Last year, Ford and Chevrolet got into a bit of a slap fight when the C7 Corvette ZR1 set a lap of 2:37.25 at Virginia International Raceway, toppling the previous course record of 2:38.62, which was set by the Ford GT.
VIR is a common place for magazines and manufacturers to test new vehicles, so we expected the C7 Corvette ZR1’s record to fall at some point—though we didn’t expect it to take a near-$1 million car to topple the time.
During the recent Car and Driver Lightning Lap test, one of the magazine’s editors climbed behind the wheel of the McLaren Senna and set a rather ridiculous lap time of 2:34.9, beating the C7 Corvette ZR1 by over two seconds.
It’s not much of a surprise to see the Senna beat the Corvette—in fact, it would have been extremely embarrassing if it hadn’t. The supercar tips the scales at just over 3,000 lbs, has a 789-horsepower twin-turbocharged V8 sitting midship and enough downforce to rival some race cars. We should note it was riding on the factory-spec Pirelli Trofeo R tires for the lap and not some extra sticky prototype tires or something of that sort.
The real kicker here is the cost. The C7 Corvette ZR1, as you may already know, starts at $121,995, with the ZTK Performance Package adding $2,995 to the price tag. The Senna, meanwhile, starts at an eye-watering $837,000. That sure is a lot of extra cash to go two seconds faster at VIR. We know the real draw of the Senna is its exclusivity, but C7 Corvette ZR1 fans can certainly take some solace in the fact that their car remains one of the best performance bargains around.
This record also has us wondering what the upcoming high-performance variants of the new mid-engine Corvette C8 will be capable of. We’ve heard all sorts of rumors that Chevrolet is preparing some ridiculously powerful model variants for its new supercar and we’d be surprised if it wasn’t setting the Senna’s lap time in its crosshairs for one of them.
For now, though, you can watch Car and Driver lap the Senna around VIR in the video embedded below.
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Comments
Wow, 2.35 seconds out of 94 octane and $850k!
Unless it was those push rods that got in the way! ?
Considering the Ford GT was a 3.5 L V-6 compared to the other two having monster V-8’s it seems some extraordinary engineering and overall fairly equal lap times to the Vette shows who the real winner is. Of course, even copy cat styling doesn’t even compare to the Ford GT’s beautiful lines.
The GT is (was) a race car made street legal that needed a “do not sell disclosure” to protect its image, where is it now? Do you think half a liter quantifies as the measure between what is or isn’t huge?
Your still missing the point. The obtainable/conventional competing with and/or out performing (your Ford was beat) the unobtainable/unconventional in price/design (carbon fiber chassis, I do not see mid-engine as unconventional in a supercar).
I like this one.
The new GT snagged the lap record at our annual Lightning Lap track test at Virginia International Raceway with a time of 2:43.0, although it held onto the record for only a few months. At the track, we found it to be “brutally fast, [forgoing] nearly all comforts in its quest for speed and cornering agility.” – CAR and DRIVER
In the GT’s defense, it never had any “comforts”, race cars are not designed to. But the car that beat it around VIR was and it makes money.
Price scale
$1M
900k
$837k 2019 McLaren Senna starting at (CAR and DRIVER)
800k
700k
600k
500k 2019 Ford GT starting at (CAR and DRIVER)
400k
300k
200k
$122k 2019 Corvette ZR1 starting at (CAR and DRIVER)
100k
VIR Lap times
2:34.90 2019 McLaren Senna
2:37.25 2019 Corvette ZR1
2:38.62 2019 Ford GT
VIR Dollars per second performance scale
2019 Corvette ZR1 ____$775.83 per second
2019 Ford GT ________$3152.19 per second
2019 McLaren Senna $5403.49 per second
0-60 seconds/per dollar
2019 Corvette ZR1 3.0 (CAR and DRIVER) _$40,667 per second or __$4,067 per 1/10 sec.
2019 Ford GT _____3.0 (GMA) ____________$166,667 per second or $16,667 per 1/10 sec.
2019 Senna ______2.8 (CAR and DRIVER) $298,929 per second or $29,893 per 1/10 sec.
What do you want, blig or sting?
The 2020 Corvette is now mid-engine but has not (yet) gone to carbon fiber = obtainable!
See you fella’s when the C8 “King of the Hill” arrives!
@Fastyle
You took all that time to put all those details down but ignored 3 basic facts.
1. Despite your calculations the McLaren is still faster. 2. Your Calculations are for a single lap time…let’s multiply your calculations over 20 laps.
3. People who buy a McLaren don’t need to worry about a best bang for a buck. Yes the new C8 is going to be faster…but the next Hyper McLaren is going be also. Even the new 750LT is going to be a beast. I am not knocking Corvettes, I am just saying be real.
fastyle,
Only a simpleton would make such an argument to justify their flawed and biased perception.
martin,
You actually think McLaren copied Ford…??????????????????????
Even those who hate the Corvette can’t deny its superior value/performance . Not many if any 120k cars are even close to that speed.
Adam,
Isn’t that the sorry excuse for American cars when they get beat, the price? Of course it’s cheaper as it’s not even in the same league.
wow Carry there always has to be one in every crowd, and you are it. why do people like you bother trolling ? it’s abvious you don’t like Corvettes so why bother I don’t go to euro trash sites or ford site etc stop being a tool
Do you like air conditioning & music…………
Winans,
Not if I want to go fast
The real question is what sort of time will the $60K 2020 Chevrolet C8 Corvette Z51 Stingray score.
You guys completely missed this comment:
“one of the magazine’s editors climbed behind the wheel of the McLaren Senna and set a rather ridiculous lap time of 2:34.9, beating the C7 Corvette ZR1 by over three seconds.”
Unlike the Ford GT and ZR1, the Senna wasn’t driven by professional drivers but by a magazine journalist. Can you just imagine if it was? The Senna isn’t in the same league but not even in the same universe as the other 2.
This is my fault for not including this, Bob, but McLaren actually sent out one of their drivers, Andre D’Cruze, who was not able to lap the car faster than C&D’s hotshoe. I assume this is due to him being new to VIR and the journalist in question having more track time there.
Make that 2.35 seconds!
The ZR1 was being driven by Chevrolet’s Vehicle Dynamics Engineer Jim Mero (not by a professional driver) during “routine validation testing”. Routine meaning 24 hours of hardcore, at-limit track testing, not during a few hot laps while the motor, turbos and brakes are barely warmed up. All the while carrying 600-700 lbs. less weight which obviously it puts to good use in down force, McLaren claimed 1763 lbs. compared to the ZR1’s 900 lbs.
The Senna is sure to be one of if not the most limited production McLarens made, how many do you really think they will make? again, race car made street legal.
I guess we need to run both the McLaren Senna GTR and Corvette C8.R at VIR.
Any journalist’s up for trying to put that one together?
fastyle,
Jim Mero is an engineer but he’s also one of GM’s most experienced test drivers and he holds a professional racing license.
He’s the real deal and certainly not just an eager schmuck at the wheel.
How often does he compete in world class sanctioned races?
Either way, point was/is the ZR1’s lap time wasn’t durring hot laps.
Excuses are a losers sad consolation. It’s ridiculous to even compare both cars. It sells magazines. End of story.
On a faster track, the differences would be even more pronounced.
No one is making excuses “zora” (how coincidental? probably not! clever? more likely! staffer, possibly? but who cares!!!).
Either way, as you say “It’s ridiculous to even compare both cars”.
Correct, but, they are being compared because a near million dollar Mclaren was only able to beat GM’s dagger version of it’s mass produced car by a margin of 1/60 of it’s own time. While costing seven times as much!
Again, no one is making excuses, saying so is having nothing worth adding.
Here’s one for you, saying that GM is not set up to produce low production run cars no matter the price, I guess you would call that an excuse correct?
The truth is they are not, 1.5M Corvettes vs 17,000 Mclarens (approx) all time? , if they were, my money is on that car having more then a Two.ThreeFive second margin in lap time!
Why no Ring time Zora, sorry, …Ayrton?
Well I am not really a Mclaren fan as most of all of them all kind of blend together with no real strong styling to set them apart. Good performance just not much in styling. The Senna got it right on both terms in styling and performance.
The Senna is not in the same league as most cars performance wise but it’s not in price either.
The way I see it there are two classes of mid engine sports cars. the million dollar class and the $100K-300K class. The Senna has beaten some of the most expensive for less in the higher class. The C8 is beating the lower segment at a much lower price.
They are both sports cars but they are targeting much different customers. The Senna is targeting the La Ferrari while the Corvette is targeting the lower priced volume models from Audi, Mclaren , Porsche and Ferrari.
Both have won their segments.
Ford tried to split the two classes but beat no one. They screwed up the formula of the last GM where it was a car that sold in numbers and price you may actually see one on the road throughout America. the new one I have only seen at races driven by Ganassi officials. They made their goal of winning Le Mans but left a lot on the table. I wager they did not do enough to earn back their investment.
I saw Grand Tour take the Mclaren out and I have to say I was really impressed. I now would like to see Jeremy take the C8 out and just see what he things. He was smitten by the ZR1 so I expect he will appreciate the car build by fat men in Kentucky once more.