Corvette Z06 (C5)
Why 6.3: 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.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The LS6 is a pushrod small-block with the off-beat cross-plane thrum no overhead-cam V8 makes, and it hardens usefully towards 6,500. But GM silenced it heavily as delivered and there is no top-end range to grow into. Good V8 noise, not a great one.
8-cylinder · naturally aspirated · 6,500 rpm redline · rated 6.8 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €46k (2003) → €41k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
There aren't any — strict two-seater.
No back seat, so GM built in a workaround: a manual air bag on-off switch in the glove box kills the passenger air bag, and the manual walks through belting a forward-facing child restraint into the passenger seat with it off.
Rear-facing restraints are barred outright in that seat, switch or not — and GM drops the switch entirely from the C6 onward in favor of automatic sensing.
2002 Chevrolet Corvette Owner's Manual (GM)
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.