TheDonEffect

The gs replaced the z51 package, in whatever year it was when it came out.

J Ritt

I owned and tracked a C5 Z06 for several years, own an S2000 currently, and have driven C6's of all variety/trim levels (and some C7's). The Vette will definitely feel big compared to the S, and your concern about that topic is legitimate. It's bigger, heavier, longer, and will feel as such. The vette has a huge amount of mechanical grip, and you have to actually be going faster for it to feel like you're going fast at all. Other than on-ramp blasts (which are few and far between for me), I don't find vettes as fun to drive on the street as the S2000. For me, the amount of fun I have in a road car is almost directly proportional to the car's size and weight....smaller/lighter=more fun. I've found that I have far more fun ripping around on back roads in smaller, lighter cars. They leave you more lane to play with, more margin for error, and less chance of losing your license due to speeding. Some of my favorite cars for playing around on the back roads would be the elise, miata, MR2 spyder, S2000. It's fun to occasionally feel the shove of a big V8 in your gut, but to me it's more fun to slide around at 25mph in my miata (while feeling like you're doing 60mph).

If you want the car for anything other than the driving experience alone (commuting, groceries, getting female attention, etc.), a lot of other factors come into play. The racetrack is also a whole different can of worms. Corvettes are a total blast on the track, and there's not much I'd rather have as a track car on any kind of reasonable budget.