mccollum_007

iTrader: (4)

Well I was at the track a couple weeks ago and saw this really nice clean looking C4 red with chrome ZR1 wheels, and an older guy driving it so I asked him if he wanted to go and he said sure. So we lined up and I was under the assumption that if it was a regular C4 I would have no problem beating him or atleast giving him a good race (although this was before the headers and ORY so all I had was the catback and flopac) but he ended up beating me by like 3 or 4 tenths and this was on a 1000ft. track so it would have been even more by the 1/4. I ran pretty bad cause it was really hot and humid outside and my engine was pretty heat soaked but I mean his car had the same conditions as mine so thats not really an excuse. My question is could this have been one of those rare ZR1's, I don't know much about them but to beat me by that much it seems like it would have to be or he would have to be modded pretty nicely which it didn't sound like cause he had stock looking/sounding exhaust and everything.

nyteryder167

iTrader: (10)

Coulda been, but what did he run? There are ZR-1 badges on the lower right hand side of the rear bumper, did you see anything there? ZR-1's definitely sound much meaner than a stock sounding exhaust, so it's tough to say.

2 FASST SS

Could have been a C4 with a wet kit. ZR1's are hard to come by and you would see the badges, specifically on the bottom of the rear bumper.

mccollum_007

iTrader: (4)

No he didn't have any badges on him and his wheels didn't look like the ones in those pics. They look like the ZR1 wheels lots of F-body guys put on there cars. Keep in mind this was 1000ft. on a really bad day but he was running an 11.3 compared to my 11.6 or 11.7 I believe can't remember exactly(I ran an 11.3 back in the spring so that would mean he was running around a 11 flat or 10.9 on a good day which equates to right around a 12.9 1/4 mile and I know that he's not going to be doing that in a stock C4....Any other suggestions just cause Id like to find out what it was I was racing haha. BTW the car looked exactly like this except his wheels were chrome.

2 FASST SS

Those look like they could be after market rims. You are right, the do come with the wheels the camaros sport. I can't see why someone would pull the badges off of a ZR-1 (I think one of the most rarest corvettes). IMO it was not a ZR-1 vette.

Fulton 1

iTrader: (9)

^These are not ZR-1 wheels, those look like the Dymag wheels that were often found on the B2K cars. This is actually a strange pic because the ZR-1 emblem on the side of the hood didn't happen until 1992 and that's a 1990 front end. Plus AFAIK there was never any "Tuned Port Injection" nomenclature on the Z's.




Anyway, getting back to your question and this pic - its hard to tell whether the one you raced was a ZR-1 or not without a pic or some info from you on the styling queues. It would help if we knew approximately what year it was.

There are several ways of distinguishing a Z from a regular C4, but they vary somewhat depending on the year (not so much the Z itself, but the regular C4s changed quite a bit during the ZR-1's lifespan). The fact that your sighting had chrome ZR1 wheels doesn't help either since they would have been aftermarket anyway (OEM ZR1 wheels were painted). The 94-95 were the only ones that got the 5-spoke designs stock BTW. Couple easy things to look for when trying to identify a ZR1 without the hood open are the high-mount third brake light on post-1990 C4's (like in your above pic of the 1994 Z), stick-on rear CORVETTE badge as opposed to the debossed design of the regular post-1990 C4's, black spacers on either side of the rear license plate (between the plate and the reverse lights), obviously the wide back end (3" wider, actually) and 315's, lower rocker sill panels (ie you can't see the pinch weld like in a regular C4). Of course the "ZR-1" badges would be the most obvious probably to someone unfamiliar with the car - 1990-1991 only had the right rear badge, 1992-1995 had right rear + both sides of the hood just behind the front wheelwells.

Not sure if that helps, but, again, without a pic or a good description there's no telling. As far as 1/4-mile times (which doesn't really apply to you anyway since you're at a 1000-ft track) they're all over the place. I've seen old guys run 14's with them and I've seen them running 10's (not stock of course ). There are definitely modded Z's out there as there are a ton of modded C4's so the fact that this one was fast, IMO, isn't really an indication that it was a ZR-1 unless you know for a fact it was bone stock or something. Obviously if it looked *exactly* like the pic of the red one above, then it was a Z...

s346k

iTrader: (4)

i've seen a stock zr1 go 12.7s @ 112-114...obviously spinning.

mccollum_007

iTrader: (4)

Yea I wish I could remember more about what it looked like but I didn't pay that much attention to him before we raced cause we were in the staging lanes when I saw him... Maybe it was just a modded C4 with stock exhaust or something like that cause I didn't get to look under his hood but I know his exhaust was factory sounding/looking since my car had stock manifolds and cats with just a magnaflow catback and was way louder than his car. I didn't know the chrome ZR1's were not factory either I just figured it was an option and with it being an older guy who could afford a Z it just kinda dawned on me afterwards but who knows.

Fulton 1

iTrader: (9)

Too bad about the stock exhaust because (if it was a ZR-1 anyway) there is nothing quite like the sound of an LT5 with a free-flowing exhaust at about 7000rpm.

mccollum_007

iTrader: (4)

Yea it would be sweet if it really was a ZR1 just so I could say I got whooped by one but oh well maybe he'll be at the track some other time this year and with my LT's/ORY and tune we might see a different outcome this time