Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

Wow, your car is exactly what I want, can I have it?? :D
Kidding, I would never give that car up if I had it!



I can't wait to become a part of the brotherhood!

Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

Your a C4 guy why not have the KING of the C4's? I test drove one back in 05 big mistake! Spent the rest of my spare time searching for a ZR-1. Bought one and could not be happier/satisfied more than I am. I have not had 1 issue with my car. Stay on this site and you will see how great the ownership experience will be with this brotherhood. Good Luck with your studies, looks like your parents did a good job, so far ;)

Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

According to Registry website production was as follows:

Polo Green II:

1994 -

39 Total
35 Light Beige
4 Black

1995 -

31 Total
26 Light Beige
3 Black

Obviously, 26+3 is not 31 so there is a little discrepency there but you get the picture.

Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

Just f.y.i. of the 6939 made and sold, around 5,000 were made and sold as 90-91. When gm cut its engine contract with the manufacturer of its lotus designed engine they then parceled the last 1500 engines out over the 92-95 years at about 450 or so engines/zr1's a year so you are far more likely to find a 90-91 than the others. Just remember, you are thinking about buying one of 6939 ever sold with the fantastic lt5 engine out of about 2,500,000 or so Corvettes ever sold.

Lance P.

Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

Doesn't sound like too much of a mistake to me! I'm hopefully going to test drive one in the spring, I'm sure I'll be hooked and there will be no turning back.

My Dad was a Corvette guy; he had a 73 with an LT-1 I think. He taught me well :)

I'll definitely look for a Polo one first, but it's not a big deal if I can't find one.

Wow I didn't know that. So the 405hp ones are much rarer then huh? Is the interior of the '90 the same as the '91 or does it have the L98 dash? I'm not sure if I could live with that.... I love my current interior. I really didn't like the interior of an 88 that I test drove.

Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

Yes, the 405 hp are but I doubt seriously you could tell the difference between the 375 and the 405. In fact, the first time you get in the car and are comfortable enough to plant your foot on a safe road you will be astonished at how hard the LT5 pulls in each gear. Here's a teaser: I shift from first at 59 mph and around 7,000 rpm, out of second at 92 mph and on up...and when shifting into third the acceleration INCREASES! These engines have 6,939 fans of incredible support. And that's before you tune them to add another 100 to 150 hp!

You also have to remember that GM horsed around with HP numbers all the time...some years they posted low numbers, early sae test numbers, then later sae test stand numbers, sometimes because the insurance industry was screaming about high horsepower, etc, etc. so you can't always believe GM hp ratings. There is one fellow here who claims to Have Lotus dyno reports showing the engines weren't 375 or 405 but something like 443 hp with Lotus running the same test gm used. GM owned lotus then and asked them to design the engine and they did. GM did not have the know how to build that technical an aluminum block with hardened aluminum sleeves engine then but Mercury Marine did in their Stillwater, Oklahoma factory did so they built all the motors, had a contract. When in 91/92 GM started or continued corporately hemoraghing money (fired chairman, ceo, lost more than $20 billion one year) the LT5 engine was very expensive...various numbers but $7-9,000 per engine in the contract price so GM limited it. Sales were less about whether people would buy the zr1 than they were there were only so many engines available.

In 1990-91 these were the most expensive cars ever listed for sale by GM. Mine on the just received window sticker with taxes and title in Texas where it was sold in Dec, 1990 was $72,000 approx. Later, some sold above sticker price when engines were limited, reportedly for as much as
$100,000. There is a book coming called The Heart Of The Beast on the engine's history.

You'll get arguments by the C6 guys who are passionate but many think the LT-5 Dohc v8 is the best engine Corvette has made to date. You can do anything with it you want just like the newer pushrods.

Just drive one once and wind it up through at least three gears. You'll sell your wife, your girlfriend, offer your mom out for service. They are fun to drive and always put a grin on your face. Handling is good though a C6 will have more modern traction control yet the handling is quite sophisticated certainly compared to my C3.

See, this is the kind of stuff you will get involved in. Buy on and you'll learn names like: Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, Marc Haibeck, F.B.I. (Fast Boys Incorporated) who can do amazing things even above and beyond. When they do, modern ZO6's have nothing on these cars for speed I'm told. Search Youtube for the black King of the Hill who runs 11.5 second 129 mph quarter mile times. Want to go 0-60 in 4.4 seconds?
Buy a stock 91 zr1.

My TBSS has a 2008 ls2 415 hp vette engine from gm performance group with a 4:10 rear end in it and my stock 1991 zr1 is way quicker...way more top end as you would expect but it's about the torque, the torque, the torque.

Some go around with permanent grins as owners, called a "Permagrin."

I could go on.

Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

If I'm not mistaken I believe Blue Flame Restorations has this document. This is a digitized copy that I keep in my ZR-1 file.


http://www.zr1.net/forum/picture.php...pictureid=1902



http://www.zr1.net/forum/picture.php...pictureid=1903

Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

Fantastic...that explains what happens...they pick a hp and rpm to promote and it is not necessarily the maximum. One friend not on here but who worked for GMAC said there was often pressure from insurance interests not to promote cars with real true maximum horsepower...lots of different influences. By the way, that's 6600 rpms.....my car has a rev limiter set to 7200 rpms if memory serves so hp would be higher yet...though torque would likely have peaked.


thanks for posting. that is terrific information and explains a lot of things to me.

Great stuff.

Lance Pearson

Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

Wow, Lance and FullyVetted, as if I wasn't fully convinced that I needed a ZR1.... now you're just driving me crazy :D

That document is quite the find, has anyone here ever dynoed their stock ZR1 to sort of verify this? I can't even imagine the amount of power the car must make up above 7000 rpm!

Oh and shifting into THIRD at 92mph?? My LT1 shifts into fourth at that speed...








Guys, the ZR1 is really calling me, I need help!

Re: Pros and Cons of ZR1 ownership
 

I think the 440 hp run was with headers. A lot of the dyno plots I've seen that power peak at that high of an rpm have different pipes. The early cars power peak near 5900 rpm with the stock cams and exhaust manifolds.

Easy gains though..and one I still don't have due to CA emissions law.