Flytoyz

Alrighty well here begins Part Two of The Automotive Corner, which cover’s Chevy’s limited edition Z06 based 427!

Yes the 427, remember back in the day in the mid-late 1960’s? The StingRay’s? Damn what a car. Well Chevy decided to bring back the 427 Vette as a Limited Edtion Z06. The 427 name refers to the C.I(cubic inch) displacement for one of the Highest performing motor’s offered between ‘66 and ‘69, and by off chance is also the C.I equivalent of the Z06’s 7.0 liter LS7.

The new 427 boasts a crystal red metallic paint job which mark’s that this is the 1st Z06 to be cloaked in a red metallic paint, it has graphics on the hood and front facia that will have you remembering the original stinger’s hood design. It also has the same graphic’s that were offered on the ‘67 sting ray’s that were equipped with the 427 as well as the 427 hood badges to make it complete. Each of these limited vette’s will be numbered and signed by Wil Cooksey who is the assembly plant manager who is retiring after 15 years on the job and will come with a certificate of authenticity.

Only 427 of these 427’s will be offered here in the states as well as Canada and ONLY 78 of these limited beasts will see foreign soil, do the math and thats 505 of these vette’s. What a coincidence, thats how much horsepower this thing has! But theres a Catch!! With a Price tag of just over $84,000 which includes the premium equipment package that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy thanks to the custom leather interior. If you want to add to this, you only have 1 thing to add. Navigation for an extra $1,750.00! which to me, is alittle pricey, ill stick to the GPS on my cell phone lol.

A few other little things added to the 427-Z06 is it has exclusive chrome wheels,special Crystal Red interior trim plate graphic pattern, the console armrest is signed and numbered like I mentioned above.

Chevy also will have another vette as the Indy500 Pace car as well in the 427. Chevy has introduced two, High dollar Corvette’s with in a year of each other(ZR1 being the other). This will make collecters back-pockets feel a smidge light now wont they?

Now if you take away all the 427 goodies, you will have a plain bone stock Z06 so if your a Z06 fan, you will love this 427, there was no weight gain no power loss, no stopping power lost or anything, still 3100LBS, still goes 0-60 in 3.7/0-100 in 11.7 and tops out at a hair under 200MPH.

The large 18 x9.5-inch cast-spun aluminum wheels and 275/35ZR18 tires are found in the front,and 19 x 12-inch cast-spun aluminum wheels with 325/30ZR19 tires are found in the rear, complimenting them and making sure you live to drive another day is the large four-wheel disc brake system, consisting of 14 inch vented and cross-drilled front rotors and 13 1/2 inch vented and cross-drilled rear rotors with red six-piston calipers that use six individual brake pads!! Instead of what we are all used to(2 pads) they have 6!! But they have good reason for it, not just to make more money which seems to be what this is all about, but the individual brake pads are used because they deliver more balanced wear compared normal single piece pads. For the rear brakes,four-piston calipers with four individual brake pads are used.

For all of your gear heads who do your own brake work, did the idea of changing your own brakes on that vette make your head throb alittle bit? Because it sure did mine lol.

So there you have it, a Z06 dressed up to pay homage to the Original 427 StingRay, but the question is… is it worth the $84,000?? Or would you want to just hold out around another $20k more and bite the bullet and get the ZR1?? I myself would get the ZR1 and hunt for an original 427 StingRay(seen below).

So there you have it everyone!! The 1st two-part Automotive Corner released in Praise of the Almighty bow-tie racing flags! The Chevrolet Corvette! I hope you enjoyed your time here this week, I hope I didnt bore you or anything because reading and writing about two of the biggest vette’s in history was definately a blast! What do you think on these incredible piece’s of american muscle? Drop us comments on either post and let us know! We would love to hear!

This is VizX For the Automotive Corner

and you are now IN THE KNOW!!

See you thursday in The Mod Shop!

Ok so I know I just did coverage on the New Saleen Raptor just yesterday in my automotive corner and the mod shop is still 2 days away, but when something like this drops, here at flytoyz we just will not wait to tell our fans and the public. You all need to know and be in the know NOW!

Now as shown below that this all new 2009(looking to be released) Cobalt SS looks exactly like the previous SS, so when you go to the local Chevy dealer looking around you might see the SS cobalt and think nothing of it unless your salesman mentions it to you, well incase they don’t do their job and mention it im going to make sure you know before you get to the dealer, it may look like the same 205HP(at 5300RPM) Supercharged 200TQ(4000RPM) Cobalt, but trust me, take it for a spin, because the new 2.0L Ecotec Turbocharged motor will make sure you know differently thanks to its 260HP and 260TQ(not a typo, yes matching figures), and it will promise the much higher TQ figures ALOT earlier, like only 2000RPM to hit max TQ!!! Now of course this cobalt has received a few upgrades like larger driveshaft and wheelbearings to handle this upgrade in power

Now if you go looking for the turbo make sure to look towards the back of the engine bay, thats where the horsepower guru’s at GMPD(General Motors Performance Division) hid the turbo, which makes sense since the space was there due to a missing S/C, but this 2.0L Ecotec also gets continuously variable timing for its intake and exhaust valves. You can actually find this exact motor in the HHR SS as well if you want to go that route.

The New Cobalt SS has a fuel rating of 22MPG in the city and 30MPG on the highway, not bad for being force fed. One thing I don’t care for to much is its only equipped with a 5-Speed manual, but im sure the wigs at Chevy have a reason for that, maybe that reason is this new little thing called “Launch Control”? What is launch control you say? I wondered this myself..oh and by the way, this new SSC is still priced under 25K, I think we can safely say this is the King of FWD and as for the Mazdaspeed 3, its a fantastic hatch, but right now its Cobalt FTW(for the win).

Anyways so back to Launch Control! Say your at the local 1/4 MI strip and you want to make a pass or 3 lol, press the stability control down for a few seconds and your digital heads up display under your gauge cluster will display this… Then you put the clutch in, select 1st gear and bury the throttle! The Cobalt’s computer will send your RPM’s to a crisp 5,100 rpm, and all you have to do is work the clutch, now ya can’t side step it, you have to release it slowly yet quickly(im sure its easier then it sounds lol). Get it right and the Cobalt SS will make 1/4mi times that will have the big block owners raising their eye brows.

The new SS does come with a 5 year/100K mile warranty, and to make sure it survives your many launch controlled show outs, the engineers made some odd 600 launches on the same cobalt to make sure it wouldn’t break down, now im not saying buy it and beat the snot out of it, but its so you know its well built.

Compared Against the Current King Of the FWD’s: MazdaSpeed3.

The 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt SS gets to 60 in 5.8 seconds and has a 1/4 MI time of 14 seconds flat at 103 mph. This is of no comparison to the original S/C Cobalt SS, which couldn’t get under the 7 second mark for a 0 to 60MPH and ran just over 15 seconds in the 1/4MI at around 95MPH.The Mazdaspeed 3 can’t hold up with this Cobalt, as it throws out there a 1/4MI of 14.2 seconds at 100MPH. The MS3 also outweighs the SS by 200Lbs, which in a 4 banger can make you or break you at the track.

GMPD also came up with “No-Lift Shift”. This kicks in when you’re at full throttle and press in the clutch. It manipulates the engine’s variable cam phasing and retards the ignition timing so whats in the cylinder chamber burns later than usual, this creates more energy to help the turbo maintain boost.( I see 30lbs, do you? )

Now Chevy collaborated with Opel Performance Center (OPC), which is the tuner division of Opel that created the Astra VXR on the handling for this new SS, There’s more compression damping than before, but the rebound damping hasn’t been dialed up a commensurate amount, so the car has a much nicer ride then previous SS models.

Now with all this new power and handling, you might say ” With all these changes, I really hope they did something to help it stop better”, well they did! The rotors are an inch larger front and rear on the ‘08 SS, and the rear discs are now vented instead of solid. I dont mean to name drop but they also have a little company helping them, maybe you have heard of Brembo? You have? Great! Then you will know what their 4Piston Calipers can do? Awesome, because that comes equipped on these new SS’s

Well you might be saying, “Alright VizX we got it, this new SS is bad and will probably rule the production 4 banger world, lets see some photo’s already!” Well I always Deliver photo’s, I mean come on, most of the time automotive columns are pointless without pics! Well, here they are!

So there ya have it, I told you it looked like the current SS but once you shift and let off that boost via Blow off valve, you will know your in another realm. This is VizX, Your on Flytoyz, the hottest blog for whats new in the world today. Thanks again for coming back, we love ya!

Ill see you Thursday