CORVETTE Z06

CHAPTERS:   PROJECT WIXOM BEGINS    RHD CONVERSION    BUILD OUTLINE    WTAC & HOT TUNER

The exciting journey with our little red Corvette started back in July 2011 when visiting customers in Michigan. With our Hurricane Intake Manifold in development and the strong $AUD we sourced Project Wixom from Cauley Performance Automotive in West Bloomfield. A 2009 Z06 model with 14k miles the car was in great condition and after a blast around rural Michigan the deal was done.

PROJECT WIXOM BEGINS

Posted on 21st March 2016 at 2:15pm

Once back at Harrop we set about getting necessary import approvals and in early December 2011 the Z06 arrived fresh off the boat and found its new home at Harrop HQ.

While we couldn’t drive it on the road we set about measuring the engine bay for packaging along with the brakes for a necessary Ultimate upgrade, also taking time the get down to Calder to see what it would run over the ¼ mile in full USA factory spec.

RHD CONVERSION

Posted on 22nd March 2016 at 10:09am

While the Engineers worked hard on product development we were also coordinating with Performax in Queensland the complicated conversion from LHD to RHD to enable road registration.

The Corvette is easily the most complicated conversion due to the tight packaging and body construction so when we saw the progress shots we understood how invasive the surgery was to swap driving positions.

Just over 12 months after Project Wixom joining the family it was now ready to get on the road and make the 2 day journey down the Pacific Highway from the Sunny Coast in Qld to Melbourne in Vic. 

BUILD OUTLINE

Posted on 22nd March 2016 at 10:18am

Now back at Harrop the push was on to build up a track attack weapon for both Hot Tuner Challenge and World Time Attack Challenge that were only a few months in  Sydney.

Leveraging our relationships with some of the best Corvette Tuners in the US, Project Wixom received:

WTAC & HOT TUNER

Posted on 22nd March 2016 at 10:40am

A huge team effort and some late nights delivered a car ready to shake down at Calder Park. We were satisfied with the base line set-up with support from Danny Popp at RAFT Racing in Ohio and were ready to load into the truck for the trip north to WTAC in Sydney.

Club Sprint is essentially a street car class with limits on power-train and body modifications, tyres must be a minimum 140 tread wear rating so no semi-slicks. We found the Z06 was competing against highly modified WRX, EVO & GTR being the quintessential Time Attack platforms of choice. With limited seat time and track testing, Ben set to work getting a handle on the set-up for the Sydney Motorsport Park GP Circuit, initial setting lap times in the 1:47 bracket.

Adapting quickly and tuning the chassis after each session saw the lap times began to fall. On the Saturday morning we elected to run the new Micheline PS2 rubber and that yielded an immediate gain into the 1:43’s . Not satisfied with some high speed push caused by the GT3 spec rear wing further adjustments were made to the alignment and Ben finished the last session with a 1:41.16 and in the process took out Fastest Naturally Aspirated & Fasted RWD. 

The entire Harrop Team was very happy with the result when considering the limited build time along with impressive competition from some super light-weight AWD Turbo rockets.

Fortunately the car was in good shape with no major issues because it went into storage for a week following WTAC to back up 10 days later at the MOTOR Magazine Hot Tuner Challenge. Assessed across dyno result, drag strip, motorkhana and circuit we were excited to see how Project Wixom stacked up against a diverse mix of Tuner cars including a heavily modified R35 GTR and a couple of Porsche 997.2 Turbo.

The diverse disciplines certainly ensured some cars performed better than others based on their strengths and weaknesses. For Project Wixom the purpose was clear to build a fast RHD street registered Z06 that could attack tracks with ease. So It was no surprise then when took out the fastest lap time at the South Circuit and this is what Pro Driver Warren Luff had to say at the end of the event.

Well pleased with our mission to Sydney for WTAC and HTC, once back at Harrop HQ we gave Wixom a rest in our reception much to the excitement of our many visitors.