Corvette ZR-1
Posted by Paul Horrell at 10:00AM on Wednesday 27 August, 2008 29 Comments
Union Jack; Stars and Stripes. We remain two tribes.
The Corvette ZR-1 raises, at best, a polite eyebrow of interest on this side of the Atlantic. The Americans, on the other hand, have gone potty for it.
And you know what? This time, they're right.
In a nutshell, here's the deal. The ZR-1 has a supercharged 6.2-litre V8 doing 638bhp, and it weighs just 1518kg. It does 0-60 in 3.4, 0-125 in 10.3 seconds.
Holy cow.
It tops out at 205. It has carbon brakes as standard. And it's not just a point and squirt machine. It has the current Nurburgring production-car lap record. Yup, faster than a GT-R or any Porsche. See why the Americans are excited?
We on the other hand have allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked by the fact that this is a supercar disguised as a regular £46-grand Corvette - a car with a steel frame and fibreglass panels.
This one costs £100,000 but for that you get an entirely different and very trick car: aluminium and magnesium frame, carbonfibre panels, magnetorheological adaptive suspension, the blower, titanium conrods, head-up display et cetera et cetera.
The performance is just sensational. The one gizmo it does without is a semi-auto box, and you have to cope with a mildly clunky manual shift. But you don't have to use it often because this engine is a hallucinogenic wall of torque.
The handling and grip do nothing to let the side down. In as much as a car so fiery can be amenable to a mutt like me, this one is. And anyway, you've got the well-tuned safety net of StabiliTrak (aren't the Americans great at hype? That's their name for what the boring Germans call ESP.)
I can't wait until the Stig (not a mutt) gets a hold of it. When he does, our nation will cotton on to what's making the Americans so excited.
Advertiser links
29 Comments for "Corvette ZR-1"
POST A COMMENT USING THE FORM BELOW
Comments are now closed for the blog archives.
Could this mean that there is hope for the new Camaro not to be terrible, or is that wishful thinking?
It is american .Built by a company so incompetent that it lost $23 billion in the last six months
It also looks like a supercar should, i.e. a child has been let loose with scoops, vents & spoilers!
Wow, it looks especially cool in black too. Not sure about that 'hood' window though. But hey, I wouldn't say no!
I've never really been interested in Corvettes before but this one sure has me wide eyed.
Wait till the GT-R rolls up it's windows and tunes in the station V-Spec.
Is it really £100,000 in England? Over here in the states it is around £103,000, which converts to about £56,000. I would expect the price to be bumped with taxes and shipping, but not nearly doubled.
That Corvette should be fast. It has 6 million horsepowers under its bonnet. But, I will still take the GT-R over it any day. Why would I spend a 100,000 pounds on a Corvette, which are built by people who can't find Europe on map? Squirrel nuts with this car. I will have a Mercedes Black instead.
I've never been able to understand why they have an engine window in the hood, but have a plastic engine cover. I mean, with a car like that, wouldn't you want to show the goods?
You know I love European supercars, but you Brits just don't seem to understand the thrill of a supercar that can be serviced for next to nothing and all at your local Chevy dealer. And as good and bad as the Corvette has been, it is the ultimate American sports car icon.
What now Brits? Fastest lap on the ring, come on! Yet we all know that Clarkson will find something wrong with it and declare it 'rubbish'.
country without auto industry- Lets point out the fact that GM is the largest manufacture of vehicles in the word. When you have this much of the market in your pocket, economic down turns play a much larger role in the lack of profits. The ZR1 is a great ride, The interior is not up to par for the price tag. The new GTR is still the best car I have ever driven , 0-60 with 3 friends along for the ride makes it a better choice.
Please Top Gear don't let Jeremy "More Power" rant on and on about the wicked ways of the Yank Tank etc. Just let the Stig wring it out properly by driving it very hard in "Competition Mode" this time. And this lowly yank will thank you. PS Why is Jeremy so biased against the vette anyway?
Here in the U.S. the ZR1 only costs US$104,000 which is about 50,000 quid at current exchange rates - half price! At that price it is an incredible bargain. In the same vein, a new Aston Martin V8 Vantage will set you back US$111,000, about 55,000 pounds. Petrolheads should consider moving...
As an American and long time fan of Corvette's, I'm very proud of this car. Finally a production Corvette that offers world-class perfomance, something GM hasn't accomplished since the early 1950's.
Look... if holding the title of fastest production car at the ring "aint" enough perhaps you should have a look at inside lanes recent test of the CTSV. GM is serious about performance!
Damn, faster than a veyron and an eigth of the price. The most appealing American car yet.
This is the Pam Anderson of cars, nice plastic front and back (I bet) but not so good to live with...
If this car was British we'd be going nuts about it. So some US cars are still rubbish when the road gets bendy but this one obviously isn't. So let's give them some credit.
Excellent car. Just a quick heads-up for Jack though - the Veyron does +250mph, not +200mph (407km/h to be exact), so not quite as fast... I guess the extra 7/8 of the price is getting it to go an extra 50mph.
Hmmm!! Interesting? American folks are finally begginging to catch up with technological advances!
Until recently my 'yo yo' had greater internal workings. Clearly a lot of beef under the hood... But?!?
I can't shake the fact that it's still, and will 'always be' a Corvette? Which is pretty lame.
It's probably one of the tackiest badges available, and most likely to have been bolted together by a Texan called Clarence who still believes Moby Dick is a venereal disease.
The design forces me to yawn rather than inspire me in any way too. I'm sure the Americans may feel deflated if Jeremy doesn't like this model. However it takes more than throwing a big lump and shiny shoes on a car, to make something special.
The ZR-1 *was* the fastest production car around the ring until... yesterday, when the 'vette's cousin the Dodge Viper snatched its crown.
But wait... I hear a Honda V10 wailing its way towards Germany with a Spec-V GT-R in its wake.
We live in happy times petrol heads.
American cars have always got a huge engine with lots of drama and atmosphere but it never actualy goes that fast. which is the reason it's cheap. But with this 'vette it uses all, well most of what the engine can give, and yet it still costs the same as a BMW M3, and this has got more than 200BHP more! credit crunch? what credit crunch?
One of the differences between this ZR1 and the GT-R is that the Nissan looks like it was designed by Stevie Wonder after having taken an origami class. It's even uglier than my first girlfriend. But this Vette is proper cool. It runs like a cheetah with its hair on fire, handles like a crackhead chasing a pipe, and has looks that'll turn heads everywhere from Hollywood to Cannes. Consider this the US's apology to make up for the Ford GT debacle.
Who cares that the ZR-1 is faster? Pub bores maybe but on any B road I do not want a leaf-sprung rear wheel drive car with a cola bottle body, I want a car built like a tank that has active four wheel drive. Like a GT-R. And why when the ZR-1 has a 50% better power to weight ratio than the GT-R is it only slightly quicker, yet costs more? That's deplorable.
On a typical US road it makes sense but on British B-roads I bet you'll have more fun in the Nissan.
Driving the ZR-1 on a B-road will be like prodding a bear in a zoo, it may be fine for a while but then it'll show its true colours and bite your head off.
And as anyone who's driven a left hand drive car on a B-road knows, you won't be able to overtake anything either.
Driving would more fun in the Nissan, I NEVER thought I'd say that!
Although I reckon that this will be the last supercharged V8 GM make and don't ge me wrong if I lived in the states I'd be first down to the dealership for one, but not here. It'd be like Ice Skating in a Saharan summer: wrong place, wrong time.
Looks like a 1980's Nissan 300 ! I wonder if it corners as well.
An amazing car for the money! Can't wait to see Stig get behind the wheel. A new test track record is on the horizon. Put Clackson's bum behind the wheel also. If he claims it to be rubbish, he needs to be committed to a mental hospital.
Do realise that Clarkson actually likes the Corvette. Give credit to where it is due, please. This is a brilliant car and a very fast one that can handle. Get over prejudice and accept it, no matter what country it's from.
The Americans finally made a car that can go round corners. Makes a nice change from the usual garbage they churn out over here. The Nurburgring times are a little hokey though considering they were using barely road legal slicks. Impressive time non-the-less. Still slower than the 300 bhp car from that small outfit call Ariel though. It'll be interesting to see head to head lap times between the ZR1 and the GTR-V in the Stigs hands.