10 Years Of Rivalry: Chevrolet Corvette Vs Porsche 911 At Lightning Lap
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Despite very different configurations, as Car and Driver points out, the Porsche 911 and Chevrolet Corvette have been around for 50 years. It’s the best America and Germany ever gave to its affordable sports car, both settling on the Corvette and 911 nameplates.
Over the past 10 years, the vehicles have been present at each and every Lightning Lap contest, and C&D has put together a handy flipbook of a tale of two sports cars. It begins, obviously, in 2006, when Lightning Lap was founded. The Corvette on hand was a 2006 C6 Corvette Z51, which was good for 3:09.1 around Virgina International Speedway. The Porsche was a good ol’ 911 Turbo, clocking a 3:05.8.
Flash forward to 2016, 10 years later, and my, how things have changed. But also stayed the same.
The 2017 C7 Corvette Grand Sport nearly matched the 911 GT3 RS around VIR, clocking a time only one tenth off the Porsche. Even more impressive is the Grand Sport’s standard seven-speed manual gearbox doing shifting duties.
Let’s not forget, though, about what the C7 Corvette Z06 was capable of at last year’s Lightning Lap: a blistering 2:44.6, three seconds faster than the 911 GT3 RS. Yowza.
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I know I’m not a purist but why do all these enthusiast magazines insist on using a slower 7 speed Vette in all the comparison tests? Use the eight speed automatic–it is quicker!
Guess those foreign loving mags would find it repulsive to have a non-DCT automatic spank the Porsche!
I’ll second this. Every time some car rag does one of their “which is the fastest” dog and pony shows, they always hobble the ‘vette with that damn manual. Nothing against manuals, but a good, well-thought out auto, (which Chevy has) will always be faster. A race between the Corvette and a 911 will never really be apples to apples, but come on guys, at least get as close as you can.
This shows that it doesn’t make any sense to pay over $50,000 more for just a tenth of a second. And the Chevy Corvette is more street smart and “cool” for everday driving to the store than any German import.