Corvette Forum Members Go Undercover at Motor Trend Corvette Test
2018 ‘Best Driver’s Car’ showdown includes the mighty Corvette ZR1. Two of our own are there to check it out.
Some guys, as they say, have all the luck. And luck is an understatement when you’re talking about Corvette Forum member skank. Why, you ask? Well, because he got the chance to attend Motor Trend‘s annual “Best Driver’s Car” shootout at Laguna Seca. And as you might’ve already guessed, this year’s showdown includes one very special Corvette – a ZTK-equipped ZR1. And the OP was kind enough to share his experience with us here in this thread.
“I will be going up to Laguna Seca today to attend the start of the Motor Trend’s Best Driver’s Car test. I contacted Jonny Lieberman a few months ago to ask what cars are in it this year. So far they have the Blade Silver Corvette ZR1 with the ZTK package, Guards Red Porsche GT2 RS, Arancio Anthaeus Orange Lamborghini Huracan Performante, Orange McLaren 720S Performance, and a Lime Essence Green New Aston Martin Vantage. So far I haven’t seen a Ferrari Pista! I’ll report back.”
Even better, Corvette_Nut was also in attendance and took some pretty amazing photos.
Even though the duo must remain tight-lipped regarding the results, we do get some updates from the OP.
“I just got back from Laguna Seca and here’s the latest. They are doing hot laps as we speak right now with the slower cars. They are going to do hot laps with the ZR1, GT2 RS, 720S, Performante, and possibly the Vantage first thing tomorrow morning. I will go up there again to finally see the top cars do their thing. All five of these fastest cars have factory support people here to make sure their cars are dialed in and ready for Randy Pobst.
Corvette has three people here. One ZR1 development engineer, one mechanic, and one marketing guy. All three are very top people. I talked to them for a hour and got some very interesting feedback. There are two ZR1s here. A low wing and a high wing. They are running the high wing for the fast lap. It has the optional CAI on it. I also got to talk to the Englishmen from McLaren. First time for them at Laguna. I’ll report back later.”
And those conversations resulted in a couple of interesting tidbits.
“One of the questions I asked the development engineer was what was asked on the ‘Ask Tadge’ question this past week about the tunnel aluminum overlay with vents. Seems to be just a clearance issue to the road surface more than anything and not a heating issue. There will be a short single sentence answer to that one.
I also covertly asked the marketing guy about future Corvette reveals. He was tight-lipped and just smiled. I tried to extol the virtues of revealing the special future Corvettes (mid-engined C8) to the Pebble Beach Concour D’Elegance and a few other locations during Monterey Classic Car Week since there’s more mid-engine sports cars displayed there than any other venue on the planet.”
So far, that’s all the juicy info we’ve received. But you’ll definitely want to stay tuned for more by heading over here!
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