I was searching for a test done by some car magazine on the net, and came across an article about a ZO6 at Willow Springs, dated 2003. It got me to thinking- We have seen many tests that show "this car", or "that car", as faster than another competitor on a road course, but don't forget that leaves much up to the driver. Each car is different, and requires different technique. What one driver can acheive with one car, may not reflect what he might acheive, given more time to become familiar with each car's subtle nuances of handling. For example, there was a published test done at Thunderhill in Northern California, where a usual Porsche driver ran a Viper ACR and a GT3 w/o the cyclone, and the Porsche beat the Viper by a couple of seconds. Same driver, same day. Thats suppossed to be the ultimate test, right? Wrong! Not long after that, a really experienced and talented Viper driver, Paul Mumford, ran Thunderhill in his Viper ACR (WITH the cyclone, generally supposed to take a couple of seconds longer), and beat the Porsche driver's time in the GT3 by two or three seconds. If you want proof, I'll have to go back and find the sources, but I do remember the outcomes.
Here is another example, from the article on Andy Pilgrim's website, dealing with a suspect magazine test between a crotch rocket and a C5 ZO6. Andy shows just how fast a "lowly" C5 ZO6 can be, in the right hands. Not the same driver or same day, but the results are so hugely divergent, its obvious that the mag test was pure b.s.
"Begging To Differ!
I’m writing this on behalf of the Corvette owners and other sports car enthusiasts who encouraged me along this path. A few months ago I read an article in Motorcyclist magazine. The cover story was a track evaluation of a Corvette Z06 and a Suzuki GSX-R1000 with ex-500cc World Champion motorcycle racer Kevin Schwantz as the dedicated tester of both vehicles. I thought it was a very interesting concept for an article. After I read it, however, I had one major issue: I felt that the lap times for the Corvette were not where they should be and showed the Corvette in a really bad light. This opinion was based on my own experience with the Corvette Z06 and my testing of numerous cars at Willow Springs (the test track), even though the last time I was there was at least four years ago.
I received several e-mails from people who had read the article and wanted to know what I thought about it. Without exception, after I gave them my opinion, they suggested I go to Willow Springs with a Corvette Z06 and run it, to prove something one way or another. I discussed the article with Joe Policastro, owner of Grabiak Chevrolet in New Alexandria, Pennsylvania. Joe not only suggested going to Willow Springs, but also put up the money and rented Willow Springs for a few hours just to set the record straight. Grabiak Chevrolet sells a lot of Corvettes, and Joe definitely took it personally after having to defend the Corvette to some of his customers after they questioned him about the article.
The biggest issue I had with the article was the difference in best Willow Springs lap times between the Corvette and the Suzuki. Kevin managed a best lap in the Corvette of 1 minute 34.2 seconds, and a best on the Suzuki of a 1 minute 26.6 seconds, a huge gap of 7.6 seconds. The major point of the article seemed to be illustrating how the bike was better than the car virtually everywhere around the circuit. They even used “Smackdown!” as the article title. But as a current professional car racer, ex-motorcycle racer, and current street motorcycle rider, I felt this was unfair to the Corvette and to sports car in general.
For our Willow test, we managed to get the use of a totally stock Z06 with 1,500 miles on it. Ex-Toyota race ace Dennis Aase is a buddy of Joe’s and provided us with some of his crew to change tires in the August desert heat – much appreciated. For the first test runs I used the Z06’s standard Goodyear F1 tire. My best time as a 1-minute 30.6-second lap on my fourth hot lap. I then fitted Goodyear’s DOT-approved “S” compound version of the F1 and we ran a 1-minute 28.3-second lap on the third hot lap, just 1.7 seconds slower than the Suzuki, and 5.9 seconds quicker than Motorcyclist’s time for the Corvette.
Incidentally, we used the “S” compound Goodyear F1 to complement the Motorcyclist test, as the magazine had used an “S” compound Michelin on the Suzuki for their fastest laps. Motorcyclist also used Pi Research data to overlay the bike time with the car time and, according to the times, the car looked slow everywhere. With my lap time for the Corvette reasonably close to the Suzuki, and acknowledging the superiority of the bike on the straights, I think the car would probably actually show quicker than the bike through most of the corners.
In the end we achieved our objective, which was to satisfy ourselves that the Corvette is a much more competitive machine than the article showed-even when compared to the top sports motorcycle in the world.
Finally, I’d like to add that I have nothing but respect for Kevin Schwantz. The guy is still, I’m sure, a bullet-fast motorcycle rider and an accomplished car racer. I think he was handicapped in the Corvette for a couple of reasons. First, he used the traction control. Even in Competition mode it can slow you down when getting really serious. Second, Motorcyclist put a different manufacturer’s tire on the car; they were not the OE tire and may not have been a good match for the Corvette.
In case you’re interested, we have photos and data to confirm what we did at Willow Springs. The Corvette Z06 is an amazing car and deserves a better representation than Motorcyclist gave it. I think the record just needed to be straightened, for Corvette and for the many sports car enthusiasts who shared with me their strong feelings about the article.
Andy Pilgrim
Corvette fan, motorcycle fan, and Corvette C5-R team driver"
The point of all this is, that magazine tests are often faulted, and don't always show the true capabilities of any particular car, and thusly aren't tantamount to "gospel".
One recent magazine test showed some incredible lap times for the new ZO6, the FGT, and the new Viper coupe at Gingerman. This is a little strange! Low 30s, all within a whisper of each other, make it look like that test was run by a professional race car driver, which doesn't seem likely for an auto rag. Sometimes mags will bring in a famous driver, but they note it in the articles. Viper competition coupes in race trim and sitcky tires run low 30s at Gingerman, and they have a greater power-to-weight ratio than any of the cars in that test. Anyone know who drove those three cars for that test?
Lastly, so this is FGT related, don't worry about the magazine tests or their outcomes. We suspect they can be "bought", by placing advertising contracts. A great car is always a great car, no matter what anyone says about it. True greatness is intrinsic to a classic like the FGT.
Here is another example, from the article on Andy Pilgrim's website, dealing with a suspect magazine test between a crotch rocket and a C5 ZO6. Andy shows just how fast a "lowly" C5 ZO6 can be, in the right hands. Not the same driver or same day, but the results are so hugely divergent, its obvious that the mag test was pure b.s.
"Begging To Differ!
I’m writing this on behalf of the Corvette owners and other sports car enthusiasts who encouraged me along this path. A few months ago I read an article in Motorcyclist magazine. The cover story was a track evaluation of a Corvette Z06 and a Suzuki GSX-R1000 with ex-500cc World Champion motorcycle racer Kevin Schwantz as the dedicated tester of both vehicles. I thought it was a very interesting concept for an article. After I read it, however, I had one major issue: I felt that the lap times for the Corvette were not where they should be and showed the Corvette in a really bad light. This opinion was based on my own experience with the Corvette Z06 and my testing of numerous cars at Willow Springs (the test track), even though the last time I was there was at least four years ago.
I received several e-mails from people who had read the article and wanted to know what I thought about it. Without exception, after I gave them my opinion, they suggested I go to Willow Springs with a Corvette Z06 and run it, to prove something one way or another. I discussed the article with Joe Policastro, owner of Grabiak Chevrolet in New Alexandria, Pennsylvania. Joe not only suggested going to Willow Springs, but also put up the money and rented Willow Springs for a few hours just to set the record straight. Grabiak Chevrolet sells a lot of Corvettes, and Joe definitely took it personally after having to defend the Corvette to some of his customers after they questioned him about the article.
The biggest issue I had with the article was the difference in best Willow Springs lap times between the Corvette and the Suzuki. Kevin managed a best lap in the Corvette of 1 minute 34.2 seconds, and a best on the Suzuki of a 1 minute 26.6 seconds, a huge gap of 7.6 seconds. The major point of the article seemed to be illustrating how the bike was better than the car virtually everywhere around the circuit. They even used “Smackdown!” as the article title. But as a current professional car racer, ex-motorcycle racer, and current street motorcycle rider, I felt this was unfair to the Corvette and to sports car in general.
For our Willow test, we managed to get the use of a totally stock Z06 with 1,500 miles on it. Ex-Toyota race ace Dennis Aase is a buddy of Joe’s and provided us with some of his crew to change tires in the August desert heat – much appreciated. For the first test runs I used the Z06’s standard Goodyear F1 tire. My best time as a 1-minute 30.6-second lap on my fourth hot lap. I then fitted Goodyear’s DOT-approved “S” compound version of the F1 and we ran a 1-minute 28.3-second lap on the third hot lap, just 1.7 seconds slower than the Suzuki, and 5.9 seconds quicker than Motorcyclist’s time for the Corvette.
Incidentally, we used the “S” compound Goodyear F1 to complement the Motorcyclist test, as the magazine had used an “S” compound Michelin on the Suzuki for their fastest laps. Motorcyclist also used Pi Research data to overlay the bike time with the car time and, according to the times, the car looked slow everywhere. With my lap time for the Corvette reasonably close to the Suzuki, and acknowledging the superiority of the bike on the straights, I think the car would probably actually show quicker than the bike through most of the corners.
In the end we achieved our objective, which was to satisfy ourselves that the Corvette is a much more competitive machine than the article showed-even when compared to the top sports motorcycle in the world.
Finally, I’d like to add that I have nothing but respect for Kevin Schwantz. The guy is still, I’m sure, a bullet-fast motorcycle rider and an accomplished car racer. I think he was handicapped in the Corvette for a couple of reasons. First, he used the traction control. Even in Competition mode it can slow you down when getting really serious. Second, Motorcyclist put a different manufacturer’s tire on the car; they were not the OE tire and may not have been a good match for the Corvette.
In case you’re interested, we have photos and data to confirm what we did at Willow Springs. The Corvette Z06 is an amazing car and deserves a better representation than Motorcyclist gave it. I think the record just needed to be straightened, for Corvette and for the many sports car enthusiasts who shared with me their strong feelings about the article.
Andy Pilgrim
Corvette fan, motorcycle fan, and Corvette C5-R team driver"
The point of all this is, that magazine tests are often faulted, and don't always show the true capabilities of any particular car, and thusly aren't tantamount to "gospel".
One recent magazine test showed some incredible lap times for the new ZO6, the FGT, and the new Viper coupe at Gingerman. This is a little strange! Low 30s, all within a whisper of each other, make it look like that test was run by a professional race car driver, which doesn't seem likely for an auto rag. Sometimes mags will bring in a famous driver, but they note it in the articles. Viper competition coupes in race trim and sitcky tires run low 30s at Gingerman, and they have a greater power-to-weight ratio than any of the cars in that test. Anyone know who drove those three cars for that test?
Lastly, so this is FGT related, don't worry about the magazine tests or their outcomes. We suspect they can be "bought", by placing advertising contracts. A great car is always a great car, no matter what anyone says about it. True greatness is intrinsic to a classic like the FGT.
