How fast is the the Corvette Z06?

By now you've read all there is to read about the C7 Z06 and Z07,  you know that in pure cost/performance, it blows everything else out of the water.  

But how fast is it?   Well, this clip Corvette published showing a lap of Road Atlanta puts it in a context understandable to most of us tracktards.

The lap shown is 1:29.8 but at the beginning of the clip, you see the lap before was a 29.6.   Tommy Milner's talking his way through the lap, presumably he might do even better with full concentration.

NASA held it's eastern national championships at Road Atlanta ealier this year and 1:29.8 would have been good for first place in TT2 by 1 second flat.   TT2 is unlimited mods with an 8 to 1 weight to power ratio.   Those are some wicked fast time attack cars on slicks.

Need a BMW centric comparison?  Epic's Randy Mueller driver of one of the fastest BMW club racers in the country won the GT4 championship and qualified with a 1:31.9.

The Z06 with (presumably) streetable tires, sat-nav, air conditioning, built in data / video recorder and possibly even heated seats lapped sub 1:30 with a dude talking.

OK the "dude" is one of Corvette's pro drivers but still, there's just no denying the Z06 is one sick, sick car.

Corvette's OEM video data recorder!

Hats off to GM for taking the whole dash cam / data recorder trend to its logical conclusion.  With the C7 Z06 about to be unveiled,  future warranty claim discussions could potentially be quite interesting....

We hope GM made this system software updatable because, frankly they displays seem very laggy and possibly with a very low sampling rate compared to what is out there on the market, from the likes of AIM, Traqmate or even for the iPhone from Harry's Laptimer.    You can see the lag better on the video clip on the Road&Track web site HERE

Racetracks, Cars and Deer do not mix

Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia is notorious for wildlife intrusions.   A varmint chicane can appear at any time and any place but the favorite spot seems to be just before Turn 1, coincidentally the fastest spot on the track.

That annual Race, Drift, Beer and Boobs festival that is Hyperfest took place over the week end and while most had a great time, the driver of this C5 Z06 was probably not in the mood for venison.

Want to see a video of what hitting Bambi well north of 100 mph looks like?

Postcard from Alabama

© Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia

Overall race winner Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP by Halston Pitman.

Stig drives the Corvette ZR1

And that's all the information I have, you can try asking Traqmate who posted the clip....

King of the ring...or not?

So this is kind of amusing: Corvette posted a 7min.19 sec. lap of the Nürburgring with the 2012 ZR-1, an awesome lap time from a special car. Porsche had previously claimed 7 min. 18 sec. for their GT2RS. Both cars are on semi slick Michelin Pilot Cups but Dale for one is declaring the Vette king. Why?
Porsche never released a video on YouTube and as we all know if it ain't on YouTube it never happened!
What do you think? Check out the video over on Dale's BTG

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Well, that blew up real good!...

A fast Corvette has a slight ...malfunction at Road Atlanta in this video by Ken Brewer...




homet

Rain Line

Keep it in mind before your next VLN race. If you fail, you risk getting mocked by intoxicated German fans like that gummy bear sponsored 911 after the jump!

From VLN Race 9, October 16, 2010




Crash HARIBO Porsche 911 GT3 R 997
Drivers - Lance David Arnold, Richard Westbrook, Christian Menzel


Dörr BMW Z4 GT3
Drivers - Rudi Adams, Stefan Aust, Peter Posavac


Corvette
rivers- Sascha Bert, Duncan Huisman


Here is one from further back in the pack, onboard a Team MK BMW Z4 Coupe.
Driver Daniel Zils

(thanks to VLN-fanclub.de)

Montoya and the ZR-1: Director's Cut

Here is a different take on Juan Pablo Montoya's media day at the GM proving grounds, the so called "Lutz 'ring".
The Corvette ZR-1 gets the hooligan stamp of approval from JPM who himself seems to find it a challenge keeping it going in one direction! What a sound.


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Spec e30 taught him well!

You're on board with Mike Skeen at Mid Ohio.

You remember Mike: Spec e30, that TV show whose name escapes me now and then onto Trans Am and Grand Am. Mid Ohio was his debut in the SCCA's World Challenge GT series (yes it still exists) and after qualifying the Carlisle Companies/Cragar Corvette a few thousands off pole, he went on to win the Saturday race and set the fastest race lap (1:27.296 ).

Cheers from Axis, Mike!
See more video after the jump

Corvette pounds itself out of Sebring!

Can't blame Porsche this time...


Amazing...



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Corvette responds to Porsche : You're gonna get pounded

The GM team makes their feelings about Porsche and last season's final lap clear in this video. Bumpers reinforced on the Corvette, looking for Lizard tails to go thug on...





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12 Hour of Sebring Preview: Corvette vs Porsche

I admit, I put the two together mostly as a convenient excuse to post that last lap from Laguna Seca last season. Considering history, it's not unlikely we might see something similar at Sebring...again.

Corvettes will be driven by Magnussen-O'Connel-Garcia and Beretta- Gavin-Collard. The main Porsche team, Flying Lizards will be in the hands of Darren Law, Richard Leitz, Seth Neiman and Joerg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and Marc Lieb.

Don't forget to send us your questions for the BMW team!




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Yes, Racers DO Notice Naked Ladies...

...in the middle of a race. Don't believe me? ? Listen to Oliver Gavin describe a lap at Sebring, pay attention when he gets to turn 10. Now that's what I call a reference point! Video courtesy of Jake at badboyvettes.com




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FIA GT1: Manufacturer's World Championship

Seems hard to believe now but there was a time when sports car racing was more advanced and more popular than Formula 1. In the late 60s, early 70s, at the time of prototype racing, it was the epic war between Ferrari, Porsche and Ford that kept people riveted. Inevitably with the growing importance of television, endurance racing did not fit the bill and faded away.

Back to the future, for 2010 the FIA has recognized the GT1 series as a "world" championship and the format has been changed from endurance to sprints, albeit with a mandatory driver and tire change. Ford, Maserati, Nissan, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and GM will each field four cars in GT1. GT2 and GT3 will remain as "local" European championships with BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Ascari, Audi continuing to slug it out there.

Here is the video from the official launch in Paris, I recognize Tiff Needell there, but was that Eric Clapton at the beginning?

At the end of the clip you can see the cars in action, testing at Paul Ricard.

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Red Mist

We had a fairly heated email exchange among us about the Bergmeister/Magnuson incident on the last lap of the ALMS Laguna Seca race. We thought we'd put it out there for comment without adding our own for now. Let's take it to the comment section!



More views after the jump and the, in my opinion, crucial precedent.

Bavarian Jake makes the news...

You might remember this inexplicably Jake badged BMW M3 featured on our pages... Apparently Mr. Epic Baller made the news when his first ever race in a Corvette ZR1 ended abruptly about 10 minutes in and is now splashed on the pages of Jalopnik...

Our own The Dough, T-Neck and Eddie were at Watkins Glen and sent us these observations:

"Remember the winner who built up his e90 coupe and turned it into a racecar? Well, he owned a ZR1 as well and decided to turn that into a race car too. After a few sessions in the instructor group over the weekend (where he ran around passing with no point), he put it into the wall ... (T Neck called it). What a shame. "

No doubt Mr. Sobolewski will return with a matte black, Jake decal-led, Ferrari Enzo at the very least!

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ALMS: BMW qualifies 1-2 at Road America.

In a year that has been short of good news for BMW, the team must be overjoyed with their first and second place qualifying positions at Road America today. Cherry on top, both RLR M3's were under the Road America GT2 lap record set by Ferrari in the past.

Joey Hand and Dirk Muller will be starting ahead of the Long/Bergmeister championship leading Porsche GT3 RSR, which this week end received 25 kg of extra ballast from IMSA and the two Corvette ZR1. Dunlop must have come up with some very special rubber for this week end.

In case you missed qualifying streaming live on SpeedTV.com, take a look at the clip from the webcast. No wonder people hate racing on broadcast tv, usually you can't see anything, the commentary is bland and boring, whenever something is about to happen, there is a commercial. Webcast like this are, in my opinion, the future of motorsport broadcasting. Not only would web delivery allow for any commercials to be placed without interrupting the race but a multi channel transmission similar to what is already available through various pay services in Europe for Formula 1 could be easily implemented.

I wonder how many of us would be willing to pay for such a service if it was well thought out and reliable? Sign me up. Until then, we'll have to watch the race on SpeedTV Sunday at 3PM et.

Provisional Grid for the "Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase featuring the American Le Mans Series (rolls right off your toungue, doesn't it?

ALMS at Road America, Live Qualifying Stream.

Starting at 4:05 PM ET you can watch live ALMS qualifying from Road America by following THIS LINK. <--- ON NOW

Free Practice saw the top seven cars in the less televised but more interesting GT2 class, all within 4/10th of a second, with the BMW M3 of Milner/Muller leading the pack from the Porsche RSR of Wolf Henzler and Jaime Melo's Ferrari. That's pretty close for a 4 mile long track so qualifying should be interesting to follow. Results from Free Practice 1 HERE

Live timing will be available HERE
and live radio by RadioLeMans, HERE



(photo AC/Axis of Oversteer)



And here is the rest of it.

What the....???

Yes it's a Corvette...but this one really cracked me up...





Bayville NY, Tuesday Night Car show.







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