The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and the Porsche 911 Turbo do battle in a comparison of epic proportions at the track with professional hot shoe Justin Bell, on the drag strip and through a standing mile...

Nov. Article: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...son/index.html

Video: http://www.motortrend.com/av/roadtes...#ixzz12GO4MIU9

 

WOW, awesome to watch! Great post. I don't want to spill the beans before others watch, but
I am very curiuous to see how this thread develops!!!!!!

 

Group mail to request redoing the test with a real GT1 engined 997 turbo.

 

Great review and I'd have to say I agree with most points. From a perception stand point, I think they they'd have gotten the 'wow' factor from a GT3/2RS as opposed to a run of the mill turbo. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) 90% of the population can't tell the difference between a base model and a turbo where as the ZR1 really stands out.

Good read though!

 

Skewed test...but I enjoyed the video especially the 1 mile top speed runs.

They selected the top line vette, so they really should have used the most powerful production 911 available.

 

The test should have been done in a 911 with PCCB (the Corvette had carbon brakes) and with PDK.

 

I'd buy one of them thar Corvettes just for fun (good value). If it did NOT look like a GTR Gundam cartoon that is. Too bad.

If they could put a sophisticated non-boy-racer body on that thing and upscale the interior. Get rid of it's muscle car heritage looks etc.

The front view is very bad, unfortunate IMO.

 

Don't think so.

The 1950's technology OHV Chevy V8 would have won in every category against the GT1 powered turbo.

 

Yikes.. the Porsche broke and can't finish the test.. I think it is the first time that I have ever seen it..

 

Man, the Porsche is so beautiful compared to the other cars. Thanks for posting the comparo pics. Boring, I think not, especially compared to the video game styling of other cars. That said you can't deny the impressive performance of the vette or the dissapointing failure of the Turbo. Very unPorsche like.

 

Agreed w/ you and other similiar comparisons. However, one might assume that Motor Trend basing this on cost /bang for the buck, then the Vette @ $111k compared to the standard Turbo @ $135k would be more than fair. The most powerful Porsche Carrera is the GT2 RS @ a 1/4 mil. I am not in favor of bang for buck and if you want to compare the best a manufactorer can offer, then it should be the GT2 RS vs. the ZR!

 

You mean the top speed *run* (singular)

Nah, that would be a GT2 I guess which is not a fair comparison given its price. The Turbo is $150k vs the ZR1 $120k , so that seems pretty reasonable to me.

They mention in the article that PDK would have been faster, but the Vette is manual so it's perfectly fair to compare manual to manual.

I'm very curious if a GT3 RS would be faster or slower around that track than the Turbo.

 

i kinda feel the porsche should have had the same options (PCCB) to make them more comparable..

i know they wanted manual against manual. but cant help to think if that was a PDK turbo... wow.

 

One of the better tests done by American car magazines. However, they should have paired it with either GT3 RS, or GT2? Although, both are much more expensive than Vette... so not sure how fair that is...

 

ZR1 comes standard with ceramic brakes so the cars were more than fairly matched with options and price point. Both great cars and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally I'd love to have both and have owned two versions of the Z06 and both were very reliable and fun to drive. Back into a Porsche again but if you haven't owned and driven both on the street and the track I have to take comment's with a grain of salt. What a great time to have these kind of cars to experience.