VIDEO: Garage419 Pits the Corvette ZR1 against the Nissan GT-R

Somebody tell me why I should care about this???

wow that vette got way ahead of the gtr in teh beginning.

GTR FTW

GTR FTL

They are so close. Somebody needs to get both cars down at the Ring and have a race driver do some laps alternating between the two of them.

They both look like fun to me... the GTR driver appeared to be the more skilled (I didn't see any significant error... REALLY clean lap). As I said before... I'd take the ZR1 with a different hood as a weekend/track car, but I'd take the GTR for a Daily Driver (AWD FTW in the real world)

We can't tell if entry speed onto the track is the same, and that can make a difference by the end of the track.

That said, looking at overpasses, signs and the red/white curve ID'ers the ZR1 holds a 2-3 second lead.

But I won't believe any of it until 5th Gear, Road&Track or something somewhat reputable tests both of them showroom STOCK back-to-back.

@Dave K:

I think the skill level you perceive has something to do with not having to worry about shift points and never having to take one of your hands off the wheel. No matter how good you are at driving or how used to a car you are it will take a split second of thought to move your hand and in that split second your can't devote full attention to driving... I would say the Vette driver is the more skilled of the two. Controlling 700 horses to the wheel takes some serious finesse and concentration. The GTR driver simply has to worry about less. Not a knock or points to either car, they're just completely different design philosophies that achieved pretty much the same goal...

Too bad there is no manual trans for the GTR or an auto for the vette.

At any rate both cars are insanely fast but as I had predicted the speed of the track and long straights give a decisive advantage to the more powerful and lighter vette. With equally skilled drivers I doubt it would have been remotely close. That vette could easily be under 7:20. On many of the corners I think he could have braked later, just judging by the steering inputs on exit. The composure of the GT-R is very impressive almost to a fault.

Let's see if the V-spec has enough extra ponies to make up the difference. If they do I'll guess GM will send in a hired hand and the results wont be so close.

As for the drivers. Tochio is almost certainly a better driver or least should be. He's logged way more hours at the track and more in the production GT-R. He had months to shave off 9 seconds, that wasn't all "damp" vs dry conditions. The vette also faced "strong' head winds down the main straight. Not sure about how damp or how strong though...

GT-R Nissan is chief test driver Tochio Suzuki

Corvette Z06 General Motors development engineer Jim Mero

The Vette seemed like it was sliding around a lot more, like it was overusing it's tires. The Nissan seems to be much less drama for the driver, more controlled. The Vette won with much more power, but it looks to me like Nissan all wheel drive would win the day with more power.

tell me whats the point of a gtr if its only a daily driver. Id rather be comfortable and reasonable quick in say a e63 then a hoped up nissan any day of the week. The gtr is a weekend warrior that has good street manners too bad its too slow at the track for its chevy counterpart.

Still wating for any word on the over looked Viper SRT10 and Viper SRT10 ACR. (the Vette's other counterparts)

@RX-7 Guy:

Wait a minute. Well informed, properly spelled, punctuated, and non biased opinions aren't that common on TR. A breath of fresh air.

@426Hemi:

Agreed. I haven't seen Dodge bragging about any numbers yet, but in time they and Ford (GT) will have to do it if the others are.

I don't know, something just doesn't seem right about the video. I watched the previous ZR1 video yesterday, and it seems to be more or less a cut and paste of the original.

The ZR1 just seems to have a sense of speed, it accelerates quickly, trees whiz by, ect..
The GTR just doesn't seem to have urgency, but it kept up with the ZR1 for the first 1:30 or so.

Maybe the GTR video isn't 25/30 fps? It kind of looks choppy, maybe a lower frame rate or something. (Maybe a bad encode)

I think we need Top Gear and the Stig to settle this.

1500 GT-Rs
&
2000 ZR-1s

will arrive in America this year. Two different cars, two different philosophies, two different *fan bases*.

I doubt if any of the debates and numbers posted on sites such as this would sway many of the 3500 potential owners of these vehicles to switch into the other car.

Some like 4 seats, some like 2 seats.
Some like AWD, some prefer rear wheel.
Some prefer turbo-charged induction, some supercharged.
Some prefer manual shift, some prefer auto / F1 style.

Impressive numbers by any account, but these cars are so significantly different that it really comes down to a matter of preference.

And again, I certainly doubt any of the potential 3500 owners would be able to drive both of these vehicles to the point where they'd notice a significant difference in *lap-times* at the Ring. For those few cars that will be race-driven, likely they will be modified from stock-trim to a more track oriented version.

In sum: kudos to both design teams in phenomenally performing cars.

I agree with Gian124, minus one thing. 2000 ZR1s for the world, at least 2428 GT-Rs for America this year.

Just MHO but the GT-R is a direct competitor with the Z06 based on prices, There is a more expensive, more powerfull lighter weight GT-R coming that will likely in terms of pricing be the ZR-1's "direct" competitor.

Travis ir right but not 100% right i dont think you can compair a 2 seeter car with a 4 seat vehicle its so much more weight it cannot be overlooked and i truly love both cars minus the plexi glass hood on the vette. the gtr would be my daily driver and the vette would collect dust in my garage... lol

The tires on the ZR1 sound as if they are high profile tires and the driver of the GTR really has to man-handle the heavy weight GTR, although ironically, the ZR1 driver looks to be struggling more with the ZR1, but then again, with almost 700 ponies and a lack of awd and all those other high tech gizmo's, it certainly makes more sense.

Anyway, the GTR is simply the under dog against the ZR. Until the GTR V-spec arrives to challenge the ZR1, the Viper ACR is the right contender for the ZR1, right? DUH!!!

It's too bad the Ford GT isn't alive to be a part of the steroid car group...sob, sob):

So which one is the Corvette - top or bottom?

The bottom is the Corvette and I believe it's also the audio you are hearing. They may have dubbed audio tracks as well but most of it seams to be coming from the vette. On the last long straight that wind noise starts to really howl as the vette approaches 200mph. I also love the time costly power slide at about 6:13.

I also counted 46 shifts for the vette I could have missed a few, but even if it's 1 tenth slower that's about 4 seconds more with the engine off-line.

At this level and for this test what kind of car it is moot. These are the #1 and #3 or#4 fastest lap times by any "stock" production car ever. There are assertions that both sides may have liberal opinions of what stock means.

MotorTrend Dyno tested their test GT-R and estimated hyper-conservatively it to be 507hp and 500lbs of torque. The actual wheel figures are 430.6 hp @ 6700 rpm & 425.3 lb-ft @ 3900 rpm. Based on that GT-R the ZR1 has a over a 100 hp more at the tires. That's assuming that GM isn't padding their numbers of 638hp and they've been pretty honest to date.

cobaltssman

It's eather you're being sarcastick, or you're really CKV being childish.

That's an engineer behind the ZR1's wheel and that's a professional racecar driver behind the GT-R's wheel. Now imagine if the stig would have driven the ZR1. Definitely would have recorded below 7:20. Now all GT-R fanbois that are talking about the GT-R spec V beating out the ZR1 can shut up because the spec V has been seen running the ring in 7:25 with a professional racecar driver behind the wheel. ZR1 owns. America ftw.

"America ftw. "

@ cobaltssman

ARe you kidding me?

NISSAN GT-R

480hp / 3,900lbs
255/40 front / 285/35 rear tires
15" standard rotors / 4-piston calipers at all 4 corners

CORVETTE ZR1

638hp / 3,300lbs
285/30 front / 335/25 rear tires
15.5" front & 15" rear CARBON CERAMIC rotors w/ 6-piston front calipers

So the ZR1 is 700lbs lighter with better balance, has MUCH more power, MUCH more tire, MUCH better track brakes and it only beats the GT-R by 3 seconds?

Not to mention the fact that the GT-R will lose more HP at the wheels than the ZR1.

Frankly, I'm amazed the GT-R did as well as it did.

gtr are known to dyno at 480 to 500 at the wheels with around 20% drivetrain loss as is stanard with awd cars you get 576. The gtr has a much more advance suspension then the vette has better yaw controls in the diff and a race driver in the car R compound tires which if you dont know what that is its dot approved race tires and it was known to be running 3-4 psi higher the day it was raced, and chevy even said it wasnt going to be a track car but rather a grand tourer you know like a ferarri 599 or a aston martin db9. So you tell me the gtr must be the best thing on the road because it lost to a corvette. Personally I dont like either cars as one is for stupid kids that play forza too much and the other is for old men who want to relive their past. Id much rather drive around in a ford gt or a porshe gt2 turbo or aston martin dbs and be comfortable and drive a cool car and live with the fact that im 8-15 seconds slower on a lap in a country that I dont live in

@GT-R is g

"Frankly, I'm amazed the GT-R did as well as it did", considering it's the world's most technologically advanced car, trailing behind a pile of pushrods and leaf springs.

@LeMonster

There ain't no replacement for power. The technology gives an advantage, but a whole lot of power speaks for itself sometimes.

I'm not that surprised with the GTR performance... the car is making a hundred HP more than stated and has AWD to get it into the power a bit faster.

And the guy driving the Vette lost at least a couple seconds in obvious mistakes... the driver is AT LEAST as important as the car.

the developer couldent even drive this car to its full potential i bet most owners wont be able to keep this thing from running off the road backwards and on fire. say hello to st. peter for us dumb yanks.

Another thing to consider is the track. The ring isn't the best track for REALLY fast cars. It's old, it has patches in the pavement, and there are sections of the track that have quick elevation changes that can actually cause faster cars to get airborne, which is a bad thing. You can even see a couple of times in the ZR-1 video where he does slow down in parts of the track he could be going faster. The last thing you want to do is have a car airborne at 160 mph. That can ruin your day really fast. So, the track these cars are on handicaps quicker cars simply because of its condition.

Also, The Z06 is a more realistic car to compare the GT-R, because the prices are similar.

All of that said, I'm still having a tough time believing how quick the GT-R is based on the specs. It's just too damn heavy. I'm still thinking a sticky tire is being used, or, as rumored, they are underrating the power. But, I don't see what underrating the power gains them.

JB

And the Viper SRT10 is a more realistic car to compare to the Corvette ZO6, same with the Viper SRT10 ACR and the Corvette ZR1.

the power is being underrated so it is a direct competition with the carrara turbo and gt2. If it had more power it wouldnt compete in a same class with them.
@ lotus1
youve never driven a really fast rwd car if your gonna loose it you usually know and in such back off, in a awd car when the limit hits and you go over it a bit your done and it generally is really hard to recover. if you look on youtube for gtr crash youll see exaclty what I mean.

I don't see how underrating the power keeps a car in a class. To me, the price is the driving factor in what cars a certain car competes with.

Especially since numbers sell, you would think they would milk the power numbers for everything they're worth. If the GT-R had 1000 hp on tap for $70k, what class would that put it in?

Underrating has more to do with the Z06 then ZR1. As I stated in another thread, a Z06 has a weight to hp ratio of 6.34 lbs per hp. A GT-R at 480 is 8.12 lbs per hp. Raise that number to 580 hp, which is more like what it is making, then you are at 6.72 lbs per hp. 600 like some are saying, 6.5 lbs per hp. Reason GT-R bests Z06 at a track now, relatively same power to weight and AWD. So it is not at a disadvantage like Nissan would have everyone believe.

Make it sound like an under dog and an over performer. It is purely marketing in under rating the power on it.