Well I've officially converted over to the dark side. Exactly a year ago today, I bought my Lightning Blue GT350 and decided a couple of weeks ago that it was time for something a little easier and comfortable to drive. I had considered buying a ZL1 when I bought the GT350, but I still have no regrets. The GT350 was a phenomenal car!
I started searching for a used ZL1 in the Northern California area. I happened across a 10k mile 2017 Hyper Blue ZL1, PDR, A10, Exposed Carbon about 100 miles away in the Bay Area. I got it for what I felt was a fair price and I added the GM endorsed Ally 7 year, 100k $0 deductible platinum service contract to the vehicle. Thanks to the internet, I got a nice price match on that. I have no doubt the prior owner probably frequents this forum or others, because it was pretty well cared for with some mods being completed. It has the carbon dash, ZL1 on the steering wheel (instead of "Fifty"), along with the ZL1 tail lights and third brake light. The windows were already tinted as well. It also had a CAI on it, but was returned to stock prior to sale. The car is nearly pristine with just over 10k miles on it. I found maybe two small rock chips and one 3mm nick on one of the wheels which I touched up. The trip computer says it averaged 18MPG over 10.2k miles, which was pretty good IMO. On my 105 mile drive home, I averaged almost 24 MPG. Pretty impressive for a car with this much power.
I know many have traded their GT350 for a ZL1 and I can say that for an everyday driver, the ZL1 is much easier to drive, especially with the A10. While the visibility is not as good, I've gotten used to that within a couple hundred miles. It's more comfortable, rides better and handles good enough. I love the low end torque and the A10 is really, really good. I will say that I preferred the ergonomics in the GT350 better, along with the brakes (far superior in feel) and the exhaust note (hard to beat that noise at 8k RPM). However, I always felt nervous driving the GT350. It had a lot of tramline and the lack of low end torque made it hard to drive smoothly in normal traffic. It was like you could never just relax and enjoy the drive if that makes sense. I also was never a big fan of the forged piston slap in that engine. I'll also be honest that I've always been more of an automatic guy than a manual one. That said, I've owned a lot of manual cars over the years but prefer the automatics of today, such as the 10L90 and the ZF 8 speeds.
After having the ZL1 for about five days now, I can say that driving it is far less stressful. I just hop in and go. It's nice to have remote start again on my "toy". I like the tech in the car and there are only a couple of things which I don't like. The first is the active exhaust, which seems to have a mind of it's own and sounds odd at times. I know pulling the fuse in the engine compartment can leave the flappers open at all times and I'm probably going to do that. The second is that the brake feel just isn't that good IMO. The first time I had to stop quickly, I puckered up a bit. I've had AMG's and the GT350, where those seemed to have a really good brake feel with excellent stopping power, while I'd rate the ZL1 as no better than "good". The prior owner may have swapped pads, I'm not sure. I'll check it out over the next few weeks. I've gotten used to the brakes now, but it was a very noticeable change going from the GT350 to the ZL1.
As for 10k miles, hardly a squeak or rattle in the interior. No clunking from the suspension, though it does have the "wheel clicking" issue on both front wheels. I already torqued the wheels to 140 ft.lb, but the noise persists. Otherwise, I have not detected any other issues with the car. I will say it is a lot of fun to drive and it draws just about as much attention as my GT350. The second night i had it, a little boy and his mom ran up to the car at a gas station. He thought it was a "Transformer". haha. It was funny and I had to break the bad news to him that it wasn't. Any car guy seems to drool over it as well. I've found myself having to answer a lot of questions about the car, which is no problem at all. That's part of the experience!
Up next will be a new set of rear tires, a CAI and maybe a TM ported throttle body. I also ordered a ZL1 Addons front plate holder, splash guards and the magnetic jack pad/puck, along with a set of Husky liners.
The Old:
The New:
Richard - if you're out there, PM me. I'd love to chat with you about your prior car.