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ZL1 sighting at Lime Rock Park !

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PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
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Both SteveEspo and I had a great day at Lime Rock Park yesterday and witnessed the first ZL1 ever seen on a track ( ;D ). It was being driven by a writer who was obviously there to promote the car. Lime Rock is a short 1.51 miles, is mostly turns and has some complex elevation changes. It is a true 'technical track' where brute horsepower only gets you so far and pigs and tanks can fail miserably (a.k.a. foreshadowing ;D ) ...

Unfortunately the ZL1 was not in my nor Steve's run group so I can't give you a head-to-head comparison, but here's what I do know:

Me: Fairly consistent 1:03 laps. This was actally my best day there so far and my tires were for SH%$ !, pretty close to corded. There's another second in there somewhere with fresh Nittos (I hope). (Note to Gary - I found for some reason yesterday that running 37 lbs hot on all for corners was better than my previous settings we discussed. This was the lowest I've run them but it was working. 40 up front was way too high yesterday. I'm thinking that as they wear the true optimum running temps start to show more.)

Steve: I don't have numbers on Steve but he was very close to my times. And he's runing not running on very sticky tires yet either! ;D

ZL1: Best time I caught in 2 1/2 runs was 1:05.9 and that was only one lap. Most were in the 1:07 to 1:09 range. I cannot comment on the drivers experience but I can only assume he knows what he's doing if Chevy sets him up with a car and has him writing another piece on that tank.

Conclusion: I'd say it's inconclusive since he was not running in my group, however the avg lap times leads me to believe the active suspenion of the ZL1 could not negate the weight factor on a tight track like LimeRock.
 
Pete that's exactly what I predicted on that car. It's just too heavy....heck our cars are still 2-300 lbs too heavy let alone that tank. Glad you had a good time and the tires made it through the day for you. My guess is your writeup (as great as it is) won't make it into the journalist's report. In fact, my guess is you and Steve "don't exist" in his mind ;D
 

CrashTex

Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow
ZL1 is nice, to be sure, but it's definitely been somewhat deified in the automotive press (like, move over sliced bread!). On another track, another day, I'm sure it kicks ass-- for a bloated tank. Nice to hear a counter point to all the hype :)

Thanks!
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
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cloud9 said:
Pete that's exactly what I predicted on that car. It's just too heavy....heck our cars are still 2-300 lbs too heavy let alone that tank. Glad you had a good time and the tires made it through the day for you. My guess is your writeup (as great as it is) won't make it into the journalist's report. In fact, my guess is you and Steve "don't exist" in his mind ;D

I am going to find out who he writes for....
 
Thanks for the update Pete. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the ZL1 I'd love to have that suspsnsion on our cars and then see how fast they would be.
 
5 DOT 0 said:
Thanks for the update Pete. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the ZL1 I'd love to have that suspsnsion on our cars and then see how fast they would be.
I'd love to see the next gen of that suspension on my '14 (or 14-1/2 or 15 or whatever they label the redesign) Mustang :D
 
Good thing he wasn't in your run group. Those things got to be like all the LS motors, exploders on road race tracks. That could be dangerous if you are on track with them. Besides, you'd have to dodge all the bits that fall off all those Government Motors junk.

I'm figuring Ford is going to trump that system, maybe for the Shelby? In that case, we can retrofit it to ours, then game on 8)
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
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As far as I know he had no tech issues. I was looking for signs of heat soak but his later laps were faster than the early ones. It was fairly cool out, only about 80 degrees and overcast.
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
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Intermediate 1. I suspect he ran in that group to try to keep the car in one piece. Asyou move up to intermediate 2 or advanced it becomes a lot more aggressive. I ran in advanced and it was a bit less like a DE and a bit more like a race. He actually had more chances to turn faster laps in his group. The higher groups have a LOT of non production race cars turning sub minute laps. My buddy in his race prepped GT3RS pulling 59.8 laps on street r-comps (Kuhmo's).
 
I'd love to see the next gen of that suspension on my '14 (or 14-1/2 or 15 or whatever they label the redesign) Mustang :D
[/quote]

I was at the HOD HDPE event at Pocono in June. The event was sponsored by Rousch and their VP of Sales was there with a Stage 3. I ended up talking to him about upcoming Mustang models and potential improvements. I don't know how valid this info is but here is what he told me:

Ford is planning to go with IRS on the 2015 model year. The IRS will be based on the same platform used on the 2001 Cobra. Again, I'm not sure how factual this is and if it good or not. I will reserve judgement until it happens but I have read and heard from owners that Ford beefed up the 2001 system and was headed in the right direction before switching back to a solid axle.
 

steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
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Pete and I had a great day together, thanks again for letting me dump my trunk on your trailer ;D Yesterday was really strange for me as the first 2 sessions it felt like ice out there and the rear was all over the place when I was putting down the power. Like Pete I dropped a couple pounds out of the rear Corsas but what was really strange was the fact I had to retourque all of the lugs. About 1/8 a turn to make 100 ft/lbs. 3rd session I found my mojo and ran a bunch of 1:06 flats and a best of 1:05.40. Still not my all time best but pretty decent. Like Pete said it was fairly aggressive out there with a lot of semi race cars in all groups, there was even an old IROC Trans Am car running in inter 1! Pete had a 1970 big block Vette that scared him it was so loud and fast! As far as the ZL1 he didn't show me much, the ZR1 I had in my group was wicked fast, I tried twice to stay in his tire tracks but couldn't match the corner or straightaway speeds, very impressive car, we needed Ron to kick a little butt out there. Great day and Lime Rock is a lot of fun 20 chances a session to get better. Or worse?
Steve
 

PeteInCT

#LS-378 - So many Porsche's, so little time....
Moderator
2,848
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Connecticut
PeteInCT said:
cloud9 said:
Pete that's exactly what I predicted on that car. It's just too heavy....heck our cars are still 2-300 lbs too heavy let alone that tank. Glad you had a good time and the tires made it through the day for you. My guess is your writeup (as great as it is) won't make it into the journalist's report. In fact, my guess is you and Steve "don't exist" in his mind ;D

I am going to find out who he writes for....

Update: The writer's name is David Haueter and the article on the ZL1 will be in sportscarinsider.com. No info on a publicaiton date. The comment reportedly from David as relayed to me by the president of SCDA Ian Prout was that "He liked it but you could feel the weight". Stay tuned.
 
144
0
MA
Dang man! I wish I had gone to LRP for this! He would have been in my group, shucks.

I was told I was running the same lap times as the ZL1 from my friend who was hand timing my laps too. Stock street Boss on stock P Zero's, says something for the capability of the Boss as I am a GREEN driver, lol.

Pete- that's cooking lap times! I can't wait to return to LRP to implement your suggestions, especially your pointers regarding braking techniques. ;)

Anyway, I'm impressed he turned a sub 1:06 lap as well as the mitigation of heat soak some how. I've heard those cars are heat soak magnets.

So if a 580 HP ZL1 ran 1:07-1:09's, and a stock street Boss runs the same, how in the heck is a 1LE supposedly faster than an LS???!!!!!!
 
144
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MA
One more thing:

Figures that the ZL1 was driven by a non owner/journalist. Seeing one of these cars driven by an actual owner would be like seeing Elvis driving a Ford GT while being instructed by Bigfoot.
 

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