
Corvette Z06 (C5)
Reference — shown, never scored
Why 7.6: Manual-only, lighter than the base car, and two decades later still the cheapest way to embarrass modern metal on track. DougScore 57; the paddock disagrees with Doug on this one.
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · $50k (2003) → $45k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
The long version
This spent the better part of two decades as the practical joke of the used-car market — a genuine track weapon selling for beater money through most of the 2010s — and the ownership base that formed during those years never really cared what any scoresheet said about it on paper. Recent price gains have not pulled it out of club-race paddocks, because the people who bought in at the bottom bought it to use, and using it is most of the reason values eventually moved. It remains the cheapest ticket on this list to genuinely quick lap times, and its owners know it.