This car wasn’t significantly different than my 1998 car. It continued to be a great car and a few improvements were made. Chevrolet really seemed to have their act together on the C5 models.
Production Corvettes did not receive any substantial mechanical changes for the 2000 model year, though a few enhancements were made. Perhaps the most notable of these involved the upgrades made to the Z51 Performance Handling Package. To start, the Z51 Package included larger stabilizer bars on both the front and rear of the car and the introduction of revised shock-absorbers damping. While these changes did not produce a notably stiffer ride, they did improve handling, especially in transient maneuvers, by increasing roll stiffness.
Most of the other mechanical improvements for the 2000 Corvette centered around drivability and ride stability as well. Engineering improvements were made to the Selective Real-Time Damping suspension. These changes largely involved the introduction of new or revised algorithms integrated with a re-designed (softer) jounce bumper for ride and handling improvements.
Still other mechanical improvements included improved windshield seals, the introduction of dual-zone climate control, and changes to the seat belts, seat materials and seat construction.
Cosmetically, there were virtually no changes made to the car design, although there were some minor improvements made to the detailing on the car.
Most significant of these changes was the modifications made to the five-spoke, standard aluminum wheels. The new wheels were now fully forged with a flow-formed rim for greater durability, even though the new wheels featured thinner spokes than its predecessors.
While the new “thin-spoke” design was standard, a polished version of the wheel was also made available to consumers under option RPO QF5 at an additional cost of $895.00. The popularity of this alternate polished wheel caused Chevrolet to announce in January, 2000 that a new, painted wheel from a different supplier would become standard to permit an increase in production of the polished wheel. This new standard wheel was similar in design, though it did feature slightly thicker spokes.
