2017 C7 Corvette Grand Sport Leads Chevrolet Into The 2016 Lightning Lap
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It has been 10 years since Car and Driver took to Virgina International Raceway to begin benchmarking cars on possibly the most technical road course in the United States. This year was no different.
With 18 entrants across multiple manufacturers, the results were varied with a handful of intriguing conclusions. For this space, though, we’re concerned with the three General Motors machines present: the 2017 C7 Corvette Grand Sport, 2017 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE and 2017 Chevrolet Camaro LT 1LE.
Starting with the Camaro SS 1LE, the track-packed brute landed at number 11 out of 18 contenders. Don’t fret, Camaro faithful, it’s still quite the feat. Here are just a few vehicles the optional 1LE package managed to out-handle at the track: Audi R8 V10 Plus, Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and the BMW M2.
If there’s anything the Camaro team should be proud of, though, it’s the Camaro LT 1LE. With just its naturally aspirated 3.6-liter LGX V6 under the hood and trickle-down SS goodies, the 2017 Camaro LT 1LE was just one tenth behind the Ford Focus RS (read more on Ford’s showing right here). Even crazier? It was only four tenths behind the Hellcat.
And finally, Chevrolet’s best showing occurred in the 2017 C7 Corvette Grand Sport. The darling Corvette managed to land at the number four spot on the Lightning Lap board with a 2:47.1, just one tenth behind the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. However, it trounced the McLaren 570S and Acura NSX. Oh, and the Grand Sport managed this with a standard seven-speed manual.
But, the star was undeniably the Dodge Viper ACR (read more on Dodge’s showing here). With a 2:44.2 lap time, it crushed the showing of performance metal in a significant fashion. The runner-up, a Ferrari 488GTB, was nine tenths slower.
And that’s that. Check out videos of all three Chevrolets making their passes around VIR: C7 Corvette Grand Sport here, Camaro SS 1LE here and Camaro V6 1LE here.
- Sweepstakes Of The Month: Win a 2023 Corvette Z06 Convertible. Details here.
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