I was looking forward to this car and hoped for an awesome S900 driving experience. It was even mentioned during the Fortune Island showcase last week how much work went into its handling files.
Unfortunately it performs pretty badly around a balanced track. After testing numerous builds and tunes it never reached the time of the C7 Z06 on S900.
To test if I just can’t get the build right I used an AWD aero build from a friend of the 1%-Club: 6:00:204
Even the old one is faster with a 5:56:660. Feels like they didn’t do the incredible ZR1 justice. It’s also not very fun to drive as RWD while the old one does provide a lot.
I do feel like it’s a bit arbitrary which cars perform well vs others. You only have to look at the stock power, weight and PI of most cars to see they’re never going to be competitive. I’d noted the Ascari looked promising at 900 based on its stock stats, but only got round to buying one and trying it yesterday. Bam, my fastest ever time for the Lakehurst Forest Sprint S1 class.
And youre not only driver that feels that chevy perfomns badly. I tested it on kraken and it was 6,2 second slower than fastest S1 class car is been so far. And i use awd with no-aero. Camaro feels mutch better but i havent tested it in kraken yet, i have spent my night trying to build older camaro.
Isn’t it a bad car IRL? I remember it had disappointing performance in some tests.
It’s very heavy for a “track car” (1600 kg, almost as much as an 812 Superfast IIRC) and uses a tired chassis. The Camaro ZL1 is a better project than the Corvette. Starting at 895, the Corvette should be inferior in every way when upgraded, considering the Camaro starts at 850 or so, which is a flaw of the game.
Regarding GM’s official times… Ehhh, I’d probably not trust them too much.
No, it isn’t a bad car IRL.
2019 R&T Performance Car of the Year. (Yes, this is subjective. As are all car reviews.)
Regardless, after extensive testing - it won.
As for “heavy” and “tired chassis”…
"Those voters with current competition licenses all rhapsodized about the near-perfection of both the Corvette’s and McLaren’s suspension tuning, particularly with regard to mechanical grip, that quality of holding the road as tightly as possible at lower speeds, where the wings and spoilers don’t have enough air to work. Regarding the ZR1, Hildebrand said, “the more you put into it, the more you get back.”
It’s definitely not a bad car in real life. I think it’s Virginia Raceway … set a track record in January, has been competing with the new 911 GT2 and 720s for other track records, beating previous cars like the Ford GT and Huracan Performante. It’s in a different class than the Camaro, which is also real good.
But it is at the limits of the chassis. It comes with a more track day tire than the 720s and the wing is huge. I think this might be why upgrade options are limited. I think the game is a little harsh to the Chevy here, though. The tires are soft but they’re not race tires. It shouldn’t have handling almost maxed in stock form given the kinds of upgrades other cars get. The decision to make stock tires race tires in the game killed any chance to compete in S2, but considering where it ranks IRL, it should compete in S2. And in S1, it’s just too heavy with too much downforce … kind of like the 2016 ACR in S1, a victim of stock PI being too close to the class limit. But at least the ACR has enough grip to be good in S2.
This Vette in S1 … the best I could do was bottom 1/3 on my board for Moorhead Wind Farm Circuit, in it’s best form.
The good news … it was faster with the stock aero than with the Forza aero … and my RWD version was easy and fun to drive, and I lapped it within a second of my best AWD time. I may just keep it RWD and race drivatars with it.
The ZR1 isn’t too bad to drive but, with a staggered setup, it ain’t no technical track weapon. Front-mid engine layout also means it shares some bad handling traits with the 812 Superfast.
The Camaro on the other hand fits restrictions at lower weight and doesn’t really need all of the extra power the Corvette has, so it ends up faster.
Both cars have plenty of stock downforce so a Race wing might be redundant.
I was abaout second faster around kraken with camaro using race wing than normal wing and that camaro have now 3rd best time that i have done so far. It’s lack little bit of top speed with my build.
The Camaro performs quite well, I have to agree. I raced it as an RWD stock-aero build and it ran 3.5 seconds faster on my test track than the ZR1. With a lot less power and less top speed but the cornering speed makes up for that. On handling focussed tracks the advantage is even bigger.
For the ZR1 being too close to the class limit. Well, unlike the M4 on A for example, every crucial part can be installed (race brakes, race suspension, ARBs, biggest tire width). It’s just too heavy in the corners and the engine can’t compensate this on the straights. It speaks words that the V12 F50 GT swap is faster although it has to be run with the stock gearbox and thus with only 4 gears (5th is only reachable on longer straights, 6th,7th,8th are never). Thus you have to sit in mid-revs a lot and we all know how much this engine loves high revs. And even with this disadvantage it’s better than the stock engine + stock gearbox. Reason being the weight reduction from the V12.
The car as stock just seems a little bit overrated in the PI system. When at home I’ll try my normal RWD build with sport weight reduction (~907PI) and look what lap time it can achieve.
One thing I like about this car is the stock wing. Provides enough traction and doesn’t kill the top speed and acceleration as much as the Forza Wing.
I would agree that the ZR1 doesn’t work best in S1 900 Class, but I tuned it to S2 998 and it is a beast! At the Festival Drag Strip I average 177 MPH. I can get a top speed over 250MPH but I’ve tuned it to 248 MPH to keep the 0-100MPH speed high. (How many tracks allow for 250MPH anyways… OK, Goliath)