The introduction of the 2023 Z06 Corvette celebrates the 60-year legacy of one of the marque’s most successful options. This high-performance package was first developed by Zora Duntov and his team when GM ruled that racing was too dangerous for a corporation to support. In June 1957 the company signed a binding AMA (American Manufacturing Association) agreement that forbade corporate racing activities. Zora’s solution was to develop a work-around that enabled his team to develop high-performance Corvette packages. GM offered them to customers so they could race their Corvettes. These upgrades could be purchased by ordering a car with the parts installed at the factory or buying and installing them through your local dealer. It was a silly game that only GM engineers had to endure, since Ford and Chrysler soon ignored this AMA ban completely.
With the advent of the totally redesigned 1963 Sting Ray, Zora’s team assembled a new performance option during the car’s development. It was called the Special Equipment Package and could be ordered with the dealer code Z06. It included a handful of stand-alone options, such as the 360hp fuel-injected L84 V8 engine, a 36.5-gallon fiberglass fuel tank, a four-speed close-ratio manual transmission, and a
