[ZR1] Some UK tests
10-17-2008, 04:40 AM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Some UK tests
Most of these are first drive impressions done at Milford and surrounding roads.
Autocar's First Drive
"The exhaust report is audible in the next county when the throttle is down and muffler bypass valves are open for maximum performance.
Driven in a sane fashion, the ZR1 is no noisier and more comfortable than the Z06 that preceded it thanks to electronically adjustable magnetic dampers, larger anti-roll bars, and softer spring rates.
Michelin Pilot Sport 2 radials provide stupendous grip while the Brembo brakes eradicate speed like an aircraft carrier’s arresting cable.
The ZR1 demonstrates a hearty appetite for apexes and long straights. There is mild understeer, but momentarily relaxing center-pedal pressure brings the nose back in line.
Charging 100mph sweepers with the throttle down steps the tail slightly wide, a twitch that’s easily gathered up with a few degrees of counter-steer or a small throttle adjustment. The steering is quick and communicative with heft that rises linearly with cornering ferocity.
The one interior flaw is a set of sorry bucket seats totally deficient in lateral restraint.
Anyone who can grab one before the strictly limited supply of first-year editions is depleted should do so without hesitation. This the most entertaining Corvette ever coined."
http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/...6.2-V8/234512/
TopGear (magazine, not the TV show)
"FREAK POWER
...it's gradually apparent that the handling is pretty damned sublime. That, and the brakes, and the grip.
Right, make no mistake. What we have here is one of the truly great supercars.
Although it later becomes apparent on the road that it doesn't feel like one of those brittle, edgy, 'Ring-optimised cars. It's supple and useable.
But here's the issue. It's extremely hard to think of this as a hypercar. It's just a Corvette...the ZR1 looks like the base Corvette, a car that costs about the same as a Cayman.
Which makes the ZR1's price - £100k, give or take - hard to swallow. It also feels ordinary, but in good ways: easy to drive in town, refined on the motorway, surprisingly supple-riding.
Until you floor it. Then it goes not like a Cayman, but like a Carrera GT.
90% nitromethane is actually an explosive, not a fuel. This isn't an engine. It's a bomb.
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.
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...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."
http://www.topgear.com/content/featu...ries/03/1.html
Autocar's First Drive
"The exhaust report is audible in the next county when the throttle is down and muffler bypass valves are open for maximum performance.
Driven in a sane fashion, the ZR1 is no noisier and more comfortable than the Z06 that preceded it thanks to electronically adjustable magnetic dampers, larger anti-roll bars, and softer spring rates.
Michelin Pilot Sport 2 radials provide stupendous grip while the Brembo brakes eradicate speed like an aircraft carrier’s arresting cable.
The ZR1 demonstrates a hearty appetite for apexes and long straights. There is mild understeer, but momentarily relaxing center-pedal pressure brings the nose back in line.
Charging 100mph sweepers with the throttle down steps the tail slightly wide, a twitch that’s easily gathered up with a few degrees of counter-steer or a small throttle adjustment. The steering is quick and communicative with heft that rises linearly with cornering ferocity.
The one interior flaw is a set of sorry bucket seats totally deficient in lateral restraint.
Anyone who can grab one before the strictly limited supply of first-year editions is depleted should do so without hesitation. This the most entertaining Corvette ever coined."
http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/...6.2-V8/234512/
TopGear (magazine, not the TV show)
"FREAK POWER
...it's gradually apparent that the handling is pretty damned sublime. That, and the brakes, and the grip.
Right, make no mistake. What we have here is one of the truly great supercars.
Although it later becomes apparent on the road that it doesn't feel like one of those brittle, edgy, 'Ring-optimised cars. It's supple and useable.
But here's the issue. It's extremely hard to think of this as a hypercar. It's just a Corvette...the ZR1 looks like the base Corvette, a car that costs about the same as a Cayman.
Which makes the ZR1's price - £100k, give or take - hard to swallow. It also feels ordinary, but in good ways: easy to drive in town, refined on the motorway, surprisingly supple-riding.
Until you floor it. Then it goes not like a Cayman, but like a Carrera GT.
90% nitromethane is actually an explosive, not a fuel. This isn't an engine. It's a bomb.
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.
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...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."
http://www.topgear.com/content/featu...ries/03/1.html
10-17-2008, 04:45 AM
#2
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Times Online
"The ZR1 is an American muscle car with a difference - it has the racing technology to take on Europe’s sleek supercars.
Pumping out 638bhp and 604 lb ft of torque, it’s as muscular as an Olympic weightlifter whose diet consists of nothing but steaks and tree trunks. On a hard charge, it sounds like something Tom Cruise would have driven in Days of Thunder, amplified through concert speakers.
...hitting the red line in first gear would get you arrested. Doing it in second would probably get you deported. And doing it in third would probably see the fun ended with what Swat teams describe as lethal force. Nor would the state troopers have to worry about creeping up on you. The V8’s noise would drown out the sound of a squad car on your tail, including the siren.
It differs from American sports cars of the past in that the driving experience doesn’t go to pieces when you arrive at a corner. The brakes are tremendous, wiping off speed with ease. Turn into a bend and the nose just grips. There’s no body roll; the tail squats down and powers you away from the apex without drama. If you have seen an F-14 Tomcat take off, you have an idea of what it’s like.
Let loose for a few laps of General Motors’ Milford proving ground in Detroit, the ZR1 made an instant impression. Even with some wickedly off-camber downhill corners, the ZR1 held its line with tenacity. It is responsive to the driver’s inputs, and the brave and skilled can enjoy Dukes of Hazzard-style powersliding.
The active dampers certainly play their part, with sport mode sharpening things up on the track and tour mode giving a firm but well-control-led ride on the road. All the controls are on the macho side - there’s none of the finesse that a Porsche 911 offers – but they give you plenty of feed-back. The ZR1 is as at home off the track as on.
There are some familiar letdowns that have afflicted many American muscle cars. The build quality is flaky.
VERDICT A muscle car on steroids"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/dri...cle4632767.ece
Evo
"Ultimate has many forms. That’s what Corvette chassis engineer Alex MacDonald tells me as I comment upon how fluently the ZR1 soaks up a Michigan surface that has fought the battle with expanding winter ice and lost. But how is it that this ultimate Corvette, with 638bhp, 604lb ft and a likely £100,000 price tag when it goes on sale in the UK at the year’s end, feels so much more supple and civilised than the circuit-hungry Z06 version, despite being, I am promised, much more devastating on track?
Part of the price, numerically almost the same as the US price in dollars, which suggests an attractive profit margin, goes on the latest application of Delphi’s MagneRide system. That’s the key to the civil suspension, now with a greater ‘bandwidth’, the better to differentiate Touring and Sport modes while making both more adaptable. Of more immediate glamour, though, is what lies under the subtly bulgier bonnet.
Below is an Eaton supercharger whose two rotors each have four lobes rather than the usual three, and which are coated with enough low-friction polymer to make them an interference fit on initial assembly. Eaton’s bedding-in process then gives them the perfect airtight but frictionless co-existence, the better to deliver up to 0.72bar of boost.
Hefty supercharger, hefty outputs. Out on the road the ZR1 proves devastatingly torquey, with 90 per cent of the effort on tap from 2600 to 6000rpm, so it’s unfazed by a long, long first gear able to slingshot it past 60mph. Take it above 3000rpm with a well-opened throttle and you’ll hear the blatter of a now very free-breathing V8, exhaust bypass valves having opened. Throttle-off now and theatrical bangs and crackles mark the moment.
Should you find the space and the opportunity, the ZR1 will take you to 205mph, having passed 60mph in 3.4 seconds, 100mph in 7.0 and 186mph (300kph) in 32.6. There’s something of a Mercedes SLR McLaren about the way it does this, except that you’ll enjoy the build-up to it much more in the ZR1. Accurate, credibly weighted steering, a surprisingly slick-shifting manual transmission (by Tremec) and standard-fit Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes of proper feel and featherability are mainly why.
Lap two, and some of the braking gives way to mere lift-offs as speed and confidence rise. The car shrinks and the track grows.
Even when you expect it to finally understeer because you’ve just asked for an impossible turning effort, the steering still bites and the front wheels find more purchase. As confidence grows you can lean amazingly hard on the Corvette, then as maximum g-force seems to approach you can apply more power and feel the tail drift out for a final flourish before the next twist.
Such confidence comes quickly in the ZR1, because it’s a very understandable car. And that’s because it’s responses are very precise, linear and progressive, so you know exactly where you are with it. If you mis-remember a crest and you’re heading for trouble on the far side, the ZR1 lets you sort it out in your own time. And then, as you enter another long, high-g bend, you can feel the Corvette pivoting about its front wheels as you meter the energy to the rears, holding the gentlest of drifts if you like because that’s what it naturally does. It’s the epitome of the well-balanced rear-wheel-drive car.
Rating:
"
http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evoc...vette_zr1.html
Review by Drivers Republic:
http://magazines.drivers-republic.co.../corvette2008/
"The ZR1 is an American muscle car with a difference - it has the racing technology to take on Europe’s sleek supercars.
Pumping out 638bhp and 604 lb ft of torque, it’s as muscular as an Olympic weightlifter whose diet consists of nothing but steaks and tree trunks. On a hard charge, it sounds like something Tom Cruise would have driven in Days of Thunder, amplified through concert speakers.
...hitting the red line in first gear would get you arrested. Doing it in second would probably get you deported. And doing it in third would probably see the fun ended with what Swat teams describe as lethal force. Nor would the state troopers have to worry about creeping up on you. The V8’s noise would drown out the sound of a squad car on your tail, including the siren.
It differs from American sports cars of the past in that the driving experience doesn’t go to pieces when you arrive at a corner. The brakes are tremendous, wiping off speed with ease. Turn into a bend and the nose just grips. There’s no body roll; the tail squats down and powers you away from the apex without drama. If you have seen an F-14 Tomcat take off, you have an idea of what it’s like.
Let loose for a few laps of General Motors’ Milford proving ground in Detroit, the ZR1 made an instant impression. Even with some wickedly off-camber downhill corners, the ZR1 held its line with tenacity. It is responsive to the driver’s inputs, and the brave and skilled can enjoy Dukes of Hazzard-style powersliding.
The active dampers certainly play their part, with sport mode sharpening things up on the track and tour mode giving a firm but well-control-led ride on the road. All the controls are on the macho side - there’s none of the finesse that a Porsche 911 offers – but they give you plenty of feed-back. The ZR1 is as at home off the track as on.
There are some familiar letdowns that have afflicted many American muscle cars. The build quality is flaky.
VERDICT A muscle car on steroids"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/dri...cle4632767.ece
Evo
"Ultimate has many forms. That’s what Corvette chassis engineer Alex MacDonald tells me as I comment upon how fluently the ZR1 soaks up a Michigan surface that has fought the battle with expanding winter ice and lost. But how is it that this ultimate Corvette, with 638bhp, 604lb ft and a likely £100,000 price tag when it goes on sale in the UK at the year’s end, feels so much more supple and civilised than the circuit-hungry Z06 version, despite being, I am promised, much more devastating on track?
Part of the price, numerically almost the same as the US price in dollars, which suggests an attractive profit margin, goes on the latest application of Delphi’s MagneRide system. That’s the key to the civil suspension, now with a greater ‘bandwidth’, the better to differentiate Touring and Sport modes while making both more adaptable. Of more immediate glamour, though, is what lies under the subtly bulgier bonnet.
Below is an Eaton supercharger whose two rotors each have four lobes rather than the usual three, and which are coated with enough low-friction polymer to make them an interference fit on initial assembly. Eaton’s bedding-in process then gives them the perfect airtight but frictionless co-existence, the better to deliver up to 0.72bar of boost.
Hefty supercharger, hefty outputs. Out on the road the ZR1 proves devastatingly torquey, with 90 per cent of the effort on tap from 2600 to 6000rpm, so it’s unfazed by a long, long first gear able to slingshot it past 60mph. Take it above 3000rpm with a well-opened throttle and you’ll hear the blatter of a now very free-breathing V8, exhaust bypass valves having opened. Throttle-off now and theatrical bangs and crackles mark the moment.
Should you find the space and the opportunity, the ZR1 will take you to 205mph, having passed 60mph in 3.4 seconds, 100mph in 7.0 and 186mph (300kph) in 32.6. There’s something of a Mercedes SLR McLaren about the way it does this, except that you’ll enjoy the build-up to it much more in the ZR1. Accurate, credibly weighted steering, a surprisingly slick-shifting manual transmission (by Tremec) and standard-fit Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes of proper feel and featherability are mainly why.
Lap two, and some of the braking gives way to mere lift-offs as speed and confidence rise. The car shrinks and the track grows.
Even when you expect it to finally understeer because you’ve just asked for an impossible turning effort, the steering still bites and the front wheels find more purchase. As confidence grows you can lean amazingly hard on the Corvette, then as maximum g-force seems to approach you can apply more power and feel the tail drift out for a final flourish before the next twist.
Such confidence comes quickly in the ZR1, because it’s a very understandable car. And that’s because it’s responses are very precise, linear and progressive, so you know exactly where you are with it. If you mis-remember a crest and you’re heading for trouble on the far side, the ZR1 lets you sort it out in your own time. And then, as you enter another long, high-g bend, you can feel the Corvette pivoting about its front wheels as you meter the energy to the rears, holding the gentlest of drifts if you like because that’s what it naturally does. It’s the epitome of the well-balanced rear-wheel-drive car.
Rating:
"http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evoc...vette_zr1.html
Review by Drivers Republic:
http://magazines.drivers-republic.co.../corvette2008/
10-17-2008, 06:50 AM
#3
Night Owl for life
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thanks for sharing!
10-17-2008, 08:19 AM
#4
Le Mans Master
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Fun reads! Given the awesome tech and power, it would have been tough to give the car bad marks for performance, but they were also very positive about more abstract things such as "feel" and whatnot.
I'm still of the opinion that if GM would have bolted down a set of Recaro or Sparco outsourced seats (in addition to dedicated wheels/brakes/fenders/hood/etc.) it would have had huge impact on the interior (and critique of it in the global supercar market).
This is one of my favorite comments:
I'm still of the opinion that if GM would have bolted down a set of Recaro or Sparco outsourced seats (in addition to dedicated wheels/brakes/fenders/hood/etc.) it would have had huge impact on the interior (and critique of it in the global supercar market).
This is one of my favorite comments:
10-17-2008, 08:24 AM
#5
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Fun reads! Given the awesome tech and power, it would have been tough to give the car bad marks for performance, but they were also very positive about more abstract things such as "feel" and whatnot.
I'm still of the opinion that if GM would have bolted down a set of Recaro or Sparco outsourced seats (in addition to dedicated wheels/brakes/fenders/hood/etc.) it would have had huge impact on the interior (and critique of it in the global supercar market).
This is one of my favorite comments:
I'm still of the opinion that if GM would have bolted down a set of Recaro or Sparco outsourced seats (in addition to dedicated wheels/brakes/fenders/hood/etc.) it would have had huge impact on the interior (and critique of it in the global supercar market).
This is one of my favorite comments:
10-17-2008, 06:29 PM
#6
Burning Brakes
Hate govt regs.
Damn government regulations. The only reason the ZR1 still has the 'base' seats is because to put in a different seat requires completely re crash testing the car.
Besides crunching a 100 ZR1's which they weren't going to do the cost would be phenomally high. Probably killing the profit for the whole ZR1 model. You know GM could just bolt in a set of nice seats, and I bet they want to.
I wonder if they could ship every ZR1 with a nice set of Sparco's or Recaro's to be dealer installed to get around it. I know I would pay 2k for that option. Direct bolt in, all electrical connections hook right up. Factory fit, I would be so in.
Besides crunching a 100 ZR1's which they weren't going to do the cost would be phenomally high. Probably killing the profit for the whole ZR1 model. You know GM could just bolt in a set of nice seats, and I bet they want to.
I wonder if they could ship every ZR1 with a nice set of Sparco's or Recaro's to be dealer installed to get around it. I know I would pay 2k for that option. Direct bolt in, all electrical connections hook right up. Factory fit, I would be so in.
11-02-2008, 05:08 PM
#9
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Car Magazine
25 units planned for UK
+
Progressive, intuitive, and fluent input & response
Balanced and stable chassis
Amazingly prompt and linear throttle response
Masses of low-end torque
Little brake dive
Overall reasonably refined behavior, comparable to F430 Scuderia
-
Squishy seats
Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
"It's not a Vette. It's the Vette."
25 units planned for UK
+
Progressive, intuitive, and fluent input & response
Balanced and stable chassis
Amazingly prompt and linear throttle response
Masses of low-end torque
Little brake dive
Overall reasonably refined behavior, comparable to F430 Scuderia
-
Squishy seats
Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
"It's not a Vette. It's the Vette."
11-03-2008, 01:20 AM
#13
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Not so sure. I haven't seen his review yet. These were written by other staff editors. I'm sure we'll be seeing his television review in a week or two. It wouldn't be Clarkson without some reference to a Roman chariot or baby buggy. 
11-03-2008, 01:06 PM
#14
Racer
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Don't sweat it...
Clarkson is to moto journalism what "professional" wrestling is to sports...
06-28-2009, 04:41 AM
#16
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Autocar have done a 2nd test drive.
"Test date Tuesday, June 23, 2009
What is it?
It’s the fastest Corvette, the ZR1. About which a couple of noteworthy things: Chevrolet's own website lists its competitors as the Ferraris F430 and 599 GTB. And its sixth gear will both drag it along on idle, yet also take it to 205mph, providing worthwhile acceleration across any of 175 different miles per hour.
Unlike the erstwhile fastest current Corvette, the Z06, the ZR1 uses a 6.2- rather than a 7.0-litre 16-valve V8, but with a supercharger nestled between its banks. The addition of the blower plus some extra equipment means that, at 1528kg it's heavier than the Z06 despite having a carbonfibre roof, splitter and inner bonnet.
What’s it like?
Don't let the additional weight bother you: with 638bhp and 604lb ft the ZR1 could weigh as much as the moon and still shift. As it is, is has a 0-62mph time of 3.6sec, which it would itself better were it not for a 51:49 weight distribution that limits its traction compared to mid- or rear-engined supercars. Very few proper series production cars have the ZR1's kind of urge, or its Nascar-aping noise once the exhaust valves open.
ZR1s get magnetically-controlled dampers on their double-wishbone suspension, which retains carbonfibre leaf springs at the rear. The ride's generally composed, although the 335/25 section rear tyres make a racket. Shifting the suspension from 'tour' to 'sport' mode tightens body control to the detriment of a ride that runs out of ideas more quickly than a fast 911 or 599 but is far from poor.
At its limit, it'll nudge into understeer but can be pushed/bunged into a slide that's easier to hold than in either the Porsche or the Ferrari. Its engine-dominated slidey nature is closer to an Aston DBS's. It steers positively, too, and its carbon-ceramic brakes haul it up impressively.
The interior? There are too many mass-market plastics, a crude infotainment display and ruched leather seats that look like they've seen a few miles when they haven't. They fail to make up for it in lateral support either, but they're comfortable during cruising which, with its leggy gearing, is something the ZR1 still does adeptly. More so on big open roads – being a left-hooker and 1927mm wide (before mirrors) limit its B-road ability.
Should I buy one?
Although the ZR1 feels a little less sophisticated than its European rivals, don’t automatically discount it on those grounds. Nothing that offers its pace also comes at its price.
At a touch over £100,000, the ZR1 undercuts cars like the Aston Vantage V12 or Porsche 911 GT2 by about £30,000, and big Astons and Ferraris by vastly more again. Put its speed, capability and price together and it’s harder to overlook the big-hearted Corvette."
http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/...6.2-V8/234512/
For anyone who missed the Clarkson review, it's here:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...light=clarkson
"Test date Tuesday, June 23, 2009
What is it?
It’s the fastest Corvette, the ZR1. About which a couple of noteworthy things: Chevrolet's own website lists its competitors as the Ferraris F430 and 599 GTB. And its sixth gear will both drag it along on idle, yet also take it to 205mph, providing worthwhile acceleration across any of 175 different miles per hour.
Unlike the erstwhile fastest current Corvette, the Z06, the ZR1 uses a 6.2- rather than a 7.0-litre 16-valve V8, but with a supercharger nestled between its banks. The addition of the blower plus some extra equipment means that, at 1528kg it's heavier than the Z06 despite having a carbonfibre roof, splitter and inner bonnet.
What’s it like?
Don't let the additional weight bother you: with 638bhp and 604lb ft the ZR1 could weigh as much as the moon and still shift. As it is, is has a 0-62mph time of 3.6sec, which it would itself better were it not for a 51:49 weight distribution that limits its traction compared to mid- or rear-engined supercars. Very few proper series production cars have the ZR1's kind of urge, or its Nascar-aping noise once the exhaust valves open.
ZR1s get magnetically-controlled dampers on their double-wishbone suspension, which retains carbonfibre leaf springs at the rear. The ride's generally composed, although the 335/25 section rear tyres make a racket. Shifting the suspension from 'tour' to 'sport' mode tightens body control to the detriment of a ride that runs out of ideas more quickly than a fast 911 or 599 but is far from poor.
At its limit, it'll nudge into understeer but can be pushed/bunged into a slide that's easier to hold than in either the Porsche or the Ferrari. Its engine-dominated slidey nature is closer to an Aston DBS's. It steers positively, too, and its carbon-ceramic brakes haul it up impressively.
The interior? There are too many mass-market plastics, a crude infotainment display and ruched leather seats that look like they've seen a few miles when they haven't. They fail to make up for it in lateral support either, but they're comfortable during cruising which, with its leggy gearing, is something the ZR1 still does adeptly. More so on big open roads – being a left-hooker and 1927mm wide (before mirrors) limit its B-road ability.
Should I buy one?
Although the ZR1 feels a little less sophisticated than its European rivals, don’t automatically discount it on those grounds. Nothing that offers its pace also comes at its price.
At a touch over £100,000, the ZR1 undercuts cars like the Aston Vantage V12 or Porsche 911 GT2 by about £30,000, and big Astons and Ferraris by vastly more again. Put its speed, capability and price together and it’s harder to overlook the big-hearted Corvette."
http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/...6.2-V8/234512/
For anyone who missed the Clarkson review, it's here:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...light=clarkson
