[radz28]

Originally Posted by Sleestack

If these result are are from 'ancient', you better pray there is not an upgrade in the works...

Complete Lightning Lap Times 2006 to 2011
25 3:03.6 CHEVROLET CORVETTE(Z51) LL2 8/07
26 3:03.8 PORSCHE SPYDER LL3 2/11
27 3:04.0 CADILLAC CTS-V SEDAN LL2 11/08
28 3:04.0 FORD MUSTANG GT500 LL2 2/11
29 3:04.2 CADILLAC CTS-V COUPE LL3 2/11
30 3:04.5 LOTUS EXIGE S LL3 8/07
31 3:05.4 BMW M3 COUPE LL2 2/10
32 3:05.4 LEXUS IS F LL2 2/11
33 3:05.6 BMW M3 COUPE LL2 11/08
34 3:05.6 PORSCHE 911 CARRERA S LL3 2/10
35 3:05.8 PORSCHE CAYMAN S LL3 2/10
36 3:05.8 PORSCHE 911 TURBO LL4 8/07

There's only so much one can do with that telephone pole of a rear end...

Originally Posted by detltu

My thoughts on all of this.

This has been going on for years. Why is this new to anyone. GM benchmarked the 2010 GT500 and probably made some assumptions about what a 2012 GT500 would perform like. They then set out to exceed it. Does that mean that it will out perform the 2012 GT500. No. You know why? Because Ford said, "hey, I bet GM is going to come out with a GT500 fighter and we better make sure they won't beat us" So they made their own predictions about what GM expects from the 2012 GT500, and how GM might out perform that, and then Ford figured out how they could outperform that.

What you end up with is the ZL1 will be better than the GT500 in some categories, and the GT500 will be better than the ZL1 in some categories. Maybe one accelerates faster than the other, maybe one is faster around the track. Who knows until we can line the cars up side by side.

As far as factory performance numbers:

GM puts a lot more hours behind the wheel to get their performance numbers than Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Road and Track, etc. do. It is misleading to compare factory numbers to what the magazines get in a test. For the most part the average owner has no shot at achieving the numbers GM or Ford gets from their testing, because the average owner won't and can't put in the time to achieve those numbers. The magazines don't have the cars long enough to get the best times out of them. They may get 98-99% of the performance out of them, but that last few percent takes exponentially more seat time to achieve. Manufacturers numbers are what the car is capable of under ideal conditions and should never be compared to magazine numbers of other cars.

Last thing: we haven't been given all of the details of this car for a reason. Anybody could guess that the car is around 550hp because we know the cadillac is around that number, we can all guess on the weight and we can probably get pretty close. GM has the numbers including price nailed down pretty close, but there is still time for any of that to change. Some of the info is withheald for competitive reasons and almost all of it is withheld because it is not set in stone yet and nobody wants to say x hp, x lbs, or x $ and have to come back and say actually the numbers have changed in a slightly negative way.

POST OF THE DAY! Many KUDOS to you