vboy418

I would love to own one of these bad boys!

muhbuhtuh

im not suprised he chose this car. he was in love with this car in one of the episodes

2002GGPIS3

A big victory for the Corvette team. In the U.S. Corvettes of any type sell easily, but in Europe Porsches are much more popular. In fact I read in England last year, they sold more Lamborghinis then Corvettes. Lately there has been such a focus on getting European buyers and that is why the Nurburgring times and testing is so important. So having Clarkson like the new ZR1 is a very big deal.

Bean

iTrader: (1)

You must be the biggest GTR fanboy I have EVER seen. You trust your opinion of this car? What does that even mean? Does the fact that this car wins some award from a well-known auto-journalist rub you the wrong way because it wasn't your precious GTR? Here you are AGAIN talking excuses about why you like the GTR better than car X. The ZR1 is MUCH faster than the standard GTR. Runs almost 20mph more in the traps than non-magazine-test cars. (131-132 versus ~112-114). Then again, it costs A LOT more. These cars aren't even in the same class. It'd be like comparing the GTR to the LF-A or a Honda Civic to an NSX.

Not true. DOHC engines can have an identical powerband to a pushrod motor if the designer wants it. Ask the Tundra. DOHC costs more but offers a much wider range of usage for a single engine design.

The reason GM uses the pushrod is:
A) It is a solid motor that has been around for A LONG time and GM does not have a modern DOHC V8. GM is/was/will probably be always about cutting costs on their cars and the cost of R&Ding a modern DOHC V8 for fleetwide use is not a good economic move in their eyes.

B) It is lightweight and very compact. Ask the RX-7 swap guys about the LS1 and LS6 swaps. I don't think there's a car on the planet that will even touch a LS6 or LS7 FD with the right shoes on. I've heard the stock LS7 FD swaps will net nearly 140mph traps and almost 9 second timeslips with DRs

S8B

The interior is probably the least important part of this car. It's suppose to be a bang for the buck performance car- and it is. Yet, you still get civilized road manners (thanks to that wonderful magnetic suspension) for the streets, not to mention, for a 1/4 of the price compared to other similarly performing supercars.

The interior is not the greatest, but its not acceptable considering everything else you are getting for that price.

mmarshall

Well, yes and no. The Tundra's I-Force V8, with its 400 ft-lbs of torque, is designed more for stump-pulling and towing more so than for Corvette-type 0-60 times. Even apart from the complexity/production costs, Europeans, traditionally, have driven and shifted at higher RPMs than the average American driver. That has made OHC designs more popular there.....push-rod engines tend to get valve float, have lower red-lines on the tach, and, in general, are less tolerant of high RPMs then an OHC. The Mazda rotary engines, of course, also dispense with high-RPM problems, but are generally less reliable, especialy with apex-tip seals, and guzzle too much gas for their size.

GM does have a relatively modern DOHC V8...the 4-cam, 32-valve Cadillac Northstar, although it has, to some extent, been plagued with oil consumption. Its power levels, however, are being equalled (or exceeded) by some new Nissan/Infiniti V6's. There is also a reasonably modern, transversely-installed, FWD 5.3L V8 on the "Super" Buicks, Chevy Impala SS, and Pontiac Grand Prix GNP....again, matched by some Nissan/Infiniti V6s.

Lexwang07

Corvette ZR1 is the bomb.

ES3

Did anyone ever acknowledge that on the program?
ZR1 is a helluva car!

gengar

Consumers who want multiple features in a car often have to pay a substantial premium for it. Ever try to use an Elise as a daily driver and go grocery shopping (not to mention over a pothole)? Ever go to Nissan to get service (hint: it's the same dealer whether you bought a $100,000 marked-up "supercar" or a $10,000 Versa)?

It's hard to engineer and design a car that is high-performance yet also offers a luxury interior, ease of driveability, creature comforts and options, good dealership service, and reliability. (That's probably why I love my F so much.) If the only thing any vehicle buyer cared about was performance, we'd all be riding motorcycles.