[VIDEO] Watch the Corvette Z06’s Fuel Gauge Drop During a 0-185 MPH Top Speed Run

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[VIDEO] Watch the Corvette Z06's Fuel Gauge Drop During a 185 MPH Top Speed Run

My 16-year-old son Chris just got a GMC Sierra pickup as his first vehicle.

Boy, how he loves that truck, but we like to joke that it gets nearly 8 gallons to the mile. It’s not quite that bad, but when Chris pulls into a gas station, the attendants give us a standing ovation. I think we’re singlehandedly responsible for half of Racetrac’s profit margin last quarter.

That’s one reason we can sympathize with John Hennessey as the supertuner floors this 2015 Corvette Z06 with the new 8-speed automatic transmission to get a baseline performance reading on what she’ll do before he performs his magic under the hood.

The video accompanying this story focuses on the Corvette’s gauges, and if you look carefully, you’ll see that the Z06’s mighty horses don’t eat cheap. This 650-horsepower behemoth has a respectable EPA fuel consumption rating (when you’re driving normally), but when you’re talking about that much power, it’s only reasonable to expect the Z06 is going to get thirsty when the heat is really on.

In fact, if you look at the gauges, you can literally watch the Chevy supercar go through nearly 1/16th of a tank of gas on a single run from 0 to 185. That means this impressive show of performance used about 1.15 gallons of gas based on the Z06’s 18.5-gallon fuel tank.

By the way, the EPA says the automatic Z06 gets 13 mpg in city driving and 23 mpg on the highway for 16 mpg combined. Those numbers make the automatic Z06 the victim of a $1,300 gas-guzzler tax (while the manual version isn’t penalized).

Still, longtime Chevrolet spokesman Monte Doran notes that the fuel consumption isn’t that bad, relatively speaking.

“It is one of the most fuel-efficient 650-hp cars you can get,” he pointed out to Edmunds.

And, after all, don’t forget you’re driving the most powerful production GM vehicle ever made.

(For comparison’s sake, the 2015 Z06 with a 7-speed transmission gets 15 city, 22 highway, 18 combined. The 2015 450-hp base Stingray delivers 17 city, 29 highway, 21 combined with a 7-speed manual, while the base automatic gets 16 city, 29 highway, 20 combined. And the supercharged 2013 Corvette ZR1 with 638 horsepower achieved 21 MPG highway and 14 MPG city for 17 MPG combined. The C7 Z06 squeezes those two extra highway MPGs from the LT4′s fuel saving technologies which include variable valve timing, direct injection, and the addition of “Eco-Mode” which shuts off four of the eight cylinders.)


Source:
Road and Track

Related:
[VIDEO] Hennessey Puts the 2015 Corvette Z06 with a 7-Speed Manual on the Dyno
GM’s Fastlane Features Story of Corvette Hall of Famer John Heinricy
Hennessey Offers Details on Their 2015 Corvette Z06 HPE1000 Package

 



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