2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Vs. 2019 Porsche 911 GT2 RS Comparison: Power Down
This leads us to the latest ZR1 and its top-dawg 755-hp LT5. The challenge for the Corvette team was to simultaneously improve the speed and the cooling of the Z06/Z07 we know and love. Tough task, because those two goals pull the needle in opposite directions. More power equals more heat. To address this, five new radiators have been added, resulting in far better cooling. On track, temps still get warm, but during my time at the wheel, the needles never speared the red zones. Compare that to the Porsche GT2 RS. Right up front, it's more than twice as much moolah鈥攊f you can find one to buy. But it's also a new pinnacle in the long and brilliant history of the 911. For 15 years, I was up to my ears racing them. I started racing just as the water-cooled cars were coming to market. With far superior control of engine temperatures and four-valves-per-cylinder breathing, the 996 made far more power than the venerable fan-and-fin-cooled flat-sixes. But a funny thing happened.
After years of working so hard to reduce the famous oversteering tendencies of the rear-engine 911鈥攃ulminating with my now second-favorite 911 chassis to drive, the 993鈥攖he oversteer was back. The 996 was twitchy and loose and dicey. New generation, back to the drawing board. Why the history lesson? To explain why I'm so excited about the new GT2 RS. It's the first 911 since 1999 that truly takes advantage of its rearward weight distribution and turns its copious torque into acceleration. It's my hope that this will be the new paradigm. The GT2 RS makes more power than any factory 911 before it. Wrong, Bratwurst Breath. This most-potent-ever 911 is two-wheel drive. That prodigious power propels the GT2 RS forward, not sideways in a drifting burnout (unless your name is Jethro Bovingdon). This first-order priority of a winning racer in this ultimate performance street car earns my respect and admiration. With such devotions spoken, let's see what happens when we let slip the dogs of war.
The Corvette's great technological step forward is the way it never lost output from the boosted LT5 V-8. Unlike its predecessor, this ZR1 pulled hard the whole session. Credit this advancement to the 52 percent larger Eaton supercharger and more efficient intercoolers. However, the 755 horses in the ZR1 never seemed to quite pull like those of the GT2 RS and others in the 700 Club during our Best Driver's Car testing鈥攂oth in the quarter mile and at the top end. At our World's Greatest Drag Race, I had the unmitigated pleasure to floor both cars down Vandenberg Air Force Base's pristine 3-mile-long landing strip to achieve my own personal land speed record of 200-plus in the GT2 RS. By comparison, the 'Vette lagged behind, time after time, even without the ZTK package's high wing. With similar top speed claims, what gives? I can only report faithfully what mine eyes have seen and hypothesize that the intercooling is perhaps still not enough to keep up, because internet dyno tests do seem to support the 755-hp estimate. Hot-lapping at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca showed similar results on the front straight.
The GT2 RS reached a heady 149.0 mph, but the ZR1 made only 141.6. All of that cannot be explained away with a better corner exit. That's simply too big a spread. Some of those Chevy horses weren't pulling their weight. But enough about straight-line fury. What happens when the wheel is cranked into Turn 1? In my world, the gods live in the corners anyway (although I must admit, even straight ahead gets interesting once you've crossed the double century). At Laguna, Turn 1 is a gentle left bend over a rise. It's been an easy flat in nearly every car I've driven there over the years鈥攗ntil the big-hitter street cars started approaching 140 over that crest. They'd get light, even get some fifth-gear wheelspin, and track far right in a hurry. The bend is a genuine corner at those velocities, with a late apex, and straightening up the steering becomes a necessity to remain on the pavement. Ten years ago, the last-gen ZR1 was the first car that forced my right foot to feather back, for fear of disaster on the landing.