to have the ability to feel and recognize when a tire is hydroplaning and have the judgement necessary to know when to keep driving and when to get off the road until the weather gets better. If you don't have that experience, don't get caught in the rain with PS Cup tires. Lastly a word on tread depth: a Cup tire's ability to channel water away from the tread and prevent hydroplaning decreases as tread depth decreases, so, while you might be able to whiz along at the speed limit in moderate rain if the tires are near full tread depth, however, once they get down to the wear bars, their safe speed in moderate rain will be less. Keep that last statement in mind if you use PS Cups for normal Corvette driving.

Bottom line on the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Tire?

They are an outstanding choice for aggressive street or track use in dry weather. In "normal" everyday driving duty, they probably will last longer than some folks think, but if you run your car hard on the street; don't expect much tread life because they are a soft-compound, almost-a-racing-tire. They are useable in moderate wet weather driving conditions provided they have adequate tread depth. Do not drive on them in heavy rain or through standing water. PS Cups on snow and ice? Forget it.

More on road tripping with my C6 Z06 soon.