Corvette ZR1 at Nurburgring - Just Doing His Job

[Rob]

Corvette ZR1 Engineer Jim Mero posted a sub 7 minute 20 second lap at Nurburgring, an amazing time for a production car. Germany's Nurburgring, often referred to as "The Green Hell," is widely considered one of the most demanding purpose-built racing circuits in the world.

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[bill81vette]

They had the ZR-1 and the video on display at the museum!!!!!
very,very nice run!!!!!!

[Hib Halverson]

Jim Mero is an amazing driver...just look at the two videos of the ZR1 lap (7:19.63) and the Z06 lap (7:22.68).

The two cars are production trim with the PS Cup run-flat tires which are options on ZR1 and Z06. I should add that his presentation about the Nurburgring testing which he gave at the Corvette Museum back in April at the Bash was amazing to listen to and watch.

He had some help, too...a great suspension engineer who went with him to Germany with two cars along with a team of development engineers here in the States supporting them.

Also, the records were not "just posted". The two records were actually set on 9 June, 2011.

While the Porsche 911 GT2 (7:18.0) and the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR (7:12.13) have posted marginally quicker times, the Porsche GT2 time has not been confirmed by video and the Viper was using PC Cup Competition non-run-flat tires.

Interestingly, Nissan has tried several times to beat Corvettes with the GT-R. So far, the best they've done is a 7:24.22 with a 2011 model back on 1 Oct, 2010.

[xfirez51]

What would the non-run flats be worth? What about the Super Snake?

[Hib Halverson]

What would the non-run flats be worth?

Not an easy question to answer with any accuracy because it depends on the car in question and the type of run-flat and the type of non-run flat being compared. Suffice to say that in some, but not all cases, a non-run flat might be marginally quicker.

What about the Super Snake?

I'm not familiar with a "Super Snake" but, from the name, I'll guess it's some upfitted Mustang that Shelby is doing.

It's one thing to announce to media you're going to sell a 650-hp Mustang. It's another thing to run a 7:19 and change at the Nurburgring.

I think the fact that neither Ford, nor Shelby Automobiles, nor any other Mustang "tuner" for that matter, has ever publicly discussed any attempts they might have made at the Nurburgring speaks volumes about what faith the engineers who design and develop the Mustang at Ford and the various Shelby iterations have in their products' performance abilities. They've never tried to run with the big dogs at the Nordschleife because they probably know they couldn't beat the ZR-1's 7:19.63 even if Jesus was driving and God was setting up the chassis.

[catbert]

According to the Vette team at the Bash, some teams release best lap times based on "segmented laps."

A segmented lap time is pretty much a fraud, and what makes it worse, they don't tell you it's a fragmented lap time. A fragmented lap is calculated by cutting up the course into many segments, usually consisting of curves, corners and straights. They then run many, at least several laps, and put together a lap time that consists of the best times for each segment over a period of time. So the lap time really is not the time for one lap, as we think of it. The Vette team has never done this, but other manufacturers sometimes won't say, one way or the other. (Nissan)

Since I've found out about that little trick, I've ignored Nurburgring lap times. Also, don't forget every team/manufacturer does its' own timing.

[xfirez51]

Unless they're willing to post a continuous non-edited vid of the run with timing, any claims are just B.S. I'd love to see a Ron Fellows run at Nurburg...