Ll3,MPH PONTIAC TRANS AM TURBO!
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Ll3,MPH PONTIAC TRANS AM TURBO! GINEDNilENJUNE 1989 o UK L2.40 $2.95 Preview: all,new 1990 Acura Integra GS. 4wd Mudslingers...Isrlzu Amigo, Laforza, and Range Rover. Ten terrifyingly ugly cars. r' | ,r:- Al{0i=E=,1 ltir,r, -l n.TEST Ir .r j, .. .i --L-_ Chevrolet Corvette ZR 1 It's out of the park, over the center-field stands. The fans are chanting, "Chev-ee, Chev-ee, Chev-ee!" BY WILLIAM JEANES .The Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, unless er or whatever the top man is called. A make them look bad ever again. we miss our guess, is going to cost some second group, friends ofthe boss, can do The whole process of carrying any people at General Motors theirjobs. soz.uwrong. A third contingent, those not project-a car, for example-to its con- You ask, how can that be? After all, is a part of the power structure, can quite clusion has been reduced to a six-step this not the Corvette from hell? The King easily commit perceived transgressions progression that. once set in motion. is as of the Hill? The Ferrari-fighting world- against the entrenched moguls. In short, inexorable as the sunrise: (l) unbridled class two-seater from the Motor City? A everyone but the boss is at some risk. enthusiasm, (2) sudden disillusionment, legend-to-be? Yes, it is that and more. Friends of the boss get in trouble by (3) total confusion, (4) the search for the But it may still cause heads to roll. doing something that doesn't work out. guilty, (5) punishment of the innocent, To anyone who's ever been a part of The Outs, those not basking in the and (6) rewarding of nonparticipants. the corporate world, such a situation is shared glow of power, get in trouble by But what has all this to do with the ZR- familiar. In all corporations, only one doing something that turns out so outra- l?Just this: the car is so good that those person can do no wrong. That person is geously well that the Ins becomejealous. who didn't want it to happen and those the boss-the chairman or president or Once that happens, the Ins will be out for who made it happen anyway have both chief executive olficer or maximum lead- some heads, determined that no one will put their livelihoods on the line. Nothing JUNE 1989 CORVETTE ZX..I this good can come out of a large Ameri- can corporation without causing shock waves. And we all know what some com- panies-GM, in particular, has been pub- liclv vocal on the issue-think about any- thing that rocks the boat. Well, the folks up there on the fourteenth floor had best plan on getting wet feet, because if any car can slosh saltwater over the gunwales standards for luel economy, safety, o{'the corporate lifeboat, it's this one. noise. emissions. and so on." The ZR-l "If vou don't keep pushing the enve- engineering team has done nothing less lope, the limits of what's technically feasi- than prove that Detroit can indeed run ble," Chevv's chief engineer Fred with the big dogs. The car is, and de- Schaalsma told us, "you're going to fall serves to be, a source of pride to U.S. behind." Hear, hear. If General Motors enthusiasts. engineerin g could-or would-improve The new ZR-l can provide the best upon a basic sedan to the extent that the driver in the world with all the slam-bam Corvette engineering team improved power that he could ask for, yet its per- upon the existing Corvette, the crowds at sonalitv and demeanor are such that driv- GM dealerships would cause a nation- ers who are less than world-class-a wide trafficjam. group that, by our observation, includes Dave Mcl,ellan, Corvette chief engi- a great many owners of high-perfor- neer. savs. "The ZR-l makes thc state- mance cars-are remarkably well pro- ment that we can do things todav that no tected from themselves. one even dreamed could be done ten or Does this mean you can't get yourself twentv vears ago. We've achieved a spec- in trouble behind the wheel of a ZR-l? tacular level o[performance and are still No. Does it mean that you have to be sui- able to meet or exceed all government cidal to fall victim to its powerand speed? CAR and DRIVER the car we had onlv driven fbr a limited distance on the test track. The choice of Europe as an introductor\'\'enue permit- ted us to cxperience the Corvette in thc arena dominated bv F-erraris, BMWs, and big, whistling Mercedes 5sd2n5-2n arena otherwise populatcd bv small, nim- ble cars that run {ist on the autobahns and autoroutes and almost as fast on the twisting, sometimes rough secondarv roads. \4buld this American beast still pound its chest aftcr such an encounter? Certainlv it has the equipmcnt. on pa- per and in [act, to compete anvrvhere. To review, the Corvette ZR-l is a rear-drive sports car porvered bv a 32-valve, 5.7-li- ter, port-fuel-injected \'-8 engine with an aluminum block and alunrinum heads. 'I'he engine n'as designed bv GM's Group Lotus Division, was further devel- oped bv GM, and is built under contract bv Mercury Marine in Oklahoma, a facili- tv with more than a passing familiaritl' Yes. Left to its own devices, the ZR- I is at prevent their meeting in the middle. The with high-muscle aluminurn engines. once the most exciting and responsible ZR- I is the kind of machine that will send The 32-valve V-8 engine, "LT5" on high-perlirrmance car ever conceived in the safety Nazis to their daybeds with the the options sheet, has two camshafis on Detroit, let alone ever built. It feels glued vapors, even as it brings car lovers t<r each o['its aluminum heads. Maximum to the pavement, and it goes as if it were their fleet clapping and cheenng. horsepower-achieved at 6200 rpm-is powered bv equal parts lightning and The last of the ZR-l's umpteen auto- 380. The torque curve shows a maxrmum solid rocket luel. It even looks tough, i[ show introductions (Los Angeles, De- of 370 pound-feet at 4200 rpm, and the .vou stand behind it so vou get the prime troit, Chicago) took place in Geneva, band feels about as wide as, sa,v, Utah. view of the rear tires-tires so fat that Switzerland, of'all places, and-at long The engine's perlbrmance is best de- only the differential housing seems to last-involved a long-distance drive in scribed as otherworldh'. Its power just 5l CORVETTE ZR.1 plain warps the mind. The ZR-l has the tires, which are loosely based on Good- three settings-Touring, Sport, and Per- ability to take you from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 year's Formula I rain tires, was an over- formance-allow the driver to tailor the seconds and from a stop to 100 in 10.4 supply of road noise. Their benefits, suspension to meet variations in road seconds. We also recorded a 0-to-150- which come in the form of limpetlike conditions, levels of driver aggression. mph time of a tick under half a minute. adhesion to the earth's paved surfaces, and comfort requirements. Within each Top speed, for the adventurous, is a siz- go far toward minimizing the negative ef- mode, there are six gradations of shock- zling 175 miles per hour. lects of the noise. As big as these rires absorber damping; they varv with speed Behind the engine is a six-speed man- are, we may see bigger yet. Goodyear to maintain a constant level of ride con- ual transmission that's as sweet as any- says that size-405 tires are now practical trol.'Ihe Performance setting will rattle thing mechanical you're likely to lay a to build-for the next Corvette, perhaps. your fillings over rough roads, but the hand on. Capable of withstanding 425 Meanwhile, lhe current tircs are protect- other two are useful in adapting the car pound-feet of torque, the six-shifter is ed and monitored by low-tire-pressure to differing roads and driving styles. A the same manual gearbox used in all waming sensors that light up an alert on rough road can be tamed by switching to 1989 Corvettes, brrt it's heaven sent for the dash whenever any tire's pressure the Touring setting, and the Sport set- the Corvette from hell. falls below a preset level. The result of a ting can draw real cornering perfor- Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshalen AG, ten-year, ten-million-mile testing pro- mance-and surprising comfort-from usually referred to simply as ZF, de- gram, lhe low-tire-pressure warning sys- the ZR-l on a smooth, twisting surface. signed the six-speed transmission espe- tem (option-code "UJ6") can sense varia- Without the FX3 system, the ZR-l would cially for the Corvette. The fully synchro- tions of plus or minus I psi. not be the grand tourer it is. nized unit derives much of its slick Behind the wheels are vented disc We drove the ZR- l first from Geneva operation from an internal-rail shift brakes developed by PBR Automotive, to southwestern France and later from mechanism and a hydraulically actuated, an arm of Brake and Clutch Industries Montpelier to the principality of Andor- 280mm-diameter pull-type clutch.