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The ZR1 has a 6.2-litre V8 with a supercharger on top, and on top of that an intercooler, the bit you see through the bonnet peep-hole.

Pur-leeze don't go on about pushrods: the fact that it's a pushrod engine rather than a four-cam makes it far more compact, which is the only way they could fit a blown engine into the Vette's bay, because, again against the prejudicial view of American cars, a Corvette is roughly the same size as a 911.

And it's an engine of awesome, shattering authority. It's not just the 638 horses, it's the torque that makes the earth move. The peak is 603lb ft, and there's upwards of 540lb ft from 2,000rpm to 6,000.

You've got a big head-up display to help you time your gearshifts, but, honestly, you can change up early if it's convenient. The torque'll always dig you out. It also makes the 7.0-litre (but unblown) Z06 feel decidedly peaky.

The ZR1 gets carbon ceramic Brembos as standard. I never got used to their power. But they're quiet and progressive too, even when they're cold.

By the way, the rear discs in the ZR1 are the same size as the front ones in the Enzo. The ZR1's fronts are, of course, a size or two larger again.

There's fancy electronics in the ZR1's chassis. The stability controls do a silky smooth job of containing your goof-ups, and if you drive properly they'll let you use pretty much the car's full scope. In fact, in competitive mode, it's on for fairly wide-angle second-gear drifts.

There's also a brilliant adaptive damping set-up, by the offices of our new best friend, the magnetorheological method.

OK, back to that tricky track - it's GM's own development circuit near Detroit. What makes the ZR1's handing so great? The turn-in is accurate and measured, the roll well-contained, the mid-corner balance as deft as a plate-spinner.

The traction out of the bends is remarkable too, though if you start taking liberties with all that power, the tail end will graciously, but firmly, point it out.

On the road, the bag is a little more mixed. Those adaptive dampers allow softer springs than the Z06 (I drove them back-to-back to calibrate myself against the Isle of Man experience), which means fewer shocks going through the car and through you, and a better sense of precision over the kind of lumpy roads we get in Britain.

But some intrinsic Corvette debits remain: the steering doesn't really have much feel, and there's a slight sense that different parts of the car are jiggling away in different directions.

I'm thinking the dynamics are better than an Aston DBS, but you don't get the delicious precision of a 599.

Still, the Vette is a wonderful car. No one can object to it on grounds of ability. But on other grounds, object to it they will. For a start, poor GM will get slagged off as flat-footedly insensitive for launching this car at the very moment the gunwales of the Good Ship Detroit were being engulfed by the chill waters of recession.

But let's knock that into the long grass: they'd been developing it for years, and it was too late to stop. And hey, no one has a pop at Ferrari for making extravagant cars in thin times.

More seriously, people will object that the ZR1 looks like, and has a cabin like, a car of half the price.

But it has the performance and the chassis to match an SLR 722 and other tackle three times its price. So you have to decide what you call value.

Generally speaking, the faster supercars get, the harsher and more tiring they are. The ZR1 isn't like that. It's a comfy, refined GT. But it'll do the supercar bit too: thrill you, challenge you, launch you into multidirectional G-loadings.

That sounds like a reasonable definition of value to me.