Ferrari F430 vs. Chevrolet Corvette Z06
By Marc Noordeloos
The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is pure America: powerful, rough around the edges, and blatantly extroverted. The exotic Ferrari F430 carries a $120K premium. Is the Italian that much better?
You want numbers? We'll give you the numbers. The Ferrari F430 uses a 483-hp, 4.3-liter V-8 and tips the scales at 3350 pounds. The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 employs a much larger, 7.0-liter V-8 with 505 hp.
Surprisingly, this pushrod powerplant needs to move only 3150 pounds. It's not so surprising that the well-endowed all-American squashes the Maranello-built thoroughbred by 127 lb-ft in the torque department. Acceleration? Just take a glance at the data panel - America wins this round.
If you pick winners based solely on performance, without regard to price, the Z06 clearly gets the gold star. And if price is your primary consideration, the Z06 comes out on top again: the Corvette costs only $72,125. By comparison, the starting point for the F430 is $191,775 - and that's if you can find a dealership willing and able to sell you one. The Z06, in other words, is an almost unbelievable 62 percent less expensive than the Ferrari.That's akin to finding out that an automaker sells a hatchback that outperforms a Mazdaspeed 3 for $8684. We could only wish.
Open the driver's door of this Corvette, of course, and you'll see where some of that money is saved. Second-rate plastics, flimsy switchgear, and unsupportive seats compromise an otherwise decent cockpit. The soft-leather steering wheel and the Recaro bucket seats in the less-than-half-as-expensive Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution are of higher quality than comparable items in the Corvette. It's true that you can now spend an extra $6545 to dress up the Corvette's interior with the likes of a stitched leather dash, but even then the cabin doesn't befit the Z06's sticker price.
Prod the starter button and listen to that angry V-8, though, and you suddenly forget about the Z06's lackluster interior. We're suckers for the sounds emitted from the tailpipes of exotic Italian cars, but we suspect that even the most ardent car enthusiast in Europe would ignore the high-rev scream of a Ferrari for a rousing ride in this tantalizing Detroit steed. There's no convoluted, Tiptronic/DSG/F1/SMG-style transmission here, just an old-school manual gearbox with a chunky linkage that always reminds you that there's a lot of power going to the rear wheels. Mash the throttle and dump the clutch, and you can lay smoky burnouts for blocks at a time. On the track, the Z06 happily runs all day while posting very impressive lap times. Despite all this performance, you can cruise down the highway in relative comfort while easily seeing well over 20 mpg thanks to the extralong sixth gear, which keeps the V-8 burbling just above idle. At 24 mpg, the Z06's EPA highway rating betters the F430's by 8 mpg.
Sure, if we had the luxury of disregarding prices, we'd choose the gas-guzzling, mid-engine Ferrari over the Corvette. After all, the Chevy weighs less than the F430, but it doesn't feel lighter from behind the wheel. The Corvette lacks the delicate, fine-tuned nature that sets apart the Ferrari from lesser sports cars. Chevy continues to tweak the Z06, though, which is now entering its fourth model year. The rear dampers were softened in mid-2007 to help on-limit handling, an improved transmission came along for '08, and the steering system is being retuned (for the second time) for '09 - but the Z06 is still a raw, relatively unrefined car. Many Corvette owners wouldn't want it any other way. Regardless, the Z06's performance numbers best the F430's, and those bragging rights are priceless. ...next page >>