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145 Comments
- blofeld9999, on 01/30/2009, -2/+60So 4 inches total?
- ColorBlind, on 01/30/2009, -1/+45The Lamborghini then. Much more subtle.
- StigNordas, on 01/30/2009, -2/+38I can't believe how good the ZR1 has gotten. Compare it to the corvette from the late 80's, it's unrecognizable!
- tinkafoo, on 01/30/2009, -0/+35Oh no, we broke Top Gear's server?!
that's not gone well.. - arlok789, on 01/30/2009, -0/+32Digg has destroyed Top Gear's website. I am sure Clarkson would have something witty to say.
- mozidesigner, on 01/30/2009, -2/+30Site unavailable.
Thanks Digg :) - SuperVepr308, on 01/30/2009, -7/+31The Vette is bad ass for the money but there is just something about a Lambo or Ferrari that it can never overtake.
- hobogeneral, on 01/30/2009, -3/+26my penis grew 3 inches by watching this.
- 49CentTacos, on 01/30/2009, -7/+28Oh... C0ck.
- DestinRL, on 01/30/2009, -1/+21For the Italians in this duel, it's like a night at the opera. All the showiness and drama of La Scala. Huge cast, elaborate costumes, deep lungs, music by Puccini or Verdi. For the Americans, it's the straightforwardness of a four-piece guitar band. Maybe The Killers. (Or are The Killers a bad choice of analogy? "Are we human or are we dancer?" not so very straightforward, really. "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier," huh? It was reimagined by Bill Bailey as, "I've got ham but I'm not a hamster." Anyway, I digress.)
The Murciélago LP640 and Corvette ZR1 couldn't be more different. To their fans, both hold an extraordinary power to captivate and move. Both camps find the other a bit pointless.
Pointless? How in the blue blazes can any 200-mph car be pointless? For the Corvette crowd, it's the attention-seeking cantankerousness of the Lambo that undermines it. Their beloved American idol is so easy to live with, you can use it all the time. That way, you can enjoy its pulverizing acceleration and face-bending cornering whenever the opportunity presents itself. From the Corvette side of the fence, the Murciélago is such a demanding luvvy that you might just be tempted to leave the thing at home.
But to fans of the Lamborghini, that's the entire point of a Murciélago. Yes, it asks an awful lot of you, and yes, it makes a savage impression wherever it goes. It is a rolling event, a special-occasion car, and you should feel privileged to be a part of the whole hysterical performance. If you can't stand the heat, get out of la cucina.
Of course, the Murciélago LP640 and the Corvette ZR1 do have something in common, and that's the reason we've brought them together: their huge power and hallucinatory speed. Let's get those astonishing figures out of the way, just to establish their bona fides. Lambo: 632 hp, 0-62 in 3.4 seconds, 210 mph. ZR1: 647 hp, 0-62 in 3.5 seconds, 205 mph. Not so very far apart, eh?
But look at the differences. The Lambo has a mid-mounted normally aspirated V12, four-wheel drive and a flappy paddle transmission. The Corvette has a front-engine supercharged V8 driving the rear wheels. It might be slower away from rest while its 335-section tires spin like Catherine wheels, but real-world acceleration is a different matter because it's some 330 pounds lighter than the Lambo.
Mind you, none of those technical differences goes even one percent of the way to illustrating the real difference between these two cars. They just don't begin to explain the straightforwardness and sheer pragmatic approachability of the Corvette, or the outrageously demanding and domineering nature of the Lamborghini.
Just to climb into the Lambo is a palaver. The door swings up, you drop down into the strange skeletal seat, you pull down the door and the seat belt comes down from your inboard shoulder. The steering wheel is somewhere between your knees, your head bumps against the top of the door, you can't see to reverse unless you've specified the optional $3,700 rear-view cam. Basically, Lambo made space for the engine and transmission and wheels, styled a bizarrely dramatic shape to drape over them, and then chiseled out a small and inconvenient space for the person who's paying for it all and his or her probably slightly terrified companion.
The Corvette is, well, a car. Open the door, sit inside. Everything's where you'd expect it to be, including your luggage, which simply goes in through the hatchback. You can see out. You can understand it all. The ride's not too punishing, and at normal speeds it isn't too noisy. The gearbox is slow, but none of the controls are heavy. The ZR1 is a ridiculously easy car to use in the ho-hum of everyday driving. The Lambo is anything but. It sets you on edge, what with its slightly bolshie e-gear transmission and colossal width and minimal ground clearance and ear-bleeding noise.
If you have the exuberance to match its limitless craziness, the Murciélago is a source of wonder that never dims. If you simply want to nip around the corner and park without drawing a crowd, it's an embarrassment. As you maneuver into place, all fizzing V12 tailpipe racket and smell of burning clutch, then open the scissor door and stumble inelegantly out, a hundred pairs of eyes are questioning your reproductive endowment and wondering if you're in the grip of a compensatory imperative.
The ZR1's great trick is in managing to be so outrageously fast and such an inspired drive that it calls into question the drama of the Murciélago. If a car can go as hard as this easygoing ZR1, why on earth does the Lambo need to be so intimidating? The Corvette poses a nagging question about the Murciélago: at the center of this Italian bluster, is there a hollow, false heart?
No. Categorically, there is not. The Lambo absolutely has the trousers to match its mouth. The engine, for a start, isn't just about shattering performance or an utterly captivating Richter-8 soundquake. It's also instantly responsive. But you do have to be paying attention: The power builds with every extra rev, especially beyond 5,000, and so the max power arrives at 8,000, the exact instant the rev limiter cuts in. So to get the best out of it, you have to be right on the case with your gear-change timing.
Whatever. You're sure to be traveling at some hectic sort of pace when you start to explore the cornering. And here the Murciélago sends you a surprise parcel. It isn't half as scary as you'd think. Provided you can see where the road goes (the a-pillars get in the way) and you have enough tarmac (the rear end is disproportionately wider than the front), you'll be OK.
Its steering is just sublime: You can pour the Murciélago into corners and commune intimately with the front tire treads, sensing exactly how much grip they can call on. It begins with gentle understeer, but you've always got the power to settle things. Don't delude yourself, though — this is not a car you ever slide. Step beyond its comfort zone and it will turn as scary as it looks. Live within it, and there's the balance and feel of a sort of Impreza squared.
The sheer force of the Murciélago's acceleration and braking and cornering grip, and the subtler sensory array of noise and steering feel, make for an experience that takes everything we love about cars and goes beyond it. Truly, a supercar.
Can the Corvette answer all this? Oh, yes. But it's more traditional. And when you're really pushing on, it's actually got the trickier chassis to keep on top of. That's because its steering is fast and a little nervous — the car's set up to be so agile, that on the road I find myself wishing for a little gentle front-end slip in the first few degrees of a corner, just to let me know how adhesive things are down at the front tires. And of course it's rear-drive, which means you can't just stuff down the throttle and expect the car to sort it all out. Apple-pie drifts are there for the taking when the ESP is off, or even when it's in the intermediate Competitive mode.
Set it up right, though, and the mid-bend balance and damping control are sublime. If you really want to get out of a corner sharpish, wait until the apex is well behind you and squeeze the loud pedal progressively. The 'Vette rewards you with magnetic traction, aided by clever adaptive damping and the balanced weight distribution from its rear-mount gearbox. You're projected away in a drastic, drastic dollop of get-up-and-go.
Thank its supercharger for the ZR1's rocket thrust. While the Lambo has 6.5 liters, the Corvette has almost as much at 6.2, but the lungs of the blower mean you never really need to rev the Corvette to get a brutal episode of acceleration. Just as well, actually, for the six-speed gearbox is on the clunky side. Just stick it in the highest gear you think you're going to need for the foreseeable, and look down on the world from that high-altitude torque curve. Truth is, in a world where automated-clutch and twin-clutch transmissions are becoming the supercar norm, the ZR1's manual box is about the one remaining thing to call low-tech. The chassis and suspension are aluminum, the body carbon, parts of the engine titanium, the brakes carbon-ceramic. The Lambo uses a steel structure, also clothed in carbon.
The cabin of the Lambo is an enveloping, handmade cocoon. That's not the wavy stitching, rattly trim and whiff of glue that once characterized Lamborghinis, either. It's done with the precision and discipline of the Audi parent, but with the flair of the Italians of old. There are, before you ask, no Audi buttons to speak of.
The Corvette feels mass made, because that's what Corvettes are. This brings huge benefits in ergonomics, including a head-up display, but it makes things feel a mite ordinary, despite the leather-wrapped dash. (Can't complain too much, mind: a 911 Turbo's cabin is just a Boxster's in a Saturday night pulling shirt.) What really does let down the ZR1 is its fast-food seats. They're too flabby and wobbly to hold you against the ZR1's immense forces.
The fact that the ZR1 shares a cabin, a suspension, an electronics system, a transmission and a production line — but not a whole lot else — with the mass-made base 'Vette is why it's half the price of the Lamborghini. Still $103,000-plus, mind, but more than half the price. We got this far in the story without mentioning the money because, in all honesty, when you're flat on the throttle, squeezing the brakes or going through a full-chat corner, the money doesn't enter into it.
But there is the crux of the issue for people who just don't get the ZR1. It's stuck in a kind of limbo land. It can deliver the sheer blood-and-guts of a car double its price, so long as your driving style suits this classic knife-edge style. But it looks like a car half its price. And it's just as sensible as the regular Corvette C6.
The Murciélago views the whole notion of sensible with utter disdain. It insists you do things its way, even when that's a bit of a pain in the backside. There are times when my personality simply isn't big enough to cope with that. But given the chance of a proper drive, it would be the one of this pair I'd pick. Not because of its looks or its ef-you personality or its undoubted curiosity value, but because it's such a well-sorted car down the road. - george2gfm, on 01/30/2009, -3/+21maybe interior wise, but the ZR1 is a beast
- freynco, on 01/30/2009, -2/+18because i'm sure you've driven both cars before.
you giving your opinion is like the Jonas Brothers giving singing lessons.. - Vinsher, on 01/30/2009, -2/+17Who else read the review using Jeremy Clarkson's voice...
- inactive, on 01/30/2009, -2/+16Both cars are great :)
- Zervaman, on 01/30/2009, -8/+22Corvette: THE American sports car!
Sorry viper and mustang... - Barbarino, on 01/30/2009, -2/+16The Viper ACR and ZR1 do something that pretty much zero supercars allow you to do. Row your own gears! These playstation paddle shifters are just lame. Even Clarkston hates them.. I doubt the Vette will ever offer a paddle shifter, god bless them!
- tribecom, on 01/30/2009, -1/+14calling bs without a source cited. i'm pretty familiar with vettes and have *never* heard this.
- zerochaos56, on 01/30/2009, -0/+12Mirror anyone?
- Sil3ncer7, on 01/30/2009, -0/+12Ladies and Gentlemen... I bring the Debut of Top Gear vs. Digg...
Gotta love the Digg Effect. - lsatkins, on 01/30/2009, -2/+13Isn't that really the problem with the ZR1? It's just as fast (or faster) and nimble as super cars twice it's price but most people look at it and say "It's just a Corvette"....until you blow the doors off their cars ;-p
- notman, on 01/30/2009, -0/+11Ah yes, rag on the American car, no matter how great of a review it gets.... very original
- Septimus, on 01/30/2009, -0/+11The LP640 destroys it in looks, but the Corvette just appeals to me more. Just seems less up it's own ass and more fun. /not American.
- wkeown, on 01/30/2009, -9/+19I'd take the ZR1.
- Dignan666, on 01/30/2009, -1/+10You're being dug down because people don't know the show.
- patche, on 01/30/2009, -0/+9probably confused with the C4 ZR-1 which had Lotus designed portions through and through
- spritom, on 01/30/2009, -0/+9I'd be interested in hearing more on this. Which companies?
- r3m1x645, on 01/30/2009, -1/+10Something along the lines of "our elegant website couldn't hold up all those chunky Americans with their million billion ton Cadillac Es-Ka-Lades"
- bluechips23, on 01/30/2009, -3/+11Automatic digg for Top Gear
- Spor, on 01/30/2009, -2/+9Lambo's were a lot cooler when I was 12.
- CoD4, on 01/30/2009, -1/+8you do know that the hyundai genesis will destroy an equally priced audi, right?
- proliance, on 01/30/2009, -1/+7The server seems to have run out of gas.
- tierneyb, on 01/30/2009, -0/+6Wonder where your only Digg down came from? I lol'ed, Dugg.
- allanstrings, on 01/30/2009, -1/+7Even after you blow their doors off, it's still just a 'Vette. Their accessibility makes them less exclusive.
Speed is easy, to get 200MPH just spend a little $$.
Nimble is harder, to get 1G lateral, need to spend a little more $$.
Only the big bucks and the right connections can get you a machine that will drop 25 PPH. (panties per hour) - Akshunz, on 01/30/2009, -1/+7Things progress and change over time. Get used to it.
The Corvette ZR1 is just as much of a Supercar as any. - Big-Pat, on 01/30/2009, -0/+6It's just a website! How hard could it be!
- BMAnderson, on 01/30/2009, -2/+7nice metaphor except for unlike audi owning lambo, hyundai had nothing to do with chevy
- BoneStamp, on 01/30/2009, -1/+6@ageedoy
Yes, the Playskool designers are experts in perforated leather and touchscreen navigation. That said, it's not a CTS interior... of course, they are designed for two completely different customers.
Vette:
http://www.z06zone.com/Corvette-ZR1-06.jpg
http://www.z06zone.com/Corvette-ZR1-05.jpg
CTS:
http://z.about.com/d/cars/1/0/p/A/1/09_ctsv_interi ... - aceonline, on 01/30/2009, -0/+5Any idea where else this video is hosted? The TG site appears to be down now...
- EclipseGSX, on 01/30/2009, -1/+6http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6885/tglp640vzr ...
or
http://www.filedropper.com/tglp640vzr1 - spritom, on 01/30/2009, -0/+5The Corvette is made in Bowling Green and the Lambo can be had in a lime green color.
oh, and the Vette gets 26mpg on the highway - serif69, on 01/30/2009, -2/+7Honestly, if I had the money, I'd have both: the Lambo for showing off, and the Vette for blending in.
- Meestafa, on 01/30/2009, -0/+5paddle shifter digg for Top Gear
- Barbarino, on 01/30/2009, -1/+6What planet do you live on?
- inactive, on 01/30/2009, -1/+5When will Top Gear put the ZR1 on their track or are they afraid to have an American car sitting at the top?
- diggit83, on 01/30/2009, -0/+4but what If I am Canadian born, now residing in America? I am a citizen, and voted, but I still feel like a canadian at heart.....are your sites for me?
Oh, and what about all of the naturalized Mexican-Americans? there sure are alot of them, and lets face it, they love porno! It would be silly to think your would leave out both the Mexican American population, and us friendly canuks. - brundlefly76, on 01/30/2009, -0/+4I have always dreamed of driving a Lamborghini since I was a teenager, but whenever I see someone driving one, I'm like "what an overcompensating douchebag".
Whats funny is that I would love to spend some time with it alone, out in the country, and couldn't care less - and would prefer - that no one see me. My fantasy relationship with the Lamborghini is very personal. No one else is invited. - NellyG, on 01/30/2009, -0/+4You forgot his favorite line "This is Rubbish!"
- Dylson, on 01/30/2009, -1/+5@TheMidnight, the Ford GT is an exotic super car. So, it really doesn't fit into the sports car category either.
- BoneStamp, on 01/30/2009, -0/+4Dugg for this paragraph: "If you have the exuberance to match its limitless craziness, the Murciélago is a source of wonder that never dims. If you simply want to nip around the corner and park without drawing a crowd, it's an embarrassment. As you maneuver into place, all fizzing V12 tailpipe racket and smell of burning clutch, then open the scissor door and stumble inelegantly out, a hundred pairs of eyes are questioning your reproductive endowment and wondering if you're in the grip of a compensatory imperative. "
- Super6, on 01/31/2009, -1/+5Words? WTF? This is Top Gear!
-
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