I understand the "keeping it all America" argument but they still need someone to extract more performance from the car. Kind of like a sprinter running in flip flops because they're made in 'Merica rather than using a proper running shoe that may be foreign made.
It's probably the same reason Xiaomi used some unknown (probably Chinese) driver to set the production EV record at the Ring.
what they need to extract from the car is 1,000 lbs ....... and that ain't gonna happen. GT3 RS = 3,200(?) lbs ZR1X .. = 4,170(?) lbs 'merica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_911_GT3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette_(C8) .
Because it is a bigger flex to say that our car is faster than yours with an engineer that's rarely driven the track than yours with a pro driver who lives there.
The thing about the ring is that it’s such a high speed track compared to other tracks that to really get the most time out of a vehicle there you need to have huge downforce and active aero. The only real difference between the GT3 and GT3 RS is this, and it’s pretty noticeable, would be even more sold for a much higher horsepower car. But the downforce advantage diminishes on slower tracks, (i.e. pretty much every other track on earth), and the gap that the RS has shrinks rapidly as a result on them.
You do know their ‘engineer’ has been racing the Ring since 2018 and holds Ring records in corvettes. Oh and is also a licensed professional racer. 900 laps around the ring is not ‘rarely driven’
They have a combined 1800 laps, not exactly not experienced everyday drivers. They also hold professional racing licenses. Aaron Link has completed over 900 laps on the ring. Brian Wallace has completed over 500 laps on the ring. Drew Cattell has completed over 600 laps on the ring. Also, the cars did not qualify as ‘Sports Cars’ which is what the Porsche and GTD classified as. The Corvettes were put in the Prototype class, this means they are not production cars and changes were made for the Ring runs. They still had an amazing run.
Interesting information. I’m no professional driver and my only ‘Ring experience is through iRacing, but I have watched countless fast lap videos over the years and I noticed clear areas where time was left on the table. Conditions seemed ideal, unlike many of the other timed videos where certain sections were clearly damp. Ultimately, I did not come away from the ZR1 video like the engineer was nearly at the same level as the other drivers on various timed laps.
I also have only raced the ring on IRacing. Hard to watch videos of different classes of cars and compare. Some may be able to break earlier or later. Some may be able to accelerate before. Some may not have the top speed on the back and they make it up. Some may take a different line than others due to characteristics of the car. I am more interested in why they were changed to prototype class. Maybe Chevy plans to make those changes on production cars. But as they were ran, those were not production options
I goooooooled it and on news.gm.com they give the following: Link has 800, Wallace has 425, and Cattell has 600. in any case, definitely not novices, though I doubt any of them are at the same level as the that Porsche normally uses for their laps, or the guy Ford used, or the guy Mercedes used. They were killer laps… I was still like to see what they could do with an actual top-notch pro at the wheel, though… Consensus from people who know the track well seems to be they still left some time on the table. Still, as usual far beyond the capabilities of most people who will ever own any of them lol.
The Z06 was a US spec car. The ZR1/ZR1x will not be sold in Europe. That’s reason for the classification.
it would need active active aero to substantially improve on this time. The record holding cars all have this, and horsepower won’t make up for it. An Indy team did analysis of this some years back and found that it took nearly double the horsepower to make up for a mere 30% reduction in downforce. The ZR1 has a 30% reduction over what the GTx RS cars have. Also drivers. While these guys have extensive track experience at Nordschleife, so does Christian Gebhardt, yet Porsche Pro Jörg Bergmeister pulled a 10.14 second faster lap there in the same car (992 GT3 RS). Pros are Pros for a reason.
