The 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1

The Corvette is the iconic American sports car. At a time when sports cars were all small nimble little vehicles with tiny engines Chevrolet put a huge engine into a sports car and created the Corvette. Over the years it has become one of the most popular cars of all time and the 2009 ZR1 does nothing to change that. It is now quite common for top of the line sports cars to have very large engines so the Corvettes 6.2 litre V8 that produces over six hundred horsepower really doesn’t stand out any more. The car is now on the verge of moving over the line from being a sports car to being a super car. With a massive engine and a six figure price tag it is starting to reach that category.

If you are going to be a super car you had better be fast and the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is certainly that. With a top speed of over two hundred miles per hour it is one of the fastest cars on the road. However if there is one criticism of the ZR1 it may actually be that it is falling behind in the horsepower race. While Corvette continues to stick with the V8 most of its competitors are moving onto V10 and V12 engines. Surely Chevrolet will follow suit someday but for now they are starting to fall behind.

Of course there is a lot more to a super car than just a big engine. There is also the issue of handling. This is an area where the Corvette also falls behind. It doesn’t have the same kind of traction control as its competitors and that makes it a bit of a handful to drive. While a lot of people would consider this to be a good thing as they think that things like traction control take the fun out of driving. That being said with the kind of power that modern super cars have it really is a necessity to keep you from scaring yourself, or worse. The fact is safety is a bit of an issue with the Corvette ZR1.

In terms of things like the interior of the car the Corvette can stand with any car in its class. However a lot of the stuff that is standard on competitor’s cars has to be purchased as an extra on the ZR1. Chevrolet says this is because a lot of their customers buy the cars to race them and have no use for things like a navigation system. This may be true but it does seem kind of cheap to not provide these things on a hundred thousand dollar car. If you do go for the options that are available you will have a car that really performs and is also comfortable to drive. The 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is aimed at a very specific market and those people are quite happy with the car.