The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Is Faster Than A Ford GT At VIR

The Corvette ZR1 is now the fastest production car to have ever lapped Virginia International Raceway

01 Feb 2018

The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Is Faster Than A Ford GT At VIR

Just over a week ago, the Ford GT ‘accidentally’ broke the production car lap record at Virginia International Raceway. Ford wasn’t there on some ‘look at me’ PR stunt, it was there to investigate some problems suffered by a few pre-production GTs, and in the process clocked a 2min 38.62sec effort.

The GT’s time at the top hasn’t lasted long however, and it’s all the fault of Chevrolet. The GM brand has well and truly rained on Ford’s short-lived parade, by announcing that its new Corvette ZR1 went round in two minutes and 37.25 seconds earlier on in January. Ah.

The time was set during “routine validation testing,” Chevrolet said. The ZR1 in question had the $2995 ZTK package fitted, which gives the car super-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, carbonfibre aero addendum and a different suspension setup.

The 745bhp, and 715lb ft monster had bucket seats with five-point harnesses plus a harness bar fitted, but was otherwise unmodified for the run. Oh, and you can watch that run in full. If you can, grab a pair of headphones before pressing play, so you can hear the full majesty of that 6.2-litre LT5 V8.

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

Lol, No surprise. The zr1 should beat that ford at everything

Indeed

Oh my…

I’m sure the Corvette could beat the GT. But the article made it sound like Ford didn’t try their hardest? Maybe they did I don’t know..

Supposedly it was just a regular test lap. Knowing GM, they probably set camp at that track for a whole month to get that lap time like they always do.

I prefer ford with some vehicles, but i can’t say i’m surprised, that GT doesn’t look like their best effort. They should have kept it a V8 and boosted it or something.

True, the chassis is very good but the engine is underpowered.

I mean it was made to win the 24 hours of le mans on the 50th anniversary of the gt40’s win at le mans and it did so on it’s first attempt beating the likes of ferrari,porsche,aston martin and chevy
and their corvette . Ford also managed to get a dominant 1-2 in their class at the recently concluded 2018 rolex 24 their 2
gt’s lapping the field easily . The gt is pretty much the fastest GTE/GTLM car ever made . I’d say it’s very successful . As for the road car it’s faster around a track than the 918,458 speciale and than the lighter more powerful 675LT I’d call that a
success in my book

Well the gt is a twin turbo V6 because they wanted to complete at lemans. It turns out that there V8 was slower than the V6

Somehow I fail to believe that the speed in MPH is accurate… Maybe KMH?

If it was a 2 liter diesel e-class, those corner speeds would be realistic in km/h lol

Looks better, sounds better, is faster and waaaay cheaper. No brainer really.

Looks, sounds, and cost are literally irrelevant to lap times. We don’t even know its top speed.

I was about to comment “damn, this really sounds like a Corvette”, and only then I realised the article was devoted to the Corvette in the first place.