R/T: 2019 Corvette ZR1 first drive

[kevm14]

Another R/T article that I guess I missed.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/autos-sp ... ?ocid=iehp

Some good stuff in here actually.

[kevm14]

ZR1 buyers will pay more gas-guzzler tax than Z06 owners who choose an automatic. According to MacDonald, the EPA surveys buyers on which of the Corvette’s drive mode they use most often. “They all say that they use Track mode, even the very few people actually use Track mode on the street–for obvious reasons. So we have to include Track mode in our fuel-economy calculations. We decided to eat the penalty so we could calibrate the transmission the way we wanted.” In Tour mode, the ZR1 delivers slightly worse fuel economy then the Z06, primarily because the LT5 doesn’t use the LT4’s cylinder-deactivation feature.

Too bad it required their $140k car to finally realize that trans calibration is more important than on-paper EPA ratings.

[kevm14]

The automatic will surely be very good, but I’m thankful our test car is equipped with the seven-speed manual. Shift effort is astoundingly low. If you tested it back-to-back with a 1998 C5 Corvette, you’d assume that the older car had 755 hp and the new one needed to cope with only 345. Maneuvering around the paddock at NCM, the ZR1 is compact-car easy to operate.

We've come a long way from the T56...

[kevm14]

My God, the power. There are other vehicles that accelerate like this ZR1-a Kawasaki ZX-14R, the McLaren 720S, the B-58 Hustler-but a Z06 isn’t one of them. More impressive, it has traded that car’s traditional blown V-8 breathlessness for a robust, rev-happy powerband that closely mimics the standard C7’s naturally aspirated behavior but delivers more than half again the shove.

I like the sound of that very much.

[kevm14]

MacDonald frequently mentions throttle response, citing the E36-generation BMW M3 as a target. It’s tough to get a big, boosted pushrod V-8 to act like a free-breathing 24-valve straight-six, but Chevrolet may have managed. Some credit goes to the flexibility provided by an additional port-injection system, which operates in conjunction with the existing direct-injection setup.

E36 M3....wow. I was just ranting about throttle response to Adam this week at lunch. It is very important to me. And I mean true, linear response. Not overly aggressive faked crap on some modern cars.

[kevm14]

Racing legend Mark Donohue once said that you didn’t have enough power until you could spin the wheels from the exit of one turn to the entry of the next. The ZR1 doesn’t feel far of. Every corner exit is accompanied by two or three seconds of traction-control stutter-step. The system won’t save you from your own stupidity-on a whim, I floored the throttle around a hairpin and was promptly rewarded with a half-gainer. It’s just meant to help you get around the track in a tidier fashion.

Which is why this is the last front engine RWD Corvette at this performance level...

[kevm14]

His team ran this car on track for 24 hours without a single mechanical failure, but this level of power and grip is not for the fiscally faint of heart. A tank of gas disappears every 26 minutes. Tires should be replaced every half hour or so. Front brake pads last just long enough to get through Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti double album. Not that a Lamborghini Huracán Performante does much better-but a stock C7 Z51 will run on track for eight hours with nothing other than a couple of fill-ups and a few brake bleedings. Consider yourself warned.

This is a legitimate point. People who really want to push their car at a track day are often better served by well-sorted but lower-performing variants of the platform. In the world of Camaros, that means the SS 1LE instead of the ZL1, for example. Or a C7 Grand Sport, which is excellent.

[kevm14]

Handling balance is acceptably neutral; play stupid throttle-lift games midcorner and you’ll win stupid snap-oversteer prizes, but treat the ZR1 with respect and you will never be scared by it. The traction control is not up to the finely grained standard set by Mercedes-AMG with the GT R, yet it is more than adequate to make time around a track. If you like driving a Miata on a road course, you will like this. It’s that good.

This is why I like the ZR1. I also think the C6 ZR1 kind of did the same thing for the C6, which is why I like that one, too.

[kevm14]

PDR isn’t exclusive to the ZR1. In this respect, like so many others, it is just an ordinary Corvette. MacDonald notes that they had to “certify” the car to the same standards as a base, non-Z51 Stingray, including a test in which the 755-hp, big-wing track monster had to ford 12 inches of water at about 5 mph.

“At times, it was a hassle to certify it,” MacDonald says, “and you kind of envy the exotic-brand engineers who don’t have to do this stuff . . . but it makes for a better product in the end. It’s a real car. You can use it like a real car. And our customers expect that. It’s part of the Corvette brand.”

Therein lies the greatness of the ZR1. It’s not the power, which will eventually be exceeded by a competitor. It’s not the balance and pace on track, although both are exemplary. Rather, it is the fundamental Corvetteness of it. Any C7 owner could trade up to a ZR1 tomorrow and suffer no penalties besides the obvious financial ones. You lose nothing. It is simply a Corvette with more: more power, more pace, more capability. There is nothing radical about it, because nothing radical was required. It is simply the fastest possible variant of the finest American car ever built. And that reminds me of another Thoreau quote, particularly as it applies to MacDonald and his team: “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”

And this is why I like Corvettes.