An Exotic ’Vette for the Jet Set

[DainBramaged]

2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1



THE Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is the most powerful production car General Motors has ever built, a Ferrari-whompin’ Lamborghini-humiliatin’, $105,000 mélange of exotic materials and American pluck.

Although endowed with the ’Vette’s customary Vegas Strip styling, the ZR1 only looks like a regular Corvette. Nearly everything underneath, including the symbolism, is different.

This is not to take anything away from the accomplishments of the base car, but let’s face it: that thing has an image problem. Too many would-be owners are scared off by the car’s aging X-Rated-film-star vibe, and by the demands of what ’Vette cultists ominously call “the lifestyle.”

The cult’s bylaws seem to mandate that all members must spend every summer Saturday with fellow ’Vetteheads — doing nothing but looking at, talking about and diaper-buffing their star-spangled sports cars.

You might assume that owning an even more powerful Corvette like the ZR1 would only suck you deeper into this vortex. But this 638-horsepower machine actually grants transcendence from it. The ZR1’s substance so completely overwhelms its style that even the snobbiest Eurocar snobs will be awed by the sophisticated engineering.

As one of a handful of 600-plus-horsepower cars on the road, the ZR1 posts a quicker zero-to-60 time (3.4 seconds) than the $1 million Ferrari Enzo. Its rear brakes are as big as those on a $1.6 million Bugatti Veyron. It gets 20 m.p.g. on the highway. It reunited the Fugees and is planning a lecture on how string theory relates to the observable universe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/automobiles/autoreviews/12AUTO.html

[jimmil]

1. This week the wife asked if we can get one..

I almost fell out of my chair. Reading about the car I wonder what the engineers did when developing the car? You know they had to have jacked the Hp up to probably somewhere around 1000 hp and just beat the crap out of it. I am sure they had a ball. Since Jingles retired I have no inside scoops anymore.

[DainBramaged]

2. They are only making 2000, and EVERY one is spoken for IF a dealer gets one

GM is doing a computerized lottery to see who gets one (Chevy dealers). It is estimated that, unlike the Ford GT, these suckers will command 50-100K over list, (Chevy's have ALWAYS been more valuable and desirable than ANY Ford) and the lower the serial number, the higher the price.

[jimmil]

3. Well that certainly settles that.....

A Doctor friend of mine has a Ford GT. That is a car! First, the body is still about the most beautiful ever designed. Really very nice and with a bit of work done last Saturday he did 750 Hp on the dyno to the wheels! A nice car to be sure.

[flvegan]

4. As I said in another thread, at 1/3 the price

it outruns the Lambo Murcialago and outhandles the Ferrari 599. If you want to outperform this car in every aspect, you might need a million dollar Koenigsegg to do so.

And nobody can work on a Koenigsegg.