Can our Corvette hang with a 700-horsepower BMW at VIR? | Project C5 Corvette Z06

Among the entries for our Tire Rack Ultimate Track Car Challenge you may have noticed a particular blue Corvette that looked somewhat familiar. Yep, that was our C5, finishing up its farewell tour before heading off into the sunset after four successful and editorially rich years in our care.

Preparation was, again, minimal, consisting of a fresh sump full of Red Line 15w50 synthetic oil plus a quick nut and bolt.

One of the things we’ve loved about our C5 is how easy it’s been on parts, especially considering its speed. Since installing the Wilwood brake kit more than three years ago, we’ve replaced the BP30 compound pads only once while the wear indicators on all four rotors are still quite present. The car may need a pair of front rotors at some point in the next year, but after three-plus years of hard use, we’ll consider that more than an acceptable lifespan.

The weather at VIR was also miserably hot, particularly after a couple rain showers moistened things down and really turned up the wick on the humidity.

For our first session of the UTCC, we chose poorly on tires. We thought that the track was drying quicker that it actually was, meaning it was a bit too wet for our Goodyear Eagle RS R-compound tires.

The result was our first true spin in the Corvette since we looped it during a frigid Chicago autocross back in 2017–the very weekend we purchased the car. It made a nice bookend to the project, or at least that’s what we’ll tell ourselves.

While driving exceptionally conservatively at UTCC–we had a buyer lined up for the car already and didn’t want to have to make any awkward phone calls–we still managed a top-10 finish in the event along with a surprisingly strong second place in Saturday’s Knockout Challenge.

The Knockout Challenge pits Friday’s top finishers against each other in an elimination-style competition: The slowest car from the field is removed after each lap. (The Flagger in-car flagging system is used here.)

The final driver on track–in this case BimmerWorld’s James Clay in their 700-plus-horsepower GTMore M4–took the gold, so finishing runner up to that insane machine felt like some nice validation to cap to our C5 experience.

[Street car claims top honors at Ultimate Track Car Challenge’s Knockout Finals | BimmerWorld M4 GTMore takes the win]

Now, just some photos and videos before saying goodbye. Farewell, big blue. We’ll always treasure your easy speed and great personality.

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