video Z06 vs. Porsche

http://www.s3mag.com/porsche.wmv

 

That's a little hard to believe. The Z06 is a decent car, but with stock suspension and its weight, it'd be nearly impossible to hang with any 911 pure race car--not to mention one w/650 ponies. Either the race car really had 250-350hp and was a rebodied '70s car, or the driver was taking it easy. This isn't a slam on Vette's, I had a mod'd C5 with lots 'o power, and with it's weight and handling, there'd be no way to hang like that. At the end there, the 911 took off, so if it did have the stated power, maybe the driver was just warming up the tires for the first part...

 

vette should've been faster yet, from the vid looks like ~2:36 lap which is a bit slow for hoosiers & intake/exhaust car .

p-car guy was probably learning how to drive, or had an awful set up on his car. 650 hp racecar should be under 2:20 at RA even with non-pro driving it.

 

Not to be cynical, but it looked like a typical DE event. Fast cars with slow drivers, slow cars with fast drivers, slow cars with slow drivers (cobra)....how can you tell anything from this?? I've honestly not driven RA, but it looked as though both of them were early on the brakes going into some of the turns. Perhaps some of you more experienced drivers could chime in...

 

i like vettes but i don't have any gold chains. oh well, gt 2 or 3 will be my next mod

 

Agreed. It's just typical track day footage (which is always fun), but there is such a diversity of drivers and cars on track days, nobody really knows how to compare one to another. The drivers' skills alone make a huge difference. A buddy came back from racing school years ago with a story of his class turning laps in open wheel race cars, and all of a sudden the whole group got passed by a Mazda 323 hatchback with an instructor behind the wheel.

There's no real conclusion I could draw from the vid, I'd just say if that's a 650hp 911 racer, the guy either didn't know how to drive, or was just warming up. I'd wager he was just warming up; bad drivers don't stay on track long in 650hp race cars, especially 911's.

 

I didn't see the video so I don't know which Cobra you are talking about, but if it's '03 or '04 one you are smoking something hard......

 

'03-'04 cobra is one of the worst road race cars out there. 1st GIGANTIC heat pump on top of the motor. 2nd close to 4000lbs with driver..........
I know in the SCCA Club racing last year the 1 '03 cobra racing in T1 was slower than most of the T2 cars.....

 

Like you said, you didn't see the video.

If you HAD seen the video, you would have seen both the Vette and P-car passing a Cobra and then a Mustang (I can't tell if the 2nd one is a Cobra or not). That is not to say that all Mustangs or Cobras are slow cars, but these two cars clearly were not set up for the track and so the track-prepped P-Car and Corvette came up on them quickly on the straights and the turns.

And by the way, I think those slow cars were '03 or '04 models.

So smoke that.

 

This video is your typical DE mish-mash. The vette driver has an instructor riding along, so it must be the beginner group! This is not ZO6 vs Porsche, but one DE beginner vs another!
I did a NASA DE at RoadAtlanta in March and got to run with the Vettes, Vipers, ZO6's, a ZR-1, NSX's, and Mustangs. It all comes down to driver skill! I ran in a combined 3-4 group. Group 4 was the instructors. There was a bunch of ZO6's, Mustang Cobra's, and NSX's I easily beat every session. Then there was a ZO6, an NSX, and a 350Z that managed to pass me everytime. The ZO6 could have put out a video saying "ZO6 vs 500HP TT" at RA.
Guys, it's all the driver, maybe 75% and then the car.

 

Pretty cool.

It was entertaining watching the Z06 out break and out corner the Porsche then seeing the Porsche just nail it and spead the gap once again.

thanks for the vid.

 

Looks like the pcar was giving the z06 a glimmer of hope then decided to kick it back to the curb. It was like watching a cat play with a ball of yarn.

 

I have seen this video before and it really comes down to driver at events like this. It is obvious that if a more seasoned driver piloted the 911 that things would have been different.

 

As many of you said you can't tell very much based on a video, with drivers that can vary greatly in skill level. However, in every comparison I've read thus far the C6 Corvette has achieved faster lap times than the 997. That's not to say it won every performance catagory, but lap times were without fail a bit faster.

Also, a stock 4.6 blown Cobra weighs around 3700 lbs for hard top. I wouldn't say that's "close to 4000 lbs". And in the real world they're putting out close to 425 horsepower at the crank. OBVIOUSLY the handling isn't going to be to the caliber of a Porsche, but come on. It's a $35,000 pony car for crying out loud. They run high 12s stock, and have exceptional handling for their class.

 

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