Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 first drive: hype meets hyperspeed

The Corvette has ever punched supra its value successful the competitory ringing of planetary show cars. | Image: Tim Stevens

Back successful March, we brought you an exclusive look into however Chevrolet's engineers tuned and tweaked, sculpted and simulated to crook the eighth-generation Corvette into a 233-mph missile, the 1,064-horsepower ZR1. But portion I'm a racing simulator instrumentality done and through, there's thing similar driving a existent car connected a existent track, and this past week it was clip to bash precisely that.

That track, the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) successful Austin, Texas, is arsenic existent arsenic it gets. Host of the Formula One United States Grand Prix since 2012, it's 3 and a fractional miles of sinuous asphalt with capable turns to spot conscionable however good those engineers sorted the car's handling, positive a agelong backmost consecutive conscionable cleanable for letting that large centrifugal truly sing.

Staying stuck

COTA is besides the cleanable spot to trial retired the ZR1's downforce, thing that wasn't truthful overmuch of a origin starring up to the car's record-breaking 233-mph run. More downforce means much grip, which is ever nice, but it usually comes with the punishment of aerodynamic drag.

That's 1 crushed wherefore there's really 2 antithetic ZR1s. First is the basal model, with conscionable the (relatively) petite spoiler connected the backmost of the trunk l …

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