Corvette ZR1 Caught Testing At Laguna Seca

Is Chevrolet prepping for an all-out assault On the Dodge Viper ACR’s Laguna Seca lap record?

A CorvetteForum user with the handle “skank” noticed late last month that General Motors had rented out Laguna Seca for a three-day private test from the 14th through the 16th. Being that he lives in the California Bay Area, he keeps an eye on who is testing what and when at his home track. Being a Corvette fan, he took a trip up to the track to see just what GM had on the docket for the weekend. He’d been hoping to spot a next generation Corvette testing, but instead was pleasantly surprised by the wildly track-oriented ZR1 shaking down for a few laps at the historic racing circuit.

He managed to capture a handful of videos of the cars testing with his cell phone, posting them to his YouTube channel. The more exciting of the videos are here for you to check out. In the video above, you see one of the prototypes warming up through the legendary Corkscrew and down the hill into Rainey curve. Clearly the driver is not pushing things, but you get a good look at the car while it is moving. The video below shows a car hustling up the hill between the drive-over bridge and turn 6, before hauling ass up the Rahal straight.

The videos don’t really do many favors for transferring the sound to your ears, but it certainly sounds a bit like the supercharged LT4-powered Z06 only louder, which goes against the dual-overhead-cam rumors we’ve been hearing for the last 6 months or so. As for the aero, it appears from some of the videos that the so-called ZR1 was tested in both Z07-style aero and with an elevated wing design. What will actually make production and what spec the engine will be, we guess we will just have to wait until GM makes it official.

[Source: Corvette Forum & MrSuchasillygoose on YouTube]