If you have ever seen the show Top Gear, you probably realize two things. First, they have established themselves as the foremost authority on evaluating supercars. Second that your High School Counselor failed to tell you that you could get paid to have that much fun. As if the hosts of Top Gear were not spoiled enough, now they got the chance to test drive the Corvette ZR-1 [1].
So what did they think?
Here is a brief segment of their article:
“I feel like I’ve been tipped off the top of the Cresta Run. On rollerblades. And I’m blindfolded. Holy cow, this is scary. To clarify the situation, let’s look at the issues.
One: the track I’m on, which is full of closing-radius sphincter-tightening corners, treacherous cambers, conniving double-apex curves and, most of all, blind traps that jump up at you from behind crests.
Issue two, the car. In the Corvette ZR1, we’ve got 638bhp, in a machine that weighs just 1,518kg fully fuelled and optioned. That’s Enzo Ferrari territory. I don’t know the car, and I don’t know the track. That combination is so intimidating, I feel like I’ve about 1,500bhp under my toe.”
Well, they compared the power weight ratio to that of the very exclusive Ferrari Enzo. We would say that is a good thing. They also said, “What we have here is one of the truly great supercars,” that also sounds like a good thing. They went on to say “it doesn’t feel like one of those brittle, edgy, ‘Ring-optimised cars. It’s supple and useable”
We guess that is a good thing, unless you are one of those people who doesn’t want their supercar to feel like they can drive it every day. Basically the number one complaint was that it seemed to ordinary, except when your pushing it. That’s a funny one.
All in all, we’d say they liked it, which is refreshing to hear from an international media organization evaluating an American car. If you have a few minutes, you really need to read it for yourself to see what you think of the Brit’s evaluation.
You can check out Top Gear’s web site [2] for the full review.
[3]