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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons , Supercars , Chevrolet , Vauxhall , Celebrities As much as Jeremy Clarkson complains about fat, uncool Americans and their crudely-made, overweight cars, General Motors managed to come out on top in two categories in Top Gear's annual awards . If you said the Corvette ZR1 was a winner, you'd be totally correct. The 638-hp supercar was a shoo-in to win over the Top Gear team, just as we guessed when they were caught driving at at the Bonneville Salt Flats earlier this year. Chevrolet's baddest Vette ever sped off with top honors in Top Gear's Performance Car of the Year category. The second award winner won't be quite as easy to guess, mostly because it's not sold in the U.S. Top Gear's Executive Car of the Year is the Vauxhall Insignia which is based on GM's Epsilon II platform. The magazine likes the car's looks and technology. We won't bother predicting whether we'll see it here eventually. For that to happen, Saturn...
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Filed under: Sports/GTs , Supercars , Chevrolet , GM Click above for our high-res ZR-1 burnout gallery Some Corvette fans and avid forum members over at GM Inside News have already asked the unfathomable question of what automaker should take over the reigns of America's longest-running sports car if its parent company were to lose custody. Their answer , rather shockingly, was Toyota. We sure hope it doesn't come to that. Still, tough questions deserve thoughtful answers, and Motor Trend is asking away. Even if The General survives, what does the future hold for Team Corvette, which has seen its ranks diminished in the past few weeks with the loss of key players including Vehicle Line Executive Tom Wallace and John Heinricy , test-driver extraordinaire and director of the performance division? With such important personalities retiring from the 'Vette project, one might wonder if GM's iconic performance car will lose out on planned development. That seems like a real possibility...
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Filed under: Coupes , Sedans/Saloons , Videos , Supercars , Cadillac , Chevrolet , Dodge Click above to view videos from the latest Top Gear after the jump Top Gear is widely regarded as the best television show ever produced about cars. The production values are outstanding, the hosts are amusing and their tamed racing driver, "the Stig", is amazing to watch as he improves his mind while hustling cars around the test track. A few months back we all got wind that Jeremy, Richard and James had returned to the U.S. for another road trip. This time around they headed to the West Coast to drive a new Corvette ZR1, Cadillac CTS-V and Dodge Challenger SRT-8 from San Francisco to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Along the way, Jezza decided to stop at some desolate spot somewhere in Nevada or Utah to lay down some black lines on the pavement. Now while we generally love to watch Mr. Clarkson playing with fast cars, he doesn't quite seem to have mastered the art of the burnout. If you start...
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Filed under: Etc. , Supercars , Chevrolet , GM For many, General Motors' Mr Stephens' Engine Shop online game is full of metallic looking stuff, none of it discernibly purposeful. What you're working with are extracted parts of the LS9 engine that powers the Corvette ZR1. Unless your ZR1 is in the shop for catastrophic engine failure, these components aren't usually seen out on their own. The General's little game has you correctly identify the major pieces and awards a prize after three rounds of correct answers (or lucky guesses). So many people, not just kids, are ignorant about the inner workings of the complex machine known as the car, so we applaud this effort to shed light on the mysteries that lie beneath the bodywork. Watch out for that fuel rail, we found it a little tricky to place. If anything, we're eager to get home and have the young ones begin learning auto anatomy. Thanks for the tip, Eden! [Source: General Motors ] For the kids: Help Mr. Stephens...
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Filed under: Videos , Supercars , Chevrolet , Nissan , Porsche , Ferrari Click above to view video after the jump If we came up with a list of our top "Best Day EVER" scenarios, we're pretty sure a straight-line race between the Corvette ZR1, Ferrari 599 GTB, Nissan GT-R and the Porsche 911 GT2 would be close to the top of our list. The scribes at Motor Trend were able to live that dream, but they threw us a bone by recording the supercar showdown for the world to see. Follow the jump to see the 638-hp ZR1 take on some of the best street metal from Italy, Germany, and Japan. We watched the video four times, if only to note the stark difference between the launches and finishes of four distinctly different supercars. And just for fun, write down your projected 1-4 finish and let us know how you fared in the post-jump comment section. Thanks for the tip, everyone! [Source: YouTube ] Continue reading VIDEO: Drag race between ZR1, 599, GT-R and GT2 VIDEO: Drag race between ZR1...
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Filed under: Aftermarket , Videos , Chevrolet Click above to view the video Mated to a Corvette ZR1, the LS9 can get you from 0-60 in 3.3 seconds, and it will travel a quarter mile in 11.3 seconds. GM Performance Parts announced earlier in the week that beginning next fall, you won't need to own a ZR1 to get your hands on an LS9. The supercharged, 638-hp beast will be available as a crate engine to put under the hood of any project car that can handle the power. The GM Performance Parts team is so excited about the crate LS9 that it shot a video of the blown small block being hand-assembled. The clip shows some of the more significant parts of the LS9's production process, as well as some of the testing performed to ensure your crate engine is up to snuff. The guys building LS9s are lightning fast at their craft, too, and we're sure most gearheads would love to have some of the equipment they use during the build process. Hit the jump to see the moving pictures for yourself...
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Filed under: Aftermarket , Tuners , Coupes , Chevrolet , GM Click above for a high-res gallery of the LS9 General Motors has announced that the blown beastie that lives under the hood of the Corvette ZR1 will be available as a crate motor next fall and our head is spinning with the swap possibilities. With 639 hp and 604 lb.-ft. of twist available from the 6.2-liter supercharged V8, and dimensions shared by the LS3, any number of vehicles could make a happy home for the LS9. According to GM, the engine comes fully dressed, with an ignition system, exhaust manifolds and supercharger, and only needs an external oil tank and coolant tank (for the charge cooler), an ECU and wiring harness. So, the question is: what would you fit the LS9 into? We've put together a poll after the jump, but feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments. Gallery: The Chevrolet LS9 V-8 [Source: GM via MotiveMag ] Continue reading SEMA Preview: GM Performance Parts 638-hp LS9 Crate engine SEMA Preview...
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Filed under: Coupes , Sports/GTs , Supercars , Chevrolet Click above for our high-res ZR-1 burnout gallery Back at the Nürburgring, the hot Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 has just ripped four seconds off its claimed 7:26 lap . The new time, with Jan Magnussen at the wheel, is a claimed 7:22.4 for the full 12.93-mile loop. While the number is pretty bloody fast, it is still .3 seconds off the time earned by the Dodge Viper ACR (ouch, those three tenths really have to hurt!). We take these lap times with a grain of salt, as we've yet to see everyone on the 73-turn course under the same conditions, and with officially certified timing equipment. Again, so you don't have to Google the competition's best-claimed Ring times yourself, here they are: Porsche GT2 - 7:32, Nissan GT-R - 7:29, Corvette ZR1 - 7:22.4 and the Dodge Viper ACR - 7:22.1. Thanks for the tip, Xeyad! Gallery: Covette ZR1 burnouts [Source: Motor Gears ] Corvette ZR-1 knocks four seconds off 'Ring time originally...
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Filed under: Supercars , Chevrolet , GM Click above for high-res gallery of Corvette ZR1 burnout When we got behind the wheel of the 638-hp Corvette ZR1, we were pleasantly stunned at the raw, violent pull exhibited by the 3,364-lb supercar. Motor Trend was equally impressed during a recent trip to Chrysler's Arizona proving grounds where they brought their considerable testing equipment along to add their own cold hard stats to a growing list of platitudes. Motor Trend tested the ZR1 at the Chrysler Proving Grounds because its 5-mile loop is one of the few places that has the space to test the ZR1's top speed. The mag was able to crest 200 wind-adjusted mph, and MT computers showed that the ZR1 was still pulling when that magical number was achieved. Hitting 200 mph puts anything on four wheels in the supercar club, and a 0-60 time of 3.3 seconds ranks the ZR1 near the top of any exclusive car club. MT testers also needed only 11.2 seconds to travel a quarter mile and crossed the...
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Filed under: Coupes , Sports/GTs , Plants/Manufacturing , Supercars , Chevrolet , GM , Rumormill The rumormill is a funny thing, and sometimes, it can run amok. This appears to be one of those times. The DigitalCorvettes.com forum posted a note earlier this evening suggesting that Corvette ZR1 production has been halted and that the ZR1 may be cancelled. A post on dealer Rick "Corvette" Conti's blog , linked in the referenced DigitalCorvettes thread, added to the intrigue. Autoblog has contacted GM's Terry Rhadigan, who handles global communications for the Chevrolet brand. We presented the DigitalCorvettes link and asked for an official resonse. His was very clear: "Not true." Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Videos , Supercars , Chevrolet Click above to view video after the jump The Corvette ZR1 is the fastest, most ridiculously cool production Corvette ever produced. After taking the ZR1 for several hot laps of the Lutzring in Milford, we'd go as far as to say it's one of the fastest vehicles we've ever driven. Journalists aren't the only ones who have driven the ZR1 either, as a select few General Motors employees get to drive the 638-hp supercar as their daily driver. One GM worker by the name of Karen took the ZR1 to an autocross event in Ohio and put the supercharged LS9 Corvette through the cone gauntlet. Hit the jump to see and hear the ZR1 zip through the course. Unfortunately, the camera operator didn't zoom in on the Vette or follow it very well, but it's worth your :58 to watch if only to listen to the ZR1 come off the line. Thanks for the tip, Mark! Gallery: First Drive: 2009 Corvette ZR1 [Source: VetteTube ] Continue reading VIDEO: Corvette...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Coupes , Sports/GTs , Euro , Supercars , Chevrolet , UK Click above for high-res gallery of the 2009 Corvette ZR1 The car that Top Gear liked to drive , if not exactly to look at, has a price they definitely won't want to pay. At an on-the-road price of £109,000, the ZR1 costs nearly £48,000 pounds more than a Z06 in the UK. As if that weren't problematic enough, that price puts the left-hand-drive-only ZR1 £8,000 past the 911 Turbo and a colossal £55,000 beyond the GT-R Premium Edition . True, that's still the base GT-R, but Nissan has a whole lot of room to play with when it prices the V-Spec. True as well, the price of the ZR1 also includes a driver training course and a 3-year / 60,000-mile warranty, which should count for something. Perhaps not £55,000, though. Luckily for Chevrolet UK, it will only have to sell two of them this year, and single digits in the years to come. You can read the full press release after...
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Filed under: Tuners , Supercars , Chevrolet It always happens this way. Shortly after a new performance car is released to the public, it will find its way to a dyno shortly thereafter. When that new vehicle is the new performance king of the automotive world, aka the 2009 Corvette ZR1 , our collective interest is piqued. So, how does it fare on the rollers? Two separate 'Vettes were tested, and the average output was about 535 horsepower at the rear wheels. After factoring in the normal 15-percent drivetrain losses for a rear-wheel drive car, that's pretty darn close to the claimed 638. After a bit of tinkering the team got that number up near 570, saying it's running a bit rich from the factory. Click here for the full graph. Until the V-Spec GT-R is unveiled the ZR1's most natural competitor might be the normal Nissan GT-R; despite the pricing disparity between the two, they are the two most amazing performance bargains currently on the market. For what it's worth...
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Filed under: Coupes , Sedans/Saloons , Sports/GTs , Supercars , Cadillac , Chevrolet , Dodge , UK , Celebrities Click above for high-res gallery Not long after we learned that the famous Top Gear trio was in the U.S. , a fan managed to snap some shots of Clarkson, Hammond and Mays testing their favorite examples of American muscle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The hosts made their way to salt flats by way of Reno, Nevada where they had a few modifications done to each vehicle in the name of high speed safety, namely driveshaft loops and fire extinguishers. If you saw our previous post on the subject, you already know that Clarkson is driving a Corvette ZR1 , Hamster a Challenger SRT8 and May the super-fast but still luxurious Cadillac CTS-V , a car that shares much of its supercharged V8 architecture with the new force-fed mill in the 'Vette. We can already surmise that the ZR1 easily took top honors at Bonneville thanks to its slippery shape and abundance of power. Now, which...
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Filed under: Etc. , Cadillac , Chevrolet , Dodge , GM Click above for a gallery of the Top Gear crew in the U.S. The blokes from the real Top Gear are back in the States to test what us 'Mericans do best - big V8s, rear-wheel-drive and powerslides. Clarkson, Hammond and May flew into San Francisco on Wednesday and then made a B-line for Reno before heading south, reportedly to test the out a trio of American muscle at the Bonneville Salt Flats. If you're just as obsessed as us, you don't have to look at the photos in the gallery to know who snatched the keys to a Corvette ZR1, Dodge Challenger and Cadillac CTS-V. But we'll spoil the (lack of) surprise for you anyway. Clarkson grabbed the 'Vette, Hammond is getting his retro kicks in the Challenger and May - the consummate stately sedan man - is piloting the CTS-V. Top Gear is rumored to be back on the air towards the end of October, and we're hoping this segment kicks off the next season. Thanks for the tip, Ben...
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