Electron Blew Z: Part 1
Posted at 9:28 PM / July 22, 2009
Drum roll please….for your reading enjoyment, Planet LSX would like to introduce you to our latest project car – a 2002 Electron Blue Corvette Z06. Follow along over the next several articles as this car goes from a daily driver to garage project to ______ (we’ll let you wait and see on that last part).
Our search took a few months, but finally the perfect Z06 was found just off I-10 in east Louisiana. We got in touch with the seller, worked out the details – and a 500 mile round trip road trip brought this car home:
2002 Z06, electron blue w/ black interior, all options, 43k miles, long tube headers, Borla exhaust, lowered, intake, cam, pulleys, short shifter, 423rwhp dyno tuned
The car had it all – plenty of power all over the place, a deep choppy idle and stock-except-when-idling street manners. The previous owner had tinted the windows and upgraded the stereo with a JL sub. The stock front 17’s had been tossed in favor of a set of 18” repros and the brakes at each corner replaced with GMPP cross-drilled and slotted rotors. Having 18’s all around combined with the car being lowered about as far as can be on stock bolts and cut bushings really gives the car an awesome stance.
This Z06 had the typical C5 rock chips in the front bumper and one of the corners was spider-webbing from a minor parking lot bump. Combine that with the fact that we had really been eying a Specter Werkes Group 5 rear fascia – and that gave us enough of an excuse to enlist the help of an awesome local body shop (specializing in Corvettes and high dollar restorations) to knock both of these items out at once.
The rear arrived and as is typical for fiberglass body parts, it needed several block sandings, test fittings and adjustments to reach the level of perfection that veteran paint wizard Ron at Peacock Body Works demanded. To properly blend the electron blue metallic paint, Ron feathered the new coats on both bumpers into the entire car in addition to painting the front and rear.
Once the extra coats were complete, the appearance really came together. The subtle dove tail of the Specter Werkes rear is just right – it goes unnoticed to the casual observer; but those familiar with the C5 lines pick it out immediately and routinely give it the nod of approval.
So far the Z06 is being driven about 3-4 times a week, gets ~20 mpg in mixed city and highway driving, and has run a best of 11.41 @ 122 mph in the quarter.
Video!
Idle and run through the gears
Stay tuned for part 2 of this series, unexpected engine trouble!
