Article by:
Jared Gall
While there are many parts to Car and Driver, a foundational element is the road test. The ultimate expression of our product expertise and knowledge, the road test blends subjective opinion garnered from our experience with objective numbers generated by our instrumented testing. While we may not have invented the road-test format, we have spent just shy of seven decades perfecting the formula. Early tests included acceleration, top speed, and fuel economy. Our testing parameters have since expanded to include stopping distance, skidpad grip, passing times, sound-level measurements, and several we created, such as the 5-to-60-mph test. We challenge our vehicular subjects by highlighting their performance on some of our favorite roads throughout the world or testing their off-tarmac capability on chassis-chattering trails and dunes. It's all to inform you just how well a vehicle performs—and do so in a story that is as interesting and exciting as the vehicles and the places themselves.
if you're the guardian angel type, you'll want to make sure yours blocks out time in their schedule before you settle into the new Corvette ZR1. You also might want to issue them earplugs because there will be decidedly blasphemous outbursts when the mighty LT7 engine conjures its full output. It would be unprofessional to admit that the ZR1's specs are terrifying. But 1064 horsepower and 828 pound-feet of torque are certainly intimidating.
Twenty years ago, the Bugatti Veyron inaugurated the four-digit club and charged more than a million bucks for admission. Generating the Bug's 1001 horsepower took 16 cylinders, 8.0 liters, and four turbos; putting it to the ground required all-wheel drive and custom-made tires that cost $25,000 a set. The ZR1 has a twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V-8 and routes its torque solely to the rear axle. The Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2Rs on the car we tested aren't cheap, but the replacement cost basically amounts to the sales tax on the Veyron's rubber. Here is a comprehensive list of more powerful regular-production cars that are rear-wheel drive:
The list of quicker rear-drive cars is also nonexistent. The ZR1 blitzes to 60 mph in 2.2 seconds, to 100 mph in 4.5, and through the quarter-mile in 9.5 at 149 mph. Within this magazine's history was an era in which numbers like these were the exclusive domain of slingshot dragsters with the life expectancy of a hand grenade—and a similar kill radius. But here they are, generated by a regular-production Chevrolet covered by a five-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty.
Set up properly, the ZR1 launches with shockingly little wheelspin for something with such monumental output and only two driven wheels—though the rear tires are 13.6 inches wide and are very nearly slicks. Chevy sent us instructions on how to set up launch control for optimal acceleration. Step one: Perform hellacious burnout to clean the tires and bring them up to temperature. (Skip this step and the ZR1 will light up its tires and swing sideways if you floor it even at 70 mph on the freeway. This is not recommended unless you are hopelessly constipated.) Step two: Use the thumbwheel on the right steering-wheel spoke to experiment with different launch rpm and tire-slip allowances. Step three: You brushed up on what muscles fighter pilots flex to prevent blackouts during high-g maneuvers, right? Because the ZR1 sustains more than 1.00 g of acceleration until 85 mph.
With launch control engaged, the engine revs to your chosen rpm like any other supercar but then stutters as Chevy's antilag system steps in to allow the turbos to build a few pounds of boost. When you lift off the brake, the ZR1 hooks up hard enough to elicit an unintentional grunt, and your face gets all tingly as the blood rushes to the back of your head. (In the time it took you to read that sentence, the ZR1 has already hit 130 mph.) You might feel tempted to touch the back of your skull to see if you've developed a wind fairing, but it's best to keep both hands on the wheel since you're now doing about 170 mph. The eight-speed dual-clutch automatic shifts so quickly that you only notice it working at all because the yowling flat-plane-crank V-8 and whooshing turbo chargers drop in pitch—but only momentarily. (Oops, you're going 200 mph. This is frowned upon in most jurisdictions.) Not that anyone is recommending you try, but Chevrolet says the ZR1 will accelerate from 80 to 200 mph and brake back down to 80 in just 24.5 seconds. Based on our testing, it should need only about a mile and a quarter to do so. But you should not do so. Read more...
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