Top Gear Performance Car of the Year is...

Lashout_UK

Lashout_UK

Lashout_UK

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Top Gear has awarded Performance Car of the Year to the recently launched ZR1, now on sale in the UK.

Top Gear urged its readers to try the ZR1 themselves if they wanted to see why it had been awarded Performance Car of the Year. They reckoned that the 638bhp, 205mph ZR1 was ‘awe-inspiring’, and was one of the most technologically advanced Corvettes ever made.

TG’s journalist also praised the ZR1’s ride quality and body control, with much credit going to GM’s Magnetic Selective Ride Control, which he called ‘…a real breakthrough in the suspension arts.’ The story summarised the ZR1 as: ‘…the latest, greatest…expression of GM’s North American engineering genius.’

Top Gear’s UK edition has a circulation of around 200,000 per month – the largest in its sector – it currently has a further 21 overseas titles and global circulation of over one million. TopGear.com generates 14 million page impressions per month making it one of the leading automotive websites.

:cool:

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My work here is done :p
 
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I like the new Corvettes, never really found them that interesting before but after watching the recent episode of top gear where they had one I was very impressed.
 
paradigm said:
Doesn't take much :p
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Well, I don't know - In fact, pretty much every Corvette generation has done something unique, recordbreaking or extremely advanced compared to their competitors :)

In other news, the little-brother 505BHP Z06 also won an economy rally, of all things, recently:

the Z06 won the annual Fleetworld/ALD Automotive MPG Marathon in the U.K. by averaging 30.96 mpg over the trip's two-day, 411-mile route. That mark represents an improvement of 61.26-percent over the Z06's official European combined mileage figures and is a new record for the MPG Marathon.

Using Total Excellium high octane petrol at a cost of 109.9 pence per litre, the Corvette used £66.41 worth of fuel over the route, a saving of £40.54 compared to if it had achieved its official combined figure of 19.2mpg (12.25 l/100km).
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:D
 
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Yea, it's a race to who can exceed the manufacturer's figures by the largest amount. The Z06 official ratings (UK) are something like combined 19.2 mpg, urban 12.4mpg and extra-urban of 28.2mpg.

Most people report an average of around 22-25 UK MPG in daily use. Much more when just cruising on the motorway at speed :)

Much higher than the equivalent Ferraris, Lamborghini, Porsche et al :)
 
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Lashout_UK said:
Yea, it's a race to who can exceed the manufacturer's figures by the largest amount. The Z06 official ratings (UK) are something like combined 19.2 mpg, urban 12.4mpg and extra-urban of 28.2mpg.

Most people report an average of around 22-25 UK MPG in daily use. Much more when just cruising on the motorway at speed :)

Much higher than the equivalent Ferraris, Lamborghini, Porsche et al :)
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That's not far adrift from my 3 series. Not bad for a car with an engine twice the size.
 
paradigm said:
Doesn't take much :p
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Shut up, you tart :)

I don't honestly know how anyone can knock the ZR-1. I suppose it can't have superduperhypermega car status as they build too many of them. But in most quantifiable ways, it's 'better' than a good portion of what the European supercar manufacturers offer.

The main problem? That bow-tie badge. I've said this before on here - it can be as good as it likes (and the ZR-1 is truly epic), but at the end of the day......it isn't a Ferrari, or a Lamborghini, or a Porsche, or a Pagani. It's a Chevy.

And you can rail against the uneducated masses all you like (the same folks who still think that because the 'vette has OMQWTFBBQLOLOLOL LEAF SPRINGZZZZZ!!!!!1111oneoneeleventyone then it must explode every time it reaches a corner, or even a kink in the road), but you still won't change their minds. The Corvette will never truly be allowed to go toe-to-toe with the Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Pagani et al in their minds simply because it's just a bit too mainstream.

And it's American.




Hey ho.

*JRS fully understands that there is a chance he'll get flamed for this, having been here before with the Z06. JRS also would like to point out that he has said on many, many, many, many........many occasions that he'd take the 'equivalent' Ferrari any day of the week despite his "American car blinkers" (as I believe it was referred to on one occasion). He is also leaving Bugatti out, because they are in a whole other league in his opinion*
 
JRS said:
I don't honestly know how anyone can knock the ZR-1.
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Well the way Clarkson pushed the plastic rear panel in with his fingers, or broke the synchromesh on second during their short drive across the States suggested it wasn't the most rugged £60k motor vehicle ever made for starters! :p
 
PinkFloyd said:
Awesome car. Still don't like the window in the bonnet mind :p
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I think it's quite clever. The Americans love to mod their cars with big superchargers sticking out through a hole in their bonnet, and now they can just unbolt the silly window rather than cut their bonnet.

(Also, complaining about silly windows on an Overclocking forum amuses me ;) )
 
Bluelion said:
Well the way Clarkson pushed the plastic rear panel in with his fingers
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Oh noes, the panel at the rear!!! Becuase everyone knows that most of the structure of a car always comes from the back panel....

....or not.

Bluelion said:
or broke the synchromesh on second during their short drive across the States
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Yeah. Just a short drive in the countryside wasn't it?

Ignoring the running at Bonneville, of course. And the general hammer that a motoring journalist gives any car. And the fact that these were test cars (except the Challenger, according to TG) so were bound to have seen quite a bit of desperately unsympathetic running.

**** it, don't know why I bother. Sorry guys, feel free to continue the usual OcUK American Car Bashing™. I'm off to the pub :)
 
Bluelion said:
Well the way Clarkson pushed the plastic rear panel in with his fingers, or broke the synchromesh on second during their short drive across the States suggested it wasn't the most rugged £60k motor vehicle ever made for starters! :p
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JRS has already said it but I'll jump in too because I'm in a bad mood tonight :D

The 'finger' test (and I've seen it being done on member's cars, by the general public, much to their irritance) really grates with me because it shows how ineducated some people can be.

That panel is entirely non structural and flexes at that very middle point because it's extremely light and thin. Note it doesn't dent or warp.

You push firmly on even a steel skin in the middle of a large panel and there's a fair chance it'll deform - i.e. in the middle of a bonnet on a BMW - so why should a featherweight composite panel be different. Go up to anything similar and it'll do the same.

Just that kind of prejudice and innaccuracy really irritates me...but hey! Can't avoid it in life.

The 2nd gear syncro, again, as JRS says - except it only gets tired (it doesn't fail) during the high speed runs and is probably just overheating - Corvettes have displays showing trans temp (even for manuals) so it was most likely just hot and it wouldn't surpise me if there was a warning being shown for it, especially after countless hard launches and high speed runs. Note how the issue failed to rear its head again. Imagine how hard it's being worked putting down 605ft.lb time after time after time with nil consideration.

Peace, out :D
 
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