Wall Street Journal 11/28/18
12-01-2018, 04:32 AM
#2
Le Mans Master
You have to pay for the wsj online subscription to read the article.
12-01-2018, 08:20 AM
#3
Drifting
Thread Starter
12-01-2018, 10:05 AM
#4
Le Mans Master
I should probably pony up and buy the online subscription. But I like reading the old school paper version and didn’t see the article there.
12-01-2018, 10:22 AM
#5
Drifting
Thread Starter
12-04-2018, 11:40 PM
#6
Advanced
A surprisingly positive editorial review of the ZR-1 by Dan Neil. He's usually pretty cheeky, particularly on USA cars, but I think the ZR1 made him wet his pants 
I liked the line
"This thing doesn't have an accelerator. It has a detonator."
I only have a stock '16 Z-06 and generally describe the acceleration as "violent", but I think Neil nails it with his description.
I liked the line"This thing doesn't have an accelerator. It has a detonator."
I only have a stock '16 Z-06 and generally describe the acceleration as "violent", but I think Neil nails it with his description.
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propete (12-10-2018)
12-10-2018, 01:28 PM
#7
Drifting
Soooooooo for those of us who have never once read the WSJ (aside from that 3 month free subscription you got during econ class in college where you glanced at the cover page once or twice), are you going to share the article?
12-15-2018, 12:11 AM
#8
Advanced
MY BROTHER-IN-LAW recently acquired his dad’s well-preserved 1982 Chevrolet Corvette, which he drove to Thanksgiving dinner. It being a holiday, we even let him park it in the driveway. The ’82 Corvette—the last of the third-generation (C3) design—is perhaps the least-loved model-year of all, due to the fact that these wildly fast-looking cars were so shockingly slow and underpowered. Trapped inside that wasp-waisted fiberglass bod is a 5.7-liter V8 wheezing out a mere 200 hp due to its crude emissions-control plumbing. The 1982 Corvette is that zoologically unlikely thing, a sexy slug.
As luck would have it, I too drove a red Corvette to the family dinner: a 2019 ZR1, the quickest, most dynamic, most powerful Corvette ever offered by the factory, fully loaded and bristling with carbon-fiber cutlery—notably its huge rear wing, part of the ZTK Track Performance Package that says, around town, “Hey, look at me, I’m a fun-loving dork with money.”
A VALEDICTORY ADDRESS 2019 is the last model-year for Corvette’s legacy front-engine design. The next design generation (C8), appearing spring 2019 as a 2020 model, will have its engine mounted amidships. PHOTO: CHEVROLETThe ZR1 has no trouble breathing, thanks to the immense supercharger sticking through the hood. Nor drinking, either: the 6.2-liter pushrod V8 is fitted with dual fuel systems to pump more gas into the cylinders in extremis. And when this pile of high-priced aluminum reaches its full cyclonic pitch, at 6,400 rpm, it produces 755 hp and shows up on weather radar. Seek shelter. Stay inside.
The ZR1 isn’t fronting. It’s quick. For one thing, the gearing is such that you don’t have to upshift to second gear before it reaches 60 mph (at around 6,100 rpm). You just pop the clutch in first gear, one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, while the big V8 screams in your face like a gorilla.
‘This Corvette doesn’t have an accelerator. It has a detonator.’
I wasn’t in a position to replicate the factory’s acceleration pulls—0-60 mph in 2.85 seconds and 10.6 in the ¼-mile—due to the fact that the well-scrubbed Michelin track tires our tester was wearing magically turn to stone at about 50 degrees. Most of the time, these tires—kit with the track package ($2,995), along with rear wing and front carbon-fiber splitter—made driving the ZR1 like wrestling a giant bipolar eel: powerful, slippery, hard to get a grip. But when those tires came to temp, oh lord. This thing doesn’t have an accelerator. It has a detonator.
Chevrolet calls the ZR1 the most powerful, quickest and most dynamic Corvette ever produced by the factory, with a 0-60 mph acceleration of 2.85 seconds and a ¼-mile elapsed time of 10.6 seconds. A 2019 ZR1 set the production-car lap record at Road Atlanta of 1 minute, 26.45 seconds. PHOTO: CHEVROLETLooking for a Corvette to tuck away in your hot-rod time capsule? Me neither. For one thing, I couldn’t take the psychic heat of being a middle-aged man bopping around town in a red Corvette. These cars should be sold with a restraining order.
Even now, in the Late Baroque Period of Corvettes, these cars have their issues. Why must it reek of glue? Oh right, it’s made of plastic. The ZR1 is a real head-tosser at low speeds, even with the fancy magnetic suspension on soft, in Tour mode. The honking supercharger bulges into the driver’s forward view, blocking the lower third of the windshield. The performance wheels and tires—19-inch up front and 20-inch in rear, wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2—look curiously undersized in the wheel wells. In all seriousness, skip the track pack.
The source of the Corvette’s power is its supercharged 6.2-liter pushrod V8, the LT5 engine fitted with a new, more enormous supercharger (2.65 liter) bursting through the hood. The LT5 produces a maximum 755 hp at 6,400 rpm and 715 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm. PHOTO: CHEVROLETAnd yet for collectors, this might be the One, the Ultimate, the Maximum. The next Corvette design (C8), due in spring, will be radically different automotive proposition. It will be a mid-engine vehicle, like a Ferrari or Lamborghini, not a front-engine car like, um, a Corvette.
There are good reasons for the change, some dynamical, some demographic. The remarkable thing about the legacy Corvette is how well it kept up with highly specific mid-engine sports cars. But for Corvette to remain among the super-sports car elite, to be considered by millennials in their prime spending years, the design had to go mid-engine. Our ZR1 lands as a joyously egregious finale to the era of front-engine Corvettes.
Behind the big pushrod V8 is a superb seven-speed manual gearbox, with a heavy clutch and a slick, notchless gate (an eight-speed automatic, pictured here, is also available). The C7 generation will be the last Corvette fitted with a standard, or manual transmission. The C8 generation will reportedly use a dual-clutch semi automated rear transaxle. PHOTO: CHEVROLETWhat will be lost? First, these will be the last Corvettes with a manual transmission—a trick seven-speeder with a rev-matching function for downshifting. The C8 will use a dual-clutch paddle-shift transmission, which will be quicker around the Nürburgring than any manually stirred alternative. But purists and collectors will covet the charismatic anachronism of the three-pedal manual. Burnouts are easier too.
Second, the ’Vette will lose its versatility as a multiday grand touring sports car, owing to its hatchback design. There aren’t many, or any, super-sports that can carry two suitcases and two sets of golf clubs.
The ZR1 test car ($139,660) was equipped with the ZTK Track Performance Package ($2,995), including the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 track tires, the pitch-adjustable High Wing, and the elaborate carbon-fiber chin splitter with end plates. PHOTO: CHEVROLETLastly, and saddest of all, the Corvette will lose its hood of goodly length, the conspicuous priapism that has defined the mission for 65 years. The next Corvette might be faster, quicker, safer, better, but it will never swing the same attitude.
May I suggest the 1982 vintage?
PHOTO: CHEVROLETBase Price: $118,900
Price as Tested: $139,660
Powertrain: Supercharged 6.2-liter V8 with dual-fuel system; 7-speed manual transmission with auto rev-matching; rear transaxle with limited-slip differential
Power/Torque: 755 at 6,400 rpm/715 lb-ft at 3,600 rpm
Length/Width/Height/Wheelbase: 179.8/77.4/48.5/106.7 inches
Curb Weight: 3,560 pounds
0-60 mph: 2.85 seconds
Fuel Economy: 13/19/15 mpg, city/highway/combined
Cargo Capacity: 15 cubic feet
Write to Dan Neil at Dan.Neil@wsj.com
As luck would have it, I too drove a red Corvette to the family dinner: a 2019 ZR1, the quickest, most dynamic, most powerful Corvette ever offered by the factory, fully loaded and bristling with carbon-fiber cutlery—notably its huge rear wing, part of the ZTK Track Performance Package that says, around town, “Hey, look at me, I’m a fun-loving dork with money.”
A VALEDICTORY ADDRESS 2019 is the last model-year for Corvette’s legacy front-engine design. The next design generation (C8), appearing spring 2019 as a 2020 model, will have its engine mounted amidships. PHOTO: CHEVROLETThe ZR1 has no trouble breathing, thanks to the immense supercharger sticking through the hood. Nor drinking, either: the 6.2-liter pushrod V8 is fitted with dual fuel systems to pump more gas into the cylinders in extremis. And when this pile of high-priced aluminum reaches its full cyclonic pitch, at 6,400 rpm, it produces 755 hp and shows up on weather radar. Seek shelter. Stay inside.
The ZR1 isn’t fronting. It’s quick. For one thing, the gearing is such that you don’t have to upshift to second gear before it reaches 60 mph (at around 6,100 rpm). You just pop the clutch in first gear, one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, while the big V8 screams in your face like a gorilla.
‘This Corvette doesn’t have an accelerator. It has a detonator.’
I wasn’t in a position to replicate the factory’s acceleration pulls—0-60 mph in 2.85 seconds and 10.6 in the ¼-mile—due to the fact that the well-scrubbed Michelin track tires our tester was wearing magically turn to stone at about 50 degrees. Most of the time, these tires—kit with the track package ($2,995), along with rear wing and front carbon-fiber splitter—made driving the ZR1 like wrestling a giant bipolar eel: powerful, slippery, hard to get a grip. But when those tires came to temp, oh lord. This thing doesn’t have an accelerator. It has a detonator.
Chevrolet calls the ZR1 the most powerful, quickest and most dynamic Corvette ever produced by the factory, with a 0-60 mph acceleration of 2.85 seconds and a ¼-mile elapsed time of 10.6 seconds. A 2019 ZR1 set the production-car lap record at Road Atlanta of 1 minute, 26.45 seconds. PHOTO: CHEVROLETLooking for a Corvette to tuck away in your hot-rod time capsule? Me neither. For one thing, I couldn’t take the psychic heat of being a middle-aged man bopping around town in a red Corvette. These cars should be sold with a restraining order.
Even now, in the Late Baroque Period of Corvettes, these cars have their issues. Why must it reek of glue? Oh right, it’s made of plastic. The ZR1 is a real head-tosser at low speeds, even with the fancy magnetic suspension on soft, in Tour mode. The honking supercharger bulges into the driver’s forward view, blocking the lower third of the windshield. The performance wheels and tires—19-inch up front and 20-inch in rear, wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2—look curiously undersized in the wheel wells. In all seriousness, skip the track pack.
The source of the Corvette’s power is its supercharged 6.2-liter pushrod V8, the LT5 engine fitted with a new, more enormous supercharger (2.65 liter) bursting through the hood. The LT5 produces a maximum 755 hp at 6,400 rpm and 715 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm. PHOTO: CHEVROLETAnd yet for collectors, this might be the One, the Ultimate, the Maximum. The next Corvette design (C8), due in spring, will be radically different automotive proposition. It will be a mid-engine vehicle, like a Ferrari or Lamborghini, not a front-engine car like, um, a Corvette.
There are good reasons for the change, some dynamical, some demographic. The remarkable thing about the legacy Corvette is how well it kept up with highly specific mid-engine sports cars. But for Corvette to remain among the super-sports car elite, to be considered by millennials in their prime spending years, the design had to go mid-engine. Our ZR1 lands as a joyously egregious finale to the era of front-engine Corvettes.
Behind the big pushrod V8 is a superb seven-speed manual gearbox, with a heavy clutch and a slick, notchless gate (an eight-speed automatic, pictured here, is also available). The C7 generation will be the last Corvette fitted with a standard, or manual transmission. The C8 generation will reportedly use a dual-clutch semi automated rear transaxle. PHOTO: CHEVROLETWhat will be lost? First, these will be the last Corvettes with a manual transmission—a trick seven-speeder with a rev-matching function for downshifting. The C8 will use a dual-clutch paddle-shift transmission, which will be quicker around the Nürburgring than any manually stirred alternative. But purists and collectors will covet the charismatic anachronism of the three-pedal manual. Burnouts are easier too.
Second, the ’Vette will lose its versatility as a multiday grand touring sports car, owing to its hatchback design. There aren’t many, or any, super-sports that can carry two suitcases and two sets of golf clubs.
The ZR1 test car ($139,660) was equipped with the ZTK Track Performance Package ($2,995), including the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 track tires, the pitch-adjustable High Wing, and the elaborate carbon-fiber chin splitter with end plates. PHOTO: CHEVROLETLastly, and saddest of all, the Corvette will lose its hood of goodly length, the conspicuous priapism that has defined the mission for 65 years. The next Corvette might be faster, quicker, safer, better, but it will never swing the same attitude.
May I suggest the 1982 vintage?
2019 CHEVROLET CORVETTE ZR1
PHOTO: CHEVROLETBase Price: $118,900
Price as Tested: $139,660
Powertrain: Supercharged 6.2-liter V8 with dual-fuel system; 7-speed manual transmission with auto rev-matching; rear transaxle with limited-slip differential
Power/Torque: 755 at 6,400 rpm/715 lb-ft at 3,600 rpm
Length/Width/Height/Wheelbase: 179.8/77.4/48.5/106.7 inches
Curb Weight: 3,560 pounds
0-60 mph: 2.85 seconds
Fuel Economy: 13/19/15 mpg, city/highway/combined
Cargo Capacity: 15 cubic feet
Write to Dan Neil at Dan.Neil@wsj.com