Autoblog: Corvette ZR1 laps the 'Ring in 7:26.4

[BerserkerCatSplat]

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/27/g...ing-in-7-26-4/

Tadge J. Juechter, Corvette's chief engineer, announced this morning that Jim Mero, GM's development engineer, drove the ZR1 around the Nurburgring in 7:26.4. According to the GMNext blog, the run took place earlier this morning and that conditions were good on the track, with the exception of a strong headwind down the main straight. Mero mentioned that he felt there were a few places where he could have gone faster, although no details were provided about why and where.

Juechter makes it clear that the ZR1 that lapped the 'Ring was instock trim, with the exception of safety and communications equipment. As such, the ZR1 was wearing the same Michelin Pilot Sport 2s found on the production model, the chassis alignment and vehicle height were set to factory specs and the unmodified engine was running on pump gas.

The lap began with a rolling start – which falls in line with current industry practices – and the time was confirmed both through an electronic timing system and two hand-held stopwatches. The ZR1 team will be posting a video of their run when they return from Germany and we'll be keeping our eye out for it when it's online the week of July 7th.

Before you go running off to check the thread - yes, that is faster than the GT-R's time of 7:29.

[Dins]

Good time, but not really all that unexpected.

[anti-net]

Would be interesting to see some of the 'Vette racers go around and how they compare

They would obviously be quicker, but by how much?

[prizrak]

I wanna see a ring battle between the GT-R and the ZR-1. This is not really unexpected, lotsa power, not much weight and a trick suspension

[thedguy]

I went from to to and then



There's only 2 cars officially faster than it around a track in production trim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordsch..._car_lap_times And they are barely street cars.

[smib]

LOLspringz?

[Nocturnal]

Now all we have to do is wait for the official time of the GTR V-spec. Unofficially it was timed at under 7 mins 20 not too long ago...

[thedguy]

Originally Posted by smib

LOLspringz?

And pushrods, and worse yet it's using 100 year old supercharging technology! Amazing it even has 6 forward gears!

[BlaRo]

It's like a



dropped on the entire collective automotive world.

Congratulations Corvette, you've finally come full-circle, ending the speculation, bias, ignorance, and rumors about being one of the world's greatest cars, a future classic, and enough to silence the doubters.

[vikiradTG2007]

America finally creates a car that is BEYOND BRILLIANT... Congrats to the makers of the 'Vette.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally Posted by Nocturnal

Now all we have to do is wait for the official time of the GTR V-spec. Unofficially it was timed at under 7 mins 20 not too long ago...

What? The unofficial time I saw was 7:25.

[torqueless]

the best part is that it was driven by an engineer.

[Crazyjeeper]

Good job ZR1 team. I wonder what it will do with a professional racing driver at the wheel?

[the Interceptor]

Strange, how noone here states that the car surely had more power than stock, of course used special slick tires and how they cheated in many many other ways.

/GT-R irony

[thedguy]

Originally Posted by the Interceptor

Strange, how noone here states that the car surely had more power than stock, of course used special slick tires and how they cheated in many many other ways.

/GT-R irony

The ZR-1 has similar PtoW ratios of other cars in the general area, the GT-R, not so much.

/OT

[prizrak]

Pfft w/e it has pushrods and lolspringz, it was made in Merikuh, the car sux, GT-R pwns all!!!
/sarcasm

[_HighVoltage_]

Very good time and all that, but I may be the only one here to think that the previous generation Corvette was better looking (pop-up lights FTW!). And I would buy one of the older ones, and I wouldn't care for the fact that the current ZR1 is one of the fastest cars in the world.

[Labcoatguy]

Originally Posted by _HighVoltage_

Very good time and all that, but I may be the only one here to think that the previous generation Corvette was better looking (pop-up lights FTW!). And I would buy one of the older ones, and I wouldn't care for the fact that the current ZR1 is one of the fastest cars in the world.

Same here, actually; I'm looking up the prices of C5s to see just how foolish that'd be. Unfortunately most of the ones I find are automatics.

[thedguy]

Originally Posted by _HighVoltage_

Very good time and all that, but I may be the only one here to think that the previous generation Corvette was better looking (pop-up lights FTW!). And I would buy one of the older ones, and I wouldn't care for the fact that the current ZR1 is one of the fastest cars in the world.

I still hate the c6's headlights. And the only reason they got rid of them was because some random broad got 3 seconds of air time on tv and said that the corvette looked old because of the pop-ups. So they instead put on the shitty Viper looking headlights