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When pictures of the Top Gear team coming stateside hit the internet this summer , we were pretty sure we were in for something epic. Well, the episode just aired today, and yes, it was. From Hammond having to buy a Challenger (silly Chrysler PR team!), the boys not being allowed to be "entertaining," some kid wearing a Western Michigan t-shirt and Clarkson mistaking the ZR1 for a "muscle car" — it's a hoot. In the process, they came to the same conclusions we did in our reviews of the three newest 'merican muscular offerings on the market. Want to see the segment yourself? Hit the jump, friends. galleryPost('tguksaltflats', 12, 'Top Gear Hits The Salt Flats'); Clarkson on all three: "We came wondering if America had finally made a car that might actually work in the civilized world. The answer is no, they haven't. As you can see from our smiles, they've made three." Car: 2009 Corvette ZR1 Driver: Jeremy Clarkson Review...
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With GM hotshoe Jan Magnussen in the cockpit of Zee Really fast One , the General's hypercar trimmed a staggering four seconds off its previous record-breaking lap time, bringing in a 7:22.4 lap around the 13-mile circuit. Although blisteringly quick, the ZR1's new time still falls short of the Viper ACR's best time of 7:22.1. We don't expect this glorious arms race to end anytime soon — not that we'd ever want these warriors of the raceway to quit duking it out. Guess it depends on whomever ends up owning the Viper brand . galleryPost('ZR1reviewtrack', 6, 'Corvette ZR1 On the Track'); [ MotorGears ]
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We knew the 2009 Corvette ZR1 was fast, but until now, we didn’t know how fast it could be in the hands of anyone other than GM’s official test drivers. It appears Popular Mechanics has strapped its own timing gear to the ZR1 and hit the go pedal. We’re kind of relieved they pulled times slightly slower than those officially quoted by GM. Despite the ridiculously accessible nature of its performance, the ZR1 is a real driver’s car that actually requires some driving. It’s nice to see that variations in driver skill, surface and other variables actually have an effect on it, rather than relying on electronics capable of completely removing humans from the equation. Hit the jump for the results. galleryPost('pmzr1numbers', 6, 'Popular Mechanics ZR1 Performance Figures'); [via Popular Mechanics ]
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DigitalCorvettes is reporting a rumor that production on the Corvette ZR1 , Chevy's new super car we just drove a month or so ago, has been halted at the Bowling Green Corvette plant. We've received no official comment from GM, and we've got no evidence to substantiate this rumor other than what the Corvette-lovers over at DigitalCorvettes are reporting. To be fair, we can't believe this is true, and we've put in a call to Chevy PR to confirm or deny the rumor. We expect to hear back from them by the morning at the latest. Full rumor report below the jump: FACTS 1. ZR1 production has been halted at Bowling Green despite orders to fill. 2. There is nothing wrong with the ZR1 itself. No production line issues that warrant it being stopped. 3. There is no official word from GM yet. Key word, 'official'. But, there is 'word' and we are hearing it. INFO COMING IN 1. The ZR1 model itself may be on the chopping block, or has already been cancelled. 2. GM is...
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UPDATE: Rumor busted! Chevy PR tells us ZR1 production has NOT been canceled. DigitalCorvettes was, as we'd claimed most likely the case, wrong on this story. DigitalCorvettes is reporting a rumor that production on the Corvette ZR1 , Chevy's new super car we just drove a month or so ago, has been halted at the Bowling Green Corvette plant. We knew the Corvette plant was on shutdown this week, but we fully expected the plant to resume production next week. Digital Corvettes is now reporting that's now not the case . We've got no evidence to substantiate this rumor other than what the Corvette-lovers over at DigitalCorvettes are reporting. To be fair, we can't believe this is true, and we've put in a call to Chevy PR to confirm or deny the rumor. We expect to hear back from them by the morning at the latest. Full rumor report below the jump: FACTS 1. ZR1 production has been halted at Bowling Green despite orders to fill. 2. There is nothing wrong with the ZR1 itself...
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GM has released UK pricing for the Corvette ZR1 at £109,000 — roughly equivalent to $200,167, or about OMG,WTFBBQ,NFW,ROFLCOPTER!!1! in internet dollars. If you aren't a very good forex trader, or one of the eleven remaining hedge fund managers with a job, there's no reason for you to read this if you live in Britain, unless of course you're one of those creepy self-flagellating monks from the Da Vinci Code. In any of the above cases, it sucks to be you, and us 'mericans will happily keep our 638 HP mega-Vette all to ourselves. [ Carscoop ]
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Not counting the cars brought over to test on the Nurburgring, this is the first Corvette ZR1 in Europe. So what would you do with a 205 MPH car and a stretch of Autobahn with no speed limit? Exactly. Sure, they only hit about 192 MPH, but for an impromptu run with a fair amount of traffic on the road, that's stupid fast. Video below the jump. [via autoblog.nl ]
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Is the 2009 Corvette ZR1 really the end of an era? Popular Mechanics doesn't think so. They're already speculating on what might be in store for the 2012 Corvette "C7" , and they see a future that includes higher performance and better fuel economy. Among the many questions are whether the next Corvette offer a twin-turbo direct-injection V6? The answer? Maybe. How about a range of smaller V8 engines? Perhaps. Then there's the age-old question: Will the engine will be moved to the middle, behind the driver? No. Here's what PopMech has to say about an engine moving amidship: "One thing we know with certainty is that the mid-engine Corvette—the one that pops up as a production possibility every decade or so—remains just a wistful idea. "The mid-engine Corvette is simply too expensive," says auto analyst Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics. "It would need costly new tooling and offers little weight savings because it requires an extra, metal-intensive firewall...
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The 2009 Corvette ZR1 is the best car ever made. It redefines what performance cars are capable of, not by its numbers (the 0-to-60 in 3.3 seconds and a 205 MPH top speed figures are no longer noteworthy north of $100,000), but by how it makes those numbers so accessible. Simply put, the ZR1's most remarkable achievement is how easy and unintimidating the chassis makes exploiting the car's 638 HP. The only problem is I'm not good enough a driver to fully do so. galleryPost('zr1reviewroad', 9, '2009 Corvette ZR1'); newVideoPlayer("/ZR1review.flv", 494, 290,""); galleryPost('ZR1reviewtrack', 9, ''); Halfway through a day's lapping, halfway around the Lutz Ring and full throttle at the top of third gear is bringing me and a red ZR1 into a 180-degree corner way too fast, while the blind crest just before it — taken at maximum power and maximum cornering — has us way off line too. In any other supercar, especially one as hairy...
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We thought the Corvette Z06 cop car the Royal Oak PD is sporting for the Woodward Dream Cruise was impressive. But now they're rolling out the bigger guns with a Corvette ZR1 police car. The cop driving this 'Vette is exactly 26.3% more bad-ass than the Johnny Law in that weak-sauce Z06. Now you hooligans have to roll out some real hardware to even think about keeping up with the boys in blue, much less escaping in the blistering 3 MPH speeds seen at the Dream Cruise. And yes, we were getting the shakes: There were no fresh ZR1 stories for like, 37 seconds. galleryPost('zr1cops', 6, 'ZR1 Dons Another Kind Of Blue Badge');
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We were cruising Woodward a couple minutes ago, scoping things out for spontaneous conflagrations of coolness, and we got way more than we bargained for. Parked outside the Dairy Deluxe, an ice cream parlor staple along the Ave, was a pair of Corvette ZR1 s. So of course, like moths to a flame we descended for picture taking. Only thing is, the ZR1's kept coming, in all, five of the super-Vettes had been driven in by various members of the GM engineering squad, and that wasn't all we saw, we discovered the unofficial mascot of the ZR1 — he's blue, he has horns, and his name is Elwood. Get it? Jake and Elwood, like the Blues Brothers. Jump for more. galleryPost('elwood', 3, 'Jake Begets Elwood'); galleryPost('zr1icecream', 3, 'ZR1 Posse Takes An Ice Cream Break'); The "Jake" logo originally born of the Corvette C5R racing program has been officially nixed from all ZR1 activities. That doesn't mean the GM Design Studio couldn't...
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After months of sharing details and spreading rumors about the 2009 Corvette ZR1 we've finally been given the keys to one of the super Vettes for a day of hoonage at GM's Milford Proving Grounds. Our fearless Road Test Editor Wes Siler is out there right now tackling the beast ( It was a condition of employment — Ed. ) Obviously, he'll drive the crap out of it. But what else would you like to see? Should he give Suze Orman the ride of her life? Should he try and reenact the Jim Mero 'Ring run or the also impressive Jim Mero Lutz-Ring-run ? Burnout? Donut? Pizza delivery? Live vicariously through us for a day for less than the $185,000 cost. Be honest, be smart and be creative. Most importantly — be back here Sunday at Midnight to find out what he did. But for the moment tell us what do you want to see Wes do with the 2009 Corvette ZR1?
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newVideoPlayer("/2009_CorvetteZR1_gawker.flv", 506, 423,""); We'd heard the long-lead media "drive" for the 2009 Corvette ZR1 was yesterday and it looks like the first in-car driving footage is now out on the web, less than 24 hours later. We obviously weren't there, primarily since we'd heard it was all magazines there. Frankly, we just don't need as much time as the glossies to put out a good story. We don't have character blocks to set in the printing press, no ink to squirt out and no parchment to unroll. So we guess it makes sense that we wouldn't need an invite to an event this far out. Of course, we also expected the invited media reps from the big n' bad buff books would, you know, drive the cars themselves. Instead, we're treated to GM test engineer Jim Mero — we think — driving one of the invited journalists around the road course at the General's Milford Proving Grounds. We know Mero's a pretty...
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A quick glance at the very graphical press release from Ashley Van Dyke, the motor-loving mistress of the Bullrun TV show, and you'll think perhaps she'll be driving the new $413,000 ( $105,000 minus dealer markup ) and 638 HP 2009 Chevy ZR1 in this week's Bullrun road rally. It's hard not to. It's right there at the top of the press release. For a moment there we thought maybe Chevy was throwing down the ZR1 for some road rallying hype — like the Z06 before it for the Frankl twins . A quick e-mail to Chevy was enough to tell us they certainly didn't give her one and according to our friends at GTSpirit , we've found out what she is driving. They tell us the lovely lady's driving a Corvette Z06 . While the Z06 is a blast to drive, we don't think it's quite the horsepowergasm of the upcoming ZR1. Mostly because it's not so powerful we're simultaneously pissing our pants and giggling like a schoolgirl at the thought of getting behind the...
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The 2009 Corvette ZR1 , GM's new mega-powered super car, will reportedly only be offered to the top 338 Chevy dealers nationwide. That effectively shuts out the other 3,594 from the chance of offering one to enthusiastic fans of the bowtied brand. We guess that explains the four-times-the-price gouging we're hearing about from potential customers. That's right, although the 638 HP 2009 ZR1 gets a price tag of $103,300 ($105,000 with the $1,700 gas guzzler tax) and Corvette engineers asking dealers to respect the MSRP, we've received at least one report from a reader of being told that despite his down payment 2 1/2 years ago, he'd have to put up between two and four times the MSRP to get one in his garage. If that number is accurate, the street price will be somewhere between $206,600 and $413,200 for Zee Really fast One. Full report from our tipster looking for recourse from someone — anyone — after the jump. "I put a deposit down for the 2009 ZR1 about...
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