This is new, an American Car that handles ! ZR1 Laps Nurburgring in 7 m 26

[M3_Power]

Has the Nissan GT-R been beaten already? So quick after claiming the fastest time around the Green Hell (known to us little people as the Nurburgring), GT-R appears to have lost its top dog status to the new 2009 Corvette ZR1. According to Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter, the ZR1 has, just yesterday morning, lapped the Ring in a time of 7 minutes 26.4 seconds. The car was stock standard except for the communications and safety equipment. No elaboration on what exactly this safety equipment is, but standard issue would include a fire extinguisher, in case the fast ZR1 pulled an R8 V10. Tires were stock too, and so was fuel, which was normal pump juice and not racing liquid.

Development engineer Jim Mero drove the car’s rims off from a rolling start, but felt he could have gone even quicker around a few places. A strong headwind was felt rushing through the main straight as well. The Corvette ZR1 will go on sale later this year across special [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]dealerships[/color][/color] all over the globe. It will come with an extremely willing 638 bhp/ 475kW, 6.2-liter supercharged engine which can shoot the thunderous ZR1 from nothing to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, casting the quarter mile asunder in a blinking 11.3 seconds. Whoa!

We've been promised in-car video evidence of the run, just in case some are sceptical of the achievement. So do Vette fanatics finally have something to boast about when comparing size with Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Nissan and Honda fans? A Corvette that not only smacks competition around with power, but also out-handles the best of them?


Source: Corvette ZR1 Laps Nurburgring in 7 min 26

[Dionysus]

Crazy yanks

[americ_ian]

Bollocks

they didnt count the stop at the petrol station halfway through the lap

[grandell]

hahahaha awesome!

amazing what you can do with a couple of pushrods eh? wonder if it still has a live rear end too

crazy yanks still consider the 6.2L a 'small block' too!


oh, and we'll probably hear in a week that the V-spec GTR has done it in 7:15 or something stupid like that, but i couldn't care less

[KLRVTC]

Hasn't the v-spec already done 7.25 lol.

[Esprit]

Originally Posted by grandell

hahahaha awesome!

amazing what you can do with a couple of pushrods eh? wonder if it still has a live rear end too

crazy yanks still consider the 6.2L a 'small block' too!


oh, and we'll probably hear in a week that the V-spec GTR has done it in 7:15 or something stupid like that, but i couldn't care less

Corvette hasn't had a live axle in like... well ever has it? Although many of its IRS incarnations have been rubbish.

Ring times from manufacturers I always take with a pinch of salt. It's like believing the kid out at the diesels who says he's run a 11 second quarter.

Ring times only make sense when independent magazines test showroom models under real ring conditions... it's all just bragging rights until that happens.

[NZRacerX]

6.2l Supercharged...!? The Toyota ad comes to mind... something like "Shouldn't performance be about bigger thinking, not bigger engines?"

[grandell]

Originally Posted by Esprit

Corvette hasn't had a live axle in like... well ever has it? Although many of its IRS incarnations have been rubbish.

Ring times from manufacturers I always take with a pinch of salt. It's like believing the kid out at the diesels who says he's run a 11 second quarter.

Ring times only make sense when independent magazines test showroom models under real ring conditions... it's all just bragging rights until that happens.

oops, my mistake... i thought i'd heard somewhere that it still ran a live rear... but no, it runs leaf springs instead

'ring times don't mean much to me either, which is why i find it so funny. over a course that long there are so many places to lose time that it comes down to the driver a lot more than it does the car, and even the same driver can have quite a difference in lap times on any given day

[Air2there]

Not that impressive when you consider the difference in power

[Grin-T]

This car is quite a bit more expensive to buy in the States than it is to buy a GTR in Japan, it is lighter, has around 160HP more power, but yet it only clocks in less than 3 seconds quicker round the ring than the GTR. Considering how long the straights are, this Corvette must make up lots of time on it otherwise the difference would be much greater if it could really turn. I wouldn't say it'll outhandle the best anyday soon....

Rumours have it that the GTR V SPEC already clocked an unofficial time of 7 min 25s. If that's the case, maybe they will need a 800HP Corvette to better it.

[Macros]

Originally Posted by grandell

but no, it runs leaf springs instead

Their not your average truck leaf springs though. It's not a bad design.

[TakeiTeg]

will be interested when the v spec this vette and new honda super car whether nsx or some new name have an "official" timing.

this is going to be fun especially when that honda supercar still has 2 more years of testing left.

[Matty]

The way I see it faster is faster no matter what does the time. The Corvette was faster and ran the time in heavier-than-street trim on stock tyres with pump fuel. Doesn't that mean anything to anyone?

The number of times I've heard people say the 'Ring is the true test of a car is amazing, yet now people have decided it's not that representative of a car's potential? Isn't there 126 corners or something? And bear in mind the 'Vette has consistently been at or near the top of (admittedly lame) handling and skid pan tests in the US for many years now. Just because it's old technology doesn't mean it can't work. The GTR is an amazing car, and while it was slower in official timing it's till a bargain for what it can do.

[vtecd]

"lapped the Ring in a time of 7 minutes 26.4 seconds"

What the f@#!! hard out..
hmm.. very interesting..

[Dezigns]

Originally Posted by Air2there

Not that impressive when you consider the difference in power

Sometimes lower power has its advantages... Im sure there's many hondas that would lap around the old Taupo circuit faster than my RX-7 with at least 3 times the amount of kw...

As for 3 seconds.. thats quite a distance at race speeds ~208m @ 250km/hr.
If it were a race, say 60 laps.. and all things being equal to their 'lap times'.. the corvette would finish 2 laps ahead of the GTR...

[Esprit]

Originally Posted by Matty

And bear in mind the 'Vette has consistently been at or near the top of (admittedly lame) handling and skid pan tests in the US for many years now. Just because it's old technology doesn't mean it can't work.

Agreed. The 'vettes of times past though were always decent handling cars on smooth, fast, flowing american roads, but they didn't like direction changes and "real" surfaces with bumps and camber changes. That they've got the ZR1 lapping so quickly goes to show that they've obviously got this thing hooked up and whether it's a GTR/Koenigseggegegeg/F430Spagbol beater is really a moot point... fact it it's a f*cking quick car and obviously very competent.

[Snoozin]

Best of all, it does an 11.3 quarter out of the box.

[KLRVTC]

Originally Posted by Matty

The way I see it faster is faster no matter what does the time. The Corvette was faster and ran the time in heavier-than-street trim on stock tyres with pump fuel. Doesn't that mean anything to anyone?

I know it wasn't an official time but didn't the gtr V-spec do 7.25 and that's what it should be compared to since this is the high performance version of the corvette just like the v-spec is the high performance version of the gtr.
So
GTR V-Spec > ZR1 > GTR > Corvette C6

[WAY TC]

.. and put some slicks on it and hello 10s

[NZRacerX]

Originally Posted by Dezigns

As for 3 seconds.. thats quite a distance at race speeds ~208m @ 250km/hr.
If it were a race, say 60 laps.. and all things being equal to their 'lap times'.. the corvette would finish 2 laps ahead of the GTR...

Wouldn't that only be 3 minutes difference over 60 laps, and so about half a lap between them?

[grandell]

give them both to the Stig, let him sort out who's fastest!

on a tight circut like the top gear test track i'd pick the gtr by about a second

[Dezigns]

Originally Posted by NZRacerX

Wouldn't that only be 3 minutes difference over 60 laps, and so about half a lap between them?

the lap distance I found was for the F1 circuit...

The Corvette would be ~12km ahead, so you're right.. just over half a lap ahead

[Grin-T]

Put an average joe driver in each of the two cars, I would think the GTR would clock a much quicker time.

638BHP rear wheel drive. The ZR1 can get pretty interesting in slightly damp conditions..

Those times are pretty irrelevant to be honest. One 'lucky' lap. Repeated perfomance figures? The GTR would have overheated its brakes since it's so damn porky. The ZR1, who knows? At the end of the day, 90% of these cars would be Sunday crusiers and show ponies. I guess having bragging rights would justify everything else.

[22]

Evo Spec.

[Macros]

Corvette leaf spring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia