Driving The 2009 Corvette ZR1: Detroit's Mild-Mannered Supercar

We’ve established the ZR1 can accelerate and decelerate, but to ignore its handling capabilities is to miss where the ZR1 excels. The ZR1 pulls more than 1g on the skidpad, and by the time the massive tires do break free, rear first of course, the ZR1’s controls have already offered ample tactile warnings that the end of the road is near. Also, GM/Delphi’s Magnetic Selective Ride Control is standard. It’s an ingenious device that uses shocks filled with metallicized fluid, whose viscosity can be altered by adding or subtracting an electrical charge. That means the dampers can be adjusted on the fly, within milliseconds of the car’s bank of sensors sussing out road conditions, g-forces and whatever the driver had for dinner over last year’s holidays. The ZR1 isn’t the only GM car that gets this system, but it’s tuned specifically for the ZR1. To one’s backside, it means a startlingly supple ride quality that makes the ZR1 the best long-trip supercar ever built.

Harping on the Corvette’s sub par interior has become a contact sport for car journalists, who continue raising the bar on clever metaphors for chintzy plastic. By covering most of the dash with leather, Chevy’s upped the touch quality in the ZR1 interior to, say, that of a car in the $50,000 range. Not too bad, and certainly not a deal-breaker in this case.

Ultimately, the 2009 Corvette ZR1 may never score a single kudo from kids with pictures of Lamborghinis and Elisha Cuthbert in their lockers. Japanophiles who deify the 2009 Nissan GT-R will go on posting put-downs on Internet fan forums. And Chevrolet engineers who worked the ZR1 program will still sleep soundly as kittens. Yes, the ZR1 is that good.

2009 Corvette ZR1
Horsepower: 638
Torque: 604 lb-ft
Power-to-Weight: 5.2 pph (pounds per horsepower)
Weight: 3,324
0-60: 3.4 seconds
0-100: 7.0 seconds
Quarter mile: 11.3 seconds @ 131mph