anyone had/have a ZR1 Corvette?

I just went to the Carlisle Corvette show today....there were probably 5000 freaking corvettes there.... way too many to look at...

then i started seeing ZR1's...........

a quick search on ebay shows that for about $20-$25k you can get a low mileage (under 30k) ZR1 with a 6 speed and targa top.

Since I am not 55 and bald, I am not sure this is the car for me anyway, but does anyone here have one, or had one? do they hold togehter? I just like the idea of Naturally aspirated and 400hp.... i think the did the Qtr in the mid 12's....

seems like i could get one, drive it for a year or two and not lose my ass too much?

Very powerful car, especially for its time. Complex motor, TOTAL pain in the ass maintenance and mod wise. I'd stay clear unless you are looking for a project. Hell, 25k will land you an 01 Z06 comfortably.

Not many people know this, but the ZR1 will walk away from a Z06 on the top end, all other things being equal.

I looked up some old magazines..... one had a 1993 ZR1 run a 13.6@ 106mph??? they must have been going up a mountain on a hot day?

I found some 13.2 @ 108 numbers in Motortrend..... that is not much faster than my Evo.... (awd launch)....

I am pretty sure there was a ZR1 in our paper recently for $20k with under 20k miles on it.... guess I should have checked it out. Doh!

Highly doubt this

the article that i saw had the zr1 and the turbo porsche 911 at 0-120 they were dead even..... then from 0-150 the zr1 had a 3 second lead.

not that it explains anything but the zr1 apparently can walk away from a 3.6L turbo 911 from the same era (from 120mph on up that is)

And the NSX of the era too ...

Great cars, they hold together well and hold their value well too at this point. As someone noted above mods are complex and finding a GM tech with the certs to work on the motor is getting harder by the year.

Contrary to the above times, they were 12 second cars in the right hands. Browse corvetteforums.com.

Dave the fireman had one, as I recall.

Yup, been there, done that. Had it for 3 years. The engine was a marvel to behold. The car was solid, except for a tiny little ECU glitch where it would not like to idle on hot days when you come to a stop. My car was used as the ginea pig for GMs attempt to burn a new chip to remedy this situation. I believe for MY'91 and newer, that new programming was incorporated. It was a great car for its day and I suppose it deserved the name "King of the Hill", but by todays standards, that was too high tech for too little gain.
Lotus designed, Mercury Marine built engine. Just too many moving parts for my comfort. Huge depreciation at the time. Lost my fricken shirt on it but it was fun, though.

It is true that a stock ZR-1 has a higher top end than a stock C5 Z06, by maybe 5-10 MPH, depending on the report. Not sure if it gets there any faster though.

I auto-x'd my S2000 against a ZR-1 in a street tire class for a full season. We were fairly evenly matched. His peak speed was higher but my corner speeds were higher. It felt awfully close.

If I ever buy a C4 to start a collection it'd be the ZR-1 or a pace car model.

with GM getting 400HP out of the 2-valve OHV small-block, imagine what they could get if they built an engine like that today! I'd imagine if 500HP as they could move the torque peak up a good amount.

A bone stock ZR1 with 60k miles on it, BONE stock, down to the air filter, put down 380rwhp at a dyno day yesterday. I couldnt believe it. And Rai, dont roll your eyes and get huffy, its true.

Z06s were putting down 350-360rwhp, the ZR1 put down more peak and thanks to a 7500rpm redline, had HUGE area under the curve. Those motors are amazing.

LT5 motor is incredible. If you find a clean, well-maintained version, you probably could drive it for a year or two and not lose too much money. They're at the bottom on the depreciation curves at this point.

BTW, here is a video of me racing a buddy in his ZR1 (when I had my IHE '01 C5)

http://videos.streetfire.net/Player.aspx?f...74AF33&kw=2&p=0

Our cars were even, him pulling away is because the camera guy was in my car. Very strange as when the camera guy was in his car, I slowly pulled away. When we both had no passengers, we were DEAD even. From a 20-160mph pull, we could look over, at any point in the race, and see each other. It was surreal being identical the WHOLE race.

Here's a question -- why a ZR1?

If you want to go fast, I wager that you could go faster for less by buying a normal C4 of equivalent vintage and putting a few grand into the motor.

If you want a unique car that you don't see every day, then the ZR1 qualifies... sort of. The problem that plagued the ZR1 from its inception continues to this day -- it looks just like a normal C4, so no one knows you have something special.

Not that you're planning on autocrossing the car, but I'll add the data point anyway -- in autocross, the ZR1 isn't any faster than normal C4s it's heavier and has less low-end torque.

Steve

I owned an ‘85 4+3. It was a fun car but (and this applies to the ZR-1 as well) the chassis with the roof out was noticeably less rigid. You had to be park on a level surface or you couldn’t bolt the roof back in.

However, I much as I prefer the targa roof to a full convertible, the chassis in the S2000 is vastly, vastly superior.

This post has been edited by ElTianti on Aug 28 2005, 03:06 PM

You have one dyno of a ZR-1 that's 20hp higher than a Z06 and from this you say the ZR-1 will walk a Z06?

road tests of the ZR-1 and the Z06. Which one is quicker to 150mph? (and not by a little)

C&D 4-91:
- ZR-1 0-100 11.2sec 0-150mph 35.5sec (time from 100-150mph 24.3sec)

C&D 8-00: <this is the 385hp 01 Z06>
Z06 0-100 10.0sec 0-150 28sec (time from 100-150mph 18sec).

The ZR-1 has a slightly higher top speed (by a few mph) so it probably has more HP. But the Z06 has more TQ and weighs several hundred pounds less and so it accelerates quicker. Maybe the HP gives the top speed to the ZR-1 but it doesn't accelerate quicker than a Z06 (until you're close to the top speed)

Please tell us if you have any road tests where a ZR-1 is quicker than a Z06 or where a ZR-1 walks a Z06, I'd like to see them.




EDIT: I don't want to be confrontational. But IMO the difference in HP/TQ of the two engines is miniscule. The ZR-1 with higher hp, higher red-line is of little consequence in this contest, to say it'd walk a Z06 that has about the same HP and more TQ and has 300 lbs less weight to accelerate.

The Z06 is quicker at any road speed until you get near top speed. Of course the ZR-1 has a higher top speed like 171mph vs 168 mph for the Z06. At 160+mph the ZR-1 may start to pull away, but I don't call being beaten to every speed except near top speed being able to walk a Z06. Maybe your definition it might be but not for me..

This post has been edited by rai on Aug 28 2005, 03:14 PM

I love that car.

Not sure I'd want to own one, though. It sounds like a lot of work.

The engine was a technology marvel for its day, but the thought of having to get work done on one today would discourage me from buying/owning one.

Like others have said, I would look at an 01/02 Z06, if you want a Vette. I would say this would be the fast, more reliable choice.

I found a test of the ZR1 that puts it closer to the Z06. It's in the June '89 issue of CD.
0-100 10.4sec
0-150 29.6sec
The ZR1's 100-150 time is almost the same as the Z06, with tiny edge to the newer car. Top speed for the ZR1 in that test was 175mph.

The ZR1 is quicker than the non-Z06 C5 and about the same as the '01 Z06, slower than the '02-'04 Z06. IMHO, the main reason for buying a ZR1 over a C5 Z06 would be collectability rather than performance numbers. Total production of the ZR1 was 6,939 cars. The '92-'95 cars had lower production runs than the early cars (502 '92, 448 each year '93-'95).

Price an alternator before you buy one. That was the straw that stopped me. I loved driving the car and found a nice one at a good price but a friend with one had to replace his alternator that week. The price made me look for something different.

Yeah I know it's not a good reason not to buy a car but it was the final straw.

Interesting timing... I've been mulling over a C4 lately. But, I'm looking at '96 LT4s. My recollection is that they are nearly as fast as the ZR1s with the bullet-proof small-block. I never cared for the bloated C5, and I'm jonesing for big V8 power. I've also always like the clean, more compact styling of the C4. Interior is absolutely rediculous, though. And, the 'vert has the rigidity of over-cooked spaghetti. Could be a fun, cheap car. Looks to me like overall opinions of the C4 are positive, no?

There are quite a few reports of strong examples of the LT4's nipping right at the ZR1's heels. I don't remember off hand any testing from back then but I would guess given the weight advantage over the ZR1 they could be as fast or faster given the right venue. I like the clean, compact styling of the C4 as well, though I prefer it before the mid generation refresh. Back when the refresh was brand spankin' new I liked it better but that was just a case of "newer=better" I suppose. A decade and a half gives you a better perspective and I find I prefer the original look. If you find a good example of an LT4 and wish to hold onto it, it may even appreciate nicely in years to come, it has the one model year engine option and the last model year of a body style working in it's favor.

enough with the magazine times crap.....lets go off real world data, and not some quasi formula correcting magazine time.

I have seen two video's of evenly matched ZR-1's and Z06's going at it from a roll.....the ZR-1's walked away both times.

ZR-1's are also underated, they are above 400hp.

And to have one dyno of a ZR-1 with 380rwhp....and to never have a Z06 dyno that high (stock) ever....well that says something.