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The 2009 Corvette ZR1 is the best car ever made. It redefines what performance cars are capable of, not by its numbers (the 0-to-60 in 3.3 seconds and a 205 MPH top speed figures are no longer noteworthy north of $100,000), but by how it makes those numbers so accessible. Simply put, the ZR1's most remarkable achievement is how easy and unintimidating the chassis makes exploiting the car's 638 HP. The only problem is I'm not good enough a driver to fully do so. Halfway through a day's lapping, halfway around the Lutz Ring and full throttle at the top of third gear is bringing me and a red ZR1 into a 180-degree corner way too fast, while the blind crest just before it - taken at maximum power and maximum cornering - has us way off line too. In any other supercar, especially one as hairy as a Viper or as rear-engined as a 911, this would be a serious moment, probably resulting in one of my notorious off-track excursions. But today I can just haul on the brakes all the way through turn-in and up to the apex and then get back on the power - hard. The result: sweaty palms instead of trashed carbon fiber body work. More »
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We'd heard the long-lead media "drive" for the 2009 Corvette ZR1 was yesterday and it looks like the first in-car driving footage is now out on the web, less than 24 hours later. We obviously weren't there, primarily since we'd heard it was all magazines there. Frankly, we just don't need as much time as the glossies to put out a good story. We don't have character blocks to set in the printing press, no ink to squirt out and no parchment to unroll. So we guess it makes sense that we wouldn't need an invite to an event this far out. Of course, we also expected the invited media reps from the big n' bad buff books would, you know, drive the cars themselves. UPDATE: The video's from Motive Mag, an online publication. Who knew they needed extra time too? Slow pokes. More »
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A quick glance at the very graphical press release from Ashley Van Dyke, the motor-loving mistress of the Bullrun TV show, and you'll think perhaps she'll be driving the new $413,000 ($105,000 minus dealer markup) and 638 HP 2009 Chevy ZR1 in this week's Bullrun road rally. It's hard not to. It's right there at the top of the press release. For a moment there we thought maybe Chevy was throwing down the ZR1 for some road rallying hype — like the Z06 before it for the Frankl twins. A quick e-mail to Chevy was enough to tell us they certainly didn't give her one and according to our friends at GTSpirit, we've found out what she is driving. They tell us the lovely lady's driving a Corvette Z06. While the Z06 is a blast to drive, we don't think it's quite the horsepowergasm of the upcoming ZR1. Mostly because it's not so powerful we're simultaneously pissing our pants and giggling like a schoolgirl at the thought of getting behind the wheel. So, while there's no ZR1 on the 'run, self-promotion is still running rampant. Hit the jump to see the press release in its entirety. [Ashley Van Dyke, Bullrun] More »
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Here's a pretty slick wall display from Plasan, the supplier of the carbon fiber parts for the 2009 Corvette ZR1. Instead of just stacking their stuff on the floor and making a path for people to walk through, like we do in the home office, they decided to utilize the wonders of vertical storage and even went all the way with a clever labeling scheme. Here we find out the weights of all the carbon fiber bits they supply for the mega-Vette. More »
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