A word of advice to owners, or prospective owners, of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Aston Martins, McLaren-Mercedes or any others among Europe’s luxury sports-car elite: do not even think about dismissing or patronising America’s latest take on the “supercar”, the ZR1 Corvette.
Over the years the car industry in the US has been really rather good at running over its own feet. While the European offshoots of Ford and General Motors have come up with some excellent, internationally competitive mainstream cars such as the Ford Focus and Vauxhall/Opel’s Astra, back in the US there is a long history of churning out hordes of indifferently designed and not very well-built cars of little interest to drivers anywhere outside north America or the Middle East.
As a result, there is a long-standing habit among the European automotive cognoscenti of deriding homegrown US products. And one must concede that the Corvette, even in its flagship ZR1 version, is not quite the last word in grace and beauty when measured against, say, Ferrari or Aston Martin. But there the disdain must end.
Its styling is distinctly butch and instantly recognisable as all-American. Think of the ZR1 as a jeans-clad, gun-toting Clint Eastwood of a vehicle in a car park full of Armani and Savile Row suits.
And it’s every bit as threatening as Clint in his prime. And then some. And then some more. Because in a performance shoot-out, all the cars produced by the hallowed European brands would wind up chasing its tyre tracks.
The ZR1 Corvette's interiorsThe ZR1 is a car of simply massive power and performance: 638 horsepower for starters but, more importantly, 603lb ft of torque from its 6.2 litre, supercharged V8 – and all in a car made largely of aluminium and carbon fibre and weighing just over 1,500kg. Ferrari’s flagship 599 has 611 horsepower, but only 448lb ft, while weighing 150kg more. Lamborghini’s hugely respected Murcielago has 631 horsepower, but “only” 486lb ft in a car weighing well over 300kg more.
The Mercedes SLR McLaren comes closest, but it, too, trails – in everything but price. And here the ZR1 really does outgun everyone. The discontinued SLR Mercedes cost more than £300,000; that Ferrari 599 goes for £193,000 before extras; the Murcielago for £197,000. The ZR1 costs £106,000, including jet fighter-style head-up display, touch-screen DVD navigation and other goodies.
It might be far more expensive than its still-fearsome smaller brother, the 510 horsepower ZO6 Corvette, at £62,000 – but it ranks as an all-time supercar bargain.
Except, of course, that we all know American cars are pretty hopeless at cornering, right?
Try telling yourself that as the ZR1’s massive tyres (the biggest in standard production) and racing car suspension hurl it through bends at more than 1g – roughly the same force experienced by a Ford Focus while emergency braking in a straight line.
It is simply impossible to take the measure of such a car on the road. So instead I took it to the test circuits at the automotive industry research centre in Millbrook, Bedfordshire. Apart from Ferrari’s sensational but slower F430, I have never driven a supercar that is so much fun and so capable. A slight misunderstanding at the safety briefing needlessly restricted the velocity at which I circled the high-speed bowl to 140mph, against a potential 205mph. But even at a 140mph cruise, we were simply dawdling.
Be warned: this is not a car that will protect you from yourself. There is no automatic gearbox option, only a meaty, six-speed manual. The second, on-highway day of the test saw the ZR1 negotiating damp roads. In second, third or fourth gears, and even with electronic stability programme and traction control fully engaged, the torque is so enormous that the car will snap sideways with very little provocation until, very late in the day by most supercar standards, the traction control finally intervenes to set you right.
Disrespect this car at your peril. But then what can you expect when, on a good, dry surface, it takes only about seven seconds to go from 0-100mph?
There is also a “competitive driving” mode; or you can switch all traction systems off completely. Both options are, perhaps, best left to the Lewis Hamiltons and Jenson Buttons of this world. But they have helped the ZR1 in expert hands to become the fastest-ever production car around Germany’s daunting, 14-mile Nurburgring.
Downsides? In aesthetic and style terms, the ZR1’s interior doesn’t hold a candle to rivals such as Ferrari’s seductively sensuous 599. It looks, and is, of a lower order altogether, well-designed and supportive leather seats notwithstanding. If style is important to you, the ZR1 will have a hard time justifying itself.
But it gives ground on nothing else: the massive, hydroformed aluminium spaceframe chassis around which the car is built is almost entirely free of flex, allowing the racing double wishbone suspension front and rear to work with utter precision.
The brakes are close to £10,000-worth of carbon ceramics, those at the front resembling dustbin lids of nearly 400mm diameter. All body panels are of composite plastics or carbon fibre.
Compare the shape with the standard Z06 and it becomes apparent that the ZR1 is meaner, wider and lower.
The tiger, however, can also be a pussycat. The adaptive dampers, for the first time on a Corvette, provide a ride that even on Britain’s bumpy backroads is more than tolerable for a supercar. Resist the temptation to mash the throttle, stay in a high gear and it becomes a quiet, refined, high-speed long-distance cruiser. There’s even a sizeable boot.
No, it may not be perfect; but it might just be the best car the US industry has ever built.
source: ft
