General Motors has built a hypercar. Corvette ZR1X

One that only starts when Mercury is in retrograde.

 

It was CALLAWAY. Yes, I know you didnt make the picture.

 

Just imagine what this car could do if they stripped it of the creature comforts and airbags/controls. Could easily save 3-400lbs

 

Here's my take. while they have shown VAST improvements from a C5, the interior still kinda sucks. i've always hated the starship enterprise cockpit of Corvettes, and no matter how they try, the materials still just don't look like they match up to a Lambo, Ferrari, Koenigsegg, Pagaini, etc... I guess decently close to a Porsche or Mclaren now. Still, something about it. And on the outside, at least these vents/grills are functional, but its just missing that last 5% that makes it not look like a plastic toy. Especially with the rear end... diffusers, venting, light integration... compare that to the rear of a Lambo/Mclaren, its just missing the mark of class still with the stuff it wants to compete with. Last point... the HP number wars, 0-60 wars after like 800whp are mostly irrelevant and stupid. who cares, they're all fast. so at that point, make it about character... sound, feedback, input, the driving experience. That's why people still want manual cars and why people swoon over V12 sounds still. at least these also sound pretty dope and not the giant gurgle gurgle of huge cam lobe LS crap. they're ALL fast at that level, who gives a shit about 1.9s v. 2.2s.

All that being said... stripped out for racing, Z06's and above have been amazing since a C5. In their class and for the money, they're monsters. they handle well, they're fast. it'll shit on most things twice its price i'm sure. even not stripped out, its pretty nice, and eye catching, and will still shit on most everything under $500k probably. its just sitting in a weird spot for me, where TECHNICALLY it hangs with all the fancy super/hypercars. spend the extra $20-30k and make the little finishings on the level of them.

 

The SF90 is the first car I've ever driven that actually scared me. A good friend let me drive his before it had 500 miles on it. I rewarded his generosity by hitting a bird at Mach 1 and chipping the windshield. He never told me what it cost to fix.

 

Damn, I'd love to drive a modern Ferrari some day.

 

I understand champagne tastes but my beer budget has me in a 2019 GS Corvette. Just like my track bike, I'm not worthy but that doesn't stop me from trying. Now, if I had Zuck bucks......

 

Ferrari started this with the FXX program initially (IIRC) but it has since expanded to a broader Corse Clienti business unit...err program. It looks like the current objective is to give clients a motorsport experience at whatever level their time and money commitment allows for; i.e., occasionally driving a pampered ex-F1 car all the through to paving a road for their clients to matriculate through the rungs of sports car racing. The car technically belongs to the owner, but is kept and maintained by Ferrari.

I had this experience driving a LaFerrari. Absolutely terrifying. No visibility. 1000hp. And an insurance claim I could not even begin to pay for if I lived multiple lifetimes. But Holy Schnikes, when you got on the loud pedal, that car bent space & time.

 

I applaud GM for doing this. It's certainly all the right kinds of bonkers, but forgive me for doing it, I'm going to be pedantic and say that this isn't a hypercar. Hypercars move the goal posts on what an automobile can be, do, or perform. My steadfast example has always been the original Gordan Murray designed McLaren F1. It absolutely reconfigured the automotive boundaries in every way; e.g., how much a car could cost, how it performed, how it was sold and serviced, etc. etc. It rewrote the book.

Earlier in the thread someone posted the Callaway 'vette that could go 225mph and asked "why Veyron though"? Fair question. The difference between the Callaway product and a Veyron is that the Callaway can do a terminal velocity run at 225mph what? Once? Twice? Maybe three times before it breaks or rattles apart?The Veyron, on the other hand, could do that for hours on the autobahn, all the way across Europe, if it didn't drain its fuel tank in under 8 minutes at that velocity. And it would do that with Mercedes S Class levels of comfort, refinement, and poise. And then once it got you to the Cote d'Azure it could cruise between Saint-Tropez and Cannes as pedestrianly and easily as a VW Polo would. That's the accomplishment of the Veyron. And that, in a very reduced way, is what makes a hyper car a hyper car. The ZR1X while I'm sure a crazy fast car, is just that... a really, really fast 'vette, but it's still coloring within the lines that cars by Pagani, Koenigsegg, Ferrari, McLaren etc. drew.

 

Agreed. Very cool car, super hot sh!t but not a hyper-car.

 

the callaway vette is what... almost 40 years old?? And it was never sold as an exotic... just a tuner car. Similar to the ASC Mclaren mustangs.

 

And the tires won't last more than 15 minutes on the Veyron at top speed.

 

1000hp too much and 1000lbs too heavy, but I’m sure glad such machines are made. What a time to be alive.

 

I'm gonna go ahead and stop you there. The Callaway corvettes are daily drivers and bullet proof. A Veyron is not doing anything for hours and hours without major service. And that major service will run you over $20,000 every year whether you drive it or not.

 

Good call out. Michelin developed a special tire for the Veyron (and Bugatti's subsequent models).

If you say so. I don't have any first hand experience. Ironically, Car & Driver's test of the original car got cut short by the turbos melting. That could have been a freak thing and Callaway's engineering is likely amazing.

Regardless, my point was more about the car around the hugely powerful powertrain that propels it. I'm not arguing that the Corvette's aren't cool; my point was that they are not hypercars.

 

The only thing hyper about hyper cars is the hype used to market, sell and maintain value. They are the beanie babies of the car world. You can't use them in any meaningful way beyond parking at cars and coffee for those who will never own one to masturbate over or at the race track. Of which the vast majority of them will never see unless it is a parade lap of "Hey, look at me I got more money than you douchetards"

Marvelous machines no doubt. Most of them are uglier than back of my nutsack. I'm looking at you almost anything with a Bugatti badge on it.

A bit of trivia...

Which over priced douchetard mobile shares headlights with a Nissan.

 

Haven't followed the hyper/supercar world in decades: About when did hyper/superbikes lose their "Fastest thing you can buy" status? Bikes used to make the car magazine "0-100-0" shootouts look silly.

Now that I think about it, I haven't bought an issue of R&T or CW in decades, either...

 

99.99% of the super duper liter bike crowd.

 

Clearly a Jag-U-arr owner then...