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"&amp;quot;Interesting,&amp;quot; Tommy Milner said as he took his helmet off after lapping Spring Mountain in the ZR1. &amp;quot;My grandmother could buy this car, yet it&amp;#039;s a full-on race car.&amp;quot;   I did a few laps myself and soon muttered inside my clammy helmet, &amp;quot;Interesting that I could buy this car, never mind Tommy&amp;#039;s grandma.&amp;quot;        2012 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1    Of course, with an as-equipped price of $129,945, there&amp;#039;s not much risk of my buying a ZR1, but that&amp;#039;s not the point. This thing is real, real fast.   How fast? Chevy lists the top speed as 205 mph (versus 198 for the Z06), and if you watch their YouTube video of test driver/engineer Jim Mero hot-lapping the N\u00FCrburgring, he hits 182 mph on the long straight before the finish line, with a smoking lap time of 7:19.63. Quite breathtaking. In our own testing, it did the quarter mile in 11.5 sec. at 129 mph, and got from 0\u201360 in 3.5 sec.        2012 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1    At the heart of the matter is a supercharged 6.2-liter engine that generates 638 bhp at 6500 rpm and 604 lb.-ft. of torque at 3800 rpm. This thing makes the car hellaciously fast in a straight line, but\u2014as with all the Corvette engines now\u2014it isn&amp;#039;t the least bit temperamental. With that 4-lobe, twin-throat Eaton supercharger, the handbuilt aluminum V-8 makes big power everywhere, but even bigger power as the revs climb. It&amp;#039;s one of those &amp;quot;the faster it goes, the faster it goes&amp;quot; cars. If bystanders wonder why, they can view the words &amp;quot;LS9 Supercharged&amp;quot; embossed on the blower cover right through the clear polycarbonate panel in the carbon-fiber hood. Roof, splitter and rocker panels are also of carbon fiber. Its aluminum frame is the same one used in the Le Mans-winning C6.R race car.        2012 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1    Our ZR1 test car came with all the track-friendly traction control amenities, but also had its own performance package, with the big Brembo brakes, Pilot Sport Cup tires, a full width spoiler and close-ratio gearbox, along with RUV Satin Black wheels\u2014each 5 lb. lighter than the standard ZR1 wheel. They&amp;#039;re 19- and 20-in. diameters, in the same big blocky size as the Z06&amp;#039;s.   One meaningful difference between the ZR1 and the Z06 is weight. The ZR1 is 95 lb. heavier, mostly from the added weight of the supercharger, intercooler and associated plumbing. Doesn&amp;#039;t sound like much in such a high-horsepower car, but the difference is discernible on the track, where the Z06 feels light and agile and the ZR1 feels a little more front-heavy under braking and on turn-in. Not quite as tossable.        2012 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1    This difference showed up in lap times. The ZR1 may have been quicker at the N\u00FCrburgring, with its long straights, but Tommy Milner was about 1 sec. faster around Spring Mountain in the Z06 than in the ZR1. You can probably put most of that down to weight and the broad, easy torque spread from the Z06&amp;#039;s 7.0-liter engine, which makes it less edgy to drive.        2012 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1    Especially for a club-level racer like me. When I drove the ZR1 on the track, I always felt slightly behind the curve. It generated so much speed on the straights, I&amp;#039;d brake too late and miss the apex by a few feet, then get on the power too hard to compensate. A little ragged, with more practice needed for smoothness. As Milner told me, &amp;quot;Between the car&amp;#039;s speed and the grip of those Sport Cup tires, cornering limits are very high, so the car demands a higher level of correctness in your driving. You have to work harder to be quick, but once you let it run, it feels good.&amp;quot;        2012 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1    For me, the track sessions were fun, but in a scintillating way\u2014kind of like playing Frisbee with a large timber wolf. As Milner says, it&amp;#039;s a full-on race car. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/reviews/a20919/2012-chevrolet-corvette-zr1/>