Autoblog

I believe the "set to stock height" is in response to some people (such as myself) questioning whether GM and others were using stock suspension, but with modified suspension geometry. Adding some camber can make a big difference on a track with lots of low speed corners like the N-Ring. It hurts tire life (among other things) so it isn't done from the factory, but it's practically a no-brainer for racing.

Many people such as myself asked about changes like this, so it seems GM has clarified that not only are all the suspension bits stock, but they have not been adjusted away from stock settings either.

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If the lap was to be timed using a more accurate timing mechanism, I think it would be around 7:29 or 7:30.

Notice that the clock starts and stops while the car is at different points on the track: it starts counting just before the car enters the first turn, yet stops counting immediately after the car comes out of the final turn. Hence, the clock doesn't run for the few seconds that the car is on the "front" straight.

In any case, it's still a fast car.

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@ accord745: You are so right. I'm pretty sure that lap is actually SLOWER than the GTR's 7:29.

I guess the GM folks decided that they better stop the clock while they were still ahead.

7:26.4?? HAHAHAHAHA I was actually excited about that lap until I actually looked at the details. Now I realize that GM is just a bunch of phonies. If they're willing to LIE about their lap time, I wonder what else they're lying about. Stock suspension setup? Stock tires? Stock engine?

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Acord745.

I know the time hurts your feeling but let's get this straight. Time was started and stopped in the same places as that of the GTR and a lot of other cars. Go look more videos so you can confirm this by yourself and analyze why they do that. Is obvious at the end of the video...

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The ZR1 looks extremely unbalanced on the ring. The leaf spring suspension is not up to the task. This is just more proof that the 7:26 is a result of brute strength rather than good handling. The GT-R looked as if it was rails. The ZR1 was all over the place. I can't wait for the V Spec to come out and show the ZR1 what real handling is all about.

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The ZR1 was hitting the curbs. That's going to upset the car. If the GT-R hit the curbs, it'd look more upset too. It would also likely be faster than the time it last turned in, very possibly beating this car.

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@ why not the LS2LS7?:
Yeah, the driver didn't mess around with the curbs at all. It proves that the suspension on this thing is taut, yet compliant. And you're right, if the GT-R attacked the track like this it might have done better, but the only thing I'm wondering about is if the Nissan's suspension is a little too stiff and it would bounce off the curbs and lose traction... maybe that's why the driver avoided the curbs. I'm just speculating anyways. What do you think, possible?

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@ the pround japanese idiot

you are seriously such a flaming idiot fanboy. i dont even know you and i hate cha guts. seriously, there's no RWD car in the world that will not look squirley moving at those speeds. when you're driving a RWD car, even w/ traction and stability control, you're going to rely a lot more on driver skill than you would a AWD in my opinion.
Thats one of the huge things that the GTR has in its favor, if the driver transfers power to the rear wheels a little too early after doing heavy braking, even by tenths of a second, you're going to have the rear end slide out a bit, if you do that w/ the GT-R, Evo, and STI these vehicles take into consideration weight distribution and braking, and transfer more power to the front wheels...giving you that "riding on rails" effect that you love so much.

seriously do us all a favor, go to sleep and dont wake up

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@ Joe - three words - Bridge to Gantry.

@ ProudJapanese -...

(Your comment is so pathetically bad I won't even use words)

You like the GT-R, I like the GT-R, yet I don't act like an idiot about it. Maybe you should try that.

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@ Proud Japanese

Brute force? Last time I checked, power was part of performance.
Without regard to that, the ZR1 could not possibly obtain this lap time on brute strength alone. It beat out both the Pagani Zonda and the Koenigsegg CCR, and both of those cars have FAR superior power-to-weight ratios. The handling on the ZR1 is superb, and there is no arguing that.

It is blatantly obvious that this car has the ability to shave a good chunk of time off this lap. You may notice that the ZR1 achieved only 179 on the back straight. When the CTS-V ran its lap it hit the rev limiter in 5th and achieved 175. The ZR1 has 82 more horses, 53 more lb/ft, weighs 850 lbs less, has a manual transmission, and undoubtedly had a higher exit velocity when leaving the final turn on the straight. That is a testament to how strong that headwind must have been, and when combined with all the other minor slip-ups on the track, it proves that the ZR1 has much more left in her.

On top of all that, you have to realize that these times are approaching the absolute limit of factory available tires. The V-Spec might beat this time, but if it is wearing factory rubber I highly doubt it will beat it by much more than a tenth or two. On a 7 minute track, that will literally be a wash.

Now, I distinctly remember you stating that the ZR1 would never beat the base GTR around the 'ring, are you going to take that back?

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Well, I can't say for sure why Nissan did what they did. But I have to say my feeling is more along the lines that Nissan did it that way because they didn't need to hit the curbs than the thinking that they didn't because it would hurt them.

That's really just guessing though.

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@ accord745

Chevy drove the sportauto lap which is 20.6km (full northlop 20.8km).. Nissan drove exactly the same 20.6km sportauto lap. So the ZR1 is the faster of both...

I like the ZR1 much better as the GT-R..it is a driver car were the driver makes the different not a playstation packed in a car and you only need the balls to go to the edge without needing the skills to get there..

The different between a average and a good driver in a GT-R are tenth of a second..the different between a average and good driver on the Ring in a ZR1 could be minutes..

@why not the LS7/LS2
The Ring has many hyperfast corners much faster as corners on any other track...
Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz, Metzgersfeld, Angstkurve, the turn befor getting to Bergwerk, Antoniusbuche etc...
There are lot of 125mph turns (with the right car)

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Your right, the whole lap was CGI, in fact lets see a skyline vs z06 on the ring and then see what happens. and then a spec v (when it comes out) vs a zr1, i bet you the skyline will take both races. and then further down the line there will be a z tune and its gonna destroy every car ever made.

as for the video, its pretty good, its just a shame the zr1 comes out of the factory riced out with a window on a hood and polished rims and hideous fender vents. what were they thinking!?

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What a bunch of chuckleheads. Nice drive, must be a very good car. End of story.

A good move by GM to release it. Makes me think the corvette might be a rational replacement for my 360 spider. I only saw a couple of obvious mistakes by the driver, remarkable given the complexities of the ring. Still I'd like to see Sabine Schmitz drive this car. She probably wouldn't be any faster, but she'd be talking, laughing and whooping while she drove.

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yeah, that part sounds a bit sketchy. hehehe

Amazing Run!

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FTFA

"Juechter claims that the Corvette ZR1 used at Nürburgring is "exactly like the cars that will be built in Bowling Green." The tires were production Michelin Pilot Sport 2’s. Chassis alignment and vehicle height were set to factory specs. Likewise, the engine calibrations were absolutely stock, emissions compliant and the car ran on pump (not racing) fuel."

IOW It's stock.

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I can't speak for the details on ZR1 suspension but on previous Corvettes the ride height was adjustable.

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"Set to stock height" makes it that much more fishy sounding... it makes it sound like the car has some kind of adjustable coil-over type suspension on it... unless the stock car has height-adjustable suspension, which I haven't seen listed as a 'feature' for this car anywhere.

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