Corvette ZR1 Fights Itself in Drag Race Against Ford GT
Tons of tire spin, downforce from the wing, may have held back the ZR1 from beating Ford GT on the half-mile.
The ZR1 is the Corvette of Corvettes. It has a big, supercharged V8 making tons of horsepower and torque. It’s rear-drive. The eight-speed automatic shifts quick enough to send it down many a quarter-mile. And it’s worth every penny at over $140,000.
Thus, it should be able to demolish nearly all challengers, right? Of course, except for this one instance captured by Brooks Weisblat (a.k.a., YouTube channel DragTimes) in his own 2018 Ford GT during a pair of half-mile drags in Immokalee, Florida.
The tale of the tape says that Weisblat’s GT has over 100 fewer horses and pounds of torque coming from its twin-turbo V6 than the ZR1’s 755-horse, 715 lb-ft of torque supercharged 6.2-liter LT5 V8. It also has two fewer cylinders, one less gear in its transmission, but, it weighs just 3,400 pounds.
The ZR1 does have 200 more pounds on the GT, but that shouldn’t matter with all of that power on tap, right?
Weisblat’s GT also happens to have a special race suspension mode that drops the street-legal race car two inches, and keeps the wing down at speed. The ZR1, on the other hand, has a bolt-on wing that can be removed with the right tool. Still, big power over a twin-turbo V6, yes?
ALSO SEE: 2019 Corvette ZR1 Night Drive Cinematic
On the first run, the GT leaves the ZR1 far, far behind, rolling across the line at 158.50 mph. The ‘Vette wasn’t going super-slow, though, crossing the lights at 154.32 mph. Weisblat learns from the owner, Zach Weintraub of NUR Performance, that the wheels were spinning off the line, thus giving the GT the easy win.
The next run goes better for the ZR1, but it still can’t overcome the magic tricks the GT has on tap. What happened?
“Off the line, the ZR1 just got hammered,” said Weisblat. “It couldn’t get the launch control set or spun too much, and the GT, with its mid-engine configuration, was spinning, too; zero to 60 was coming in 3.6 [seconds]. Not great. Nevertheless, a lot better than the Corvette.”
Weisblat adds that after the two dig races, he went after the ZR1 in a 40-mph roll race, which went better still for the ‘Vette, only for the GT to triumph again. He then suggested removing the ZR1’s rear wing to see if anything would improve the car’s fortunes, but Weintraub didn’t have the tool to take it off.
Of course, the ZR1 has two things the GT will never have: a lower price of admission (the GT is over $500,000), and the fact that no one has to wait to be chosen by Chevy (if at all) to buy the best Corvette around.
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