A younger enthusiast sent me a link to a YouTube video labeling the 2019 ZR1 as a “widow maker”:
2019 Corvette ZR1 Review-America’s Widow Maker
Here’s my reply:
Thanks,
I guess you could kill yourself in a C7 ZR1 through recklessness, incompetence, etc.
I am not a top driver by any means, but I find the C7 ZR1 quite survivable. It has excellent traction and stability controls. Just don’t be a facebook-[censored] and turn them off. Traction control is your best friend in a powerful car, and with traction and stability control ‘on’, it’s still a ton-a-fun.
The traction control in a C6 ZR1 will keep you safe but the earlier C6 system feels more intrusive than the C7’s.
Both cars have torque-management settings called PTM (Performance Traction Management) that allow you to floor it in a corner and not spin out. Just don’t turn the [censored] thing off!
And both cars build speed quickly — you can get behind in your steering and that can be fatal. Like the guy on Rt 120 (not far from where I used to live) maybe ten years back in his Cyber Gray C6 ZR1. You could ask him, ‘but the conversation would be a trifle one-sided’, to steal from Humphery Bogart’s script.
- Man killed, wife injured after Corvette slams into tree in McHenry
- Two Airlifted, One Killed in Single Vehicle Crash
- Man driving a ZR1 lost control and died yesterday in McHenry, IL
In contrast, my long, long-ago ’67 427 Corvette brought me too close to trouble, too many times. That was one twitchy [censored]. 98” wheelbase. Old-tech tires. Lots of torque.
Oh, if you hit a spot of wet roadway…. I’ve been 90 degrees to the two-lane several times. It gets your attention, and saving it was a miracle, each time.
Once was many decades ago, crossing a two-lane bridge on curving Miller Road at night where a spot-rainstorm suddenly wet the highway, while the throttle was, um, applied. I saved it. Or God did. I said nothing to my lovely girlfriend, she sat there wordlessly, and we said nothing, NOTHING when we arrived intact at our friends’ party. But life could have been very, very different that night. It is definitely not good when the side-of-the-road scenery is going across the windshield.
Another long, long ago time that I can still see: I pulled out to pass on Old McHenry Rd, and I stepped on it pretty good – I was used to my less-torquey small-block LT-1 Camaro. But the Corvette snapped to nearly 90 degrees to the two-lane. I had enough opposite lock steering to save it, or again, God did. Maybe the martial arts training even helped a little. I glimpsed at the young guys in the car as I passed them, sideways – I had a great view into their side windows. And, um, their eyes were kinda big. As the Corvette straightened out, I waved as I went by, as if I always passed that way.
Not proud of that, not bragging, both events were many decades-ago stupidity on my part.
And I’m almost 70 now, so I don’t feel bad at all about driving a lot slower with a lot more safety margin.
