[VIDEO] C6 Corvette Z06 Stars in Latest Throttle House Video Featuring Best Used Sports Cars for the Price of a New Subaru BRZ

For more than a decade now, the Subaru BRZ and its jointly-developed/oft-renamed Toyota GR86 platform mate have been serving up enthusiast driving fun at an entry-level price. By all accounts, these little twins are massively rewarding to drive, but they share a very public Achilles heel: nobody has ever called their shared 228-horse boxer-four “inspiring” or even “adequately powered.” Grunt is such a shortcoming for the hardtop Miata-fighters that lines like “repeat after us: it could use more power” have become so commonplace in their reviews that C6 owners are suddenly feeling better about those unsupportive seats they were forced to hear about for so long!

After reading BRZ window stickers recently, our friends at Throttle House posed the question: can the used market provide more excitement in the Toyobaru’s price bracket ($30,195-35,345 plus destination and a short list of options)? After multiple sleepless nights and days of silent reflection, the TH hosts were able to produce a trifecta of used-sports car competitors in the 987.2-generation Porsche Cayman S, the BMW Z4 M Coupe, and a C6 Z06 that each individually answered today’s premise with a resounding “of course it can… as long as you’re prepared for the possibility of heavy maintenance showers.”

The 3,303-pound Z4 features a six-speed manual transmission and the same S54 inline-six made famous by the E46 M3. In this application, the naturally-aspirated 3.2L mill makes 330 HP all the way up at its 7,900 rpm redline, with peak torque of 262 lb-ft coming at 4,900. The Cayman S checks in at 3,122 lbs and motivates itself with a mid-mounted 3.4L six-cylinder boxer engine and a smooth-shifting six-speed manual that our hosts say the BMW “wishes it had.” It boasts maxes of 295 ponies at 6,250 rpm and 251 torques at 4,400. When new, the Bimmer started in the mid-$50 range, while the Porsche was in the $60,000 neighborhood before a single option box was checked.

Which brings us to the musclebound outlier that violently shoves occupants into its much-bemoaned Lay-Z-Boy thrones with the fury of a 7.0L monument to American excellence and excess. The C6 Corvette Z06 doesn’t need any introduction in these parts – or any parts, really – but we’ll recount its legend for the record, anyway. 505 HP, 470 lb-ft, 7,000 redline, and just over 3,100 lbs. to haul around. In a rarity for a ‘Vette in a comparison test, it started as the most expensive of these cars at around $70,000 when new, and it’s remained ahead of the pack – unlike these rivals, which can often be had for sub-BRZ money, finding a Z06 in the same price range is a stretch, but it’s not impossible.

As for the clip itself, the TH gents are, as usual, a joy to watch interact on camera. When it comes to entertainment value, they continue to be the closest thing to old Top Gear available in 2024, with several bits earning a genuine chuckle from your author. Like Clarkson and May, in particular, Thomas and James still can’t quite comprehend the greatness of the “Glenn Robinson” portions of the C6 hierarchy, but they are able to extract some excellent information from their sampling of a Machine Silver Z and its contemporaries.

We’ll make you watch to see how they rank the contenders, but it’s interesting to see how their opinion on the two Germans stacks up against an in-period Car and Driver head-to-head. Their faces when they unleash the monster LS7 also say more than any number of written or spoken words could, and note that when they hypothetically “build one perfect car out of the competitors,” it’s the domestic 427 that not only is chosen as the motivator, but it was the inspiration for the whole exercise, even in such snob-worthy company. Our final takeaway comes from the commentary that each vehicle not only perfectly represents its homeland but also the ethos of its brand. In the modern performance landscape of converging twin-turbo 3-liters (everything from the Ferrari 296 and McLaren Artura to the Toyota Supra (which goes as far as sharing running gear with the new… BMW Z4), Porsche 911 and upcoming Dodge Charger “Six-Pack” share the same displacement these days!) and mechanically-identical EVs; it’s hard not to get nostalgic when faced with personality-loaded throwbacks like this! Enjoy, Corvette nation; we think you’ll agree, the choice poised by the video isn’t a very difficult one.

Source:
Throttle House / YouTube

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