Top Speed Cars Car News

Not that we condone swagger-jacking a car even for recreational purposes – we really, really, really don’t – but if you’re going to do it, you might as well do a good job of keeping your face seen by a camera. Better yet, cover your tracks and leave the camera at home.

Apparently, this man doesn’t have that thing we call ‘smarts’ in his little head. Working as a security guard at the Dallas Auto Auction in Dallas, Texas, the now former employee of the dealership decided that it would be a good and fun idea to boost a Corvette ZR1 – one that costs around $111,000 – and take it out for a nice little hooning under the warm Texas sun.

But as it turns out, this security guard, for whatever reason other than it was completely and amazingly stupid, decided to videotape the whole ordeal, complete with footage of himself getting out of the jacked ZR1 with his arms raised like Rocky before doing some pistol-preening in front of the camera. And to add insult to his stupidity, he went ahead and posted the video clip on You Tube where his employers quickly got a hold of the video, fired the employee, and are now on the verge of pressing charges against the security guard.

Once again, way to go to, Mr. Security Guard! You managed to get yourself fired and get arrested for your idiocy.

Security guard hoons a Corvette ZR1 without permission then posts the clip on You Tube for the world to see originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 4 September 2010 06:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

Former Formula One driver and, now NASCAR driver, Juan Pablo Montoya has never been one to hold his tongue on matters of his opinion. Whether it’s his well-documented rivalry with Michael Schumacher or his penchant for saying and doing the craziest of things at the most inopportune times, Montoya isn’t afraid to speak his mind, and that wasn’t any more evident than during his time with the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.

The Columbian driver recently paid a visit to General Motor’s Milford Proving Grounds and got a chance to drive a number of Chevrolet vehicles, including the Cruze and the Camaro. But no car caught his attention more than the Corvette ZR1.

Talking to the cameras after his run with the ZR1, Montoya was quick to pay the American sports car a few compliments, saying that, “if you’re looking for something that is exciting to drive, that gets your heart pumping pretty fast, it doesn’t get much better than this.”

On the flip side, Montoya’s years as a top-class racer has also exposed him to a wide number of uber fast sports cars and, while he did have some well-earned props for the ZR1, he also, ever so subtly, pointed out that the ZR1 is a car that isn’t for the weak of heart.

Check out the video and watch how the fiery Montoya does behind the wheel of the Corvette.

Video: Juan Pablo Montoya runs a Corvette ZR1 roughshod originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 25 August 2010 23:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

With the real World Cup far behind us, we thought we would host our own world challenge, minus the annoying horns. Okay, yes, the cars do have horns in them, but none of them could be worse than those vuvuzelas.

We took four cars from four different countries in a serious attempt to see which country produced the best performance machine, and to give some self esteem back to the countries that were knocked out of the football tournament. We gave it our all to get four vehicles that were similar in mostly every way. Performance, power, styling, driving dynamics, and build quality inside and out were all examined with a fine tooth comb.

So, it was off to the car dealers to grab our wheels for the test. From the good old United States we have the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, America’s most powerful and most ostentatious sports car. From the fatherland, we have the classic Porsche 911, but this one has a turbo up its backside. From the land of the rising sun, we have the technical wonder, the Nissan GTR. Finally, from our home land, the United Kingdom, we have James Bond’s preferred choice, the Aston Martin DBS.

Let the games begin.

Supercar World Cup: ZR1, DBS, GTR, 911 Turbo originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 25 August 2010 15:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

What is a high-end sports car? Are they Italian performance machines like the Ferrari 458 and the Lamborghini Gallardo, or are they more sensible vehicles like the BMW M5 and the Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG? We think they’re the latter.

For this top ten, we are going to set the price cap at $120,000, if you can call that a cap. That should eliminate most of the extreme vehicles, but keep the basic Porsches and so on within the limits.

What kinds of things are we looking for with high-end sports cars? Obviously, they need to be fast with agile handling and excellent driving dynamics. The car needs to look stunning with a functional yet stylish interior. It would also be great if it could stand the test of time, so reliability is also a factor.

Let’s review the previous winners of our sports car test. The Volkswagen GTI took the top spot in the entry-level test due to its excellent performance, build quality, and versatility. There were numerous winners of the mid-level test, as we had multiple categories. We chose the Audi S4, the BMW M3, and the Ford Mustang GT500 as the top cars in their classes.

Hit the jump to see the list.

TopSpeed’s 10 Best High-End Sports Cars originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 24 August 2010 12:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

Lost in the spectacle of racing series’, like Formula One and NASCAR, is one of the most storied and most difficult events in the auto racing calendar: endurance racing.

Requiring a combination of unbridled physical and mental conditioning, endurance racing takes more than just natural talent and top-level driving skills to succeed, and knowing how to take advantage of the level of preparation needed for endurance racing is already half the battle won.

In the latest episode of Corvette Racing’s Track to Street series, two members of the Corvette Racing Team discuss the tedious work that goes in preparing for long distance races. For both Oliver Gavin, the driver of the no. 4 Corvette, and Ken Flory, chief engineer of the no.3 Corvette, it’s one thing to be able to participate in one, but it’s a completely different ball game to be competitive in these types of races; ones that stretch your physical and mental strength to the absolute limit.

For both Gavin and Flory, accomplished marathon runners in their own right, the experiences they’ve learned in both competitive environments have allowed the pair to become more prepared in the competitive setting both endurance racing and long distance running commonly share. It’s these shared experiences – the ability to focus on the task at hand despite the taxing an exhausting nature of these two sports – that has given both Gavin and Flory, and the entire Corvette Racing Team for that matter, the know-how to not only infuse their knowledge and experiences on the team, but more importantly, to be able to compete at a high level in both sports.

Want to see the first eight episodes? Hit the jump for some useful links!

Episode 9 of Corvette Racing’s "Track to Street" Series originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 23 August 2010 09:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

GM has already denied rumors about a future mid-engined Corvette, but Jalopnik has some spy pictures of a very strange looking sports car. This spied Corvette features an extended wheelbase Corvette with modified bodywork and a lot of space behind the front seats.

We do not know for sure, but considering the manufacturer plates, we presume this is a testing mule of the future generation Corvette C7.

The guy who caught this car testing said: “It’s a hybrid mule, it has narrow width front tires, extended body to accommodate the drivetrain (Corvette has a rear transmission), and, interestingly, a plug outlet cover on the ass of it? The front wheels also do not match the rear wheels. Just my thought…. since GM mentioned a hybrid Corvette sounds possible.”

The future C7 will go into production in April of 2012 and will then go on sale for the 2013 model year. As previously reported, its exterior design will be inspired by the Stingray concept.

Update: Some readers have pointed out that the manufacturer plate on this vehicle is not from Michigan, as all GM test vehicles usually are. It seems the California manufacturer plate 44699 belongs to Fisker. This should be enough to put GM out of the equation and assign this car to the Fisker company. That also explains the rear plug, as Fisker is primarily focusing on electric cars.

Strange looking Chevrolet Corvette spied testing originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 13 August 2010 18:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

A little while ago, we wrote on the possibility of a mid-engine Corvette. Karl Stracke, General Motors Vice President of Global Engineering has just denied these rumors when he spoke to Automotive News and Autoweek.

“There is no mid-engine in the plans,” said Stracke.

The mid-engined Corvette has been in our minds for years, almost as long as the car has been around. There have been numerous concepts and different sketches that keep our minds focused on this possibility. The latest machine was the CERV-III concept that debuted in 1990.

Stracke also put down the possibility of a V6 Corvette, as GM has just created a new small-block V8 that might find its way into the sports car sometime in the future. He did say that a hybrid might come along eventually, but we can only imagine how that would go over with the Corvette faithful.

Let us know what you think down below. Do you think there should be a V6 in the Corvette or a hybrid? Or do you think the engine should be in the middle?

GM Denies Rumors Of The Mid-Engined Corvette originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 12 August 2010 08:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

There have been quite a few talks of the next C7 Corvette and those talks have been circulating for some time now. In fact, there have been so many talks that Chevrolet chief engineer, Tadge Juechter, even had a few words to say in defense of the next generation C7. But with all of those talks, there still aren’t too many hard facts, leaving everyone with plenty of opportunities to speculate.

This speculation comes to us from MotorAuthority and it is a rendering of the 2013 Corvette as drawn up by Schulte Design. It draws inspiration from the Stingray Concept as seen in the Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen movie and brings forth the egg-crate grille, vertical slat headlights, side vents, and the jet-fighter glasshouse. Adding some truth to speculation, this rendering also includes a split rear window that will be a part of the next C7 according to GM’s product design head, Ed Welburn.

Very little details are known as to the engine options for the Corvette. GM says there have been talks about a 440-horsepower, 5.5-liter V-8 version of the next-gen GM small block engine, but others say a smaller, forced induction engine may also be possible. We think Chevrolet is going to keep the lid tightly closed on this one until the car debuts in late 2011. Sales should begin in early 2012.

Check out another rendering of the Corvette C7 by clicking here!

2013 Chevrolet C7 Corvette Rendering originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 27 July 2010 12:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

As a fan, attending the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans is an experience like no other. While the unquestioned highlight of the entire weekend is the race itself, so many other things go on behind-the-scenes that attract thousands of fans from all over the world. Fan expos, autograph sessions, meet and greets, and the annual driver’s parade are just a few of the many things that makes the entire weekend such a worthwhile endeavor.

In the latest episode of their web series, Corvette Racing gives us a look at the fan experience during the 24 Hours of Le Mans event. We’ve already seen what happens on the track, but rarely do we get the chance to see what happens off of it. For the team, the off-the-track activities, especially those that involve fans from all over the world who came to witness the historical race, are as important as the on-track happenings because this is the opportunity for the team to give back to the very same people that cheer for them from the stands.

Episode 7 of Corvette Racing Team’s "Track to Street" Series originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 21 July 2010 09:00 EST.

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Top Speed Cars Car News

It was bound to happen. We don’t care how good the Corvette ZR1 is, people are just not going to buy a Vette that costs over $100,000, especially in this economy. Due to the lack of sales, there is a growing inventory of ZR1 Corvettes.

Since January, the number of ZR1s available has grown from 175 units to 500. Those numbers have helped GM decide to give the ZR1 a little help in the sales department.

The Detroit automaker is offering its first rebates for the supercharged Corvette, in the hope to increase sales. The rebates will run through September 7 and will allow buyers to get a $3,000 rebate, or 0% APR for up to 60 months. If you buy the 2009 version, you can get $5,000 back.

On top of all that money, you can also get the $1,000 Toyota Conquest rebate, which we find to be hilarious. So, if you purchase a ZR1 you could be saving $4,000 or $6,000, depending on the year.

If you’re interested in any ZR1 contact your Chevrolet dealer.

GM Offering Rebates On Corvette ZR1 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 19 July 2010 19:00 EST.

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Fresh from the fifth – and our personal favorite – episode of Chevrolet’s Corvette Track to Street series, Corvette’s back with the sixth installment of what’s becoming one of our favorite mini-series in recent times.

For this episode, preparations for the Le Mans race are in full swing, including a historic lap that featured 50 Corvettes as well as the team’s highly-successful qualifying run, which resulted in the team starting the race in the front row of the race for the GT2 class.

Despite the successful qualifying performance, the result wasn’t what the team expected as a series of unfortunate events caught up with the team and beset them with a myriad of mechanical problems that caused both cars to retire from the race.

Nevertheless, while the result wasn’t what the team was looking for heading into the weekend, it does give them, as well as all of us, a look at the unpredictable world of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the road Corvette has taken and will continue to take as the season continues.

Episode 6 of Corvette Racing Team’s "Track to Street" Series originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 18 July 2010 12:00 EST.

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Well, it’s that time of your life. You know the time when you just turned 40 years old. Your family is in full swing and maybe your children are off to college or just about to finish up high school. Your job is okay, but nothing excites you much anymore and life is just plain dull.

Like most people, when the mid-life crisis stage sets in the only thing that every man needs is to have a fast car that makes him feel excited and young again. The question now becomes what car to buy?

The obvious choice is a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, or an Aston Martin. Nothing says youth like a DB9 or a 458 Italia. Let’s be honest with ourselves though, not many people can afford a car like that, especially with a family. We need to find something for under $100,000 that is fast, looks good, and isn’t on two wheels.

These are the top five mid-life crisis cars on the market today in the United States. Check them out after the jump.

Top Five Mid-Life Crisis Cars originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 16 July 2010 18:00 EST.

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Back in 2006, this Chevrolet Corvette Z06-based Genaddi LSR Roadster captured our hearts and imaginations at the 2006 SEMA auto show, thinking that the chances of owning a piece of that sports car would be best left in our dreams.

Four years later, that dream just may become a reality for one lucky – and rich – fella, because the one-off sports car is now being auctioned of on eBay Motors. Give yourselves a few seconds to digest that information…before we say it again: the Corvette Z06-based Genaddi LSR Roadster – the only one in the world – is listed on eBay.

The car, of course, is a completely road-legal sports car that’s powered by a Z06 engine that produces somewhere around 545 horsepower. It also has a customized body panel that’s mostly made from aluminum, which GDG intentionally adopted in favor of the Corvette’s original composite and carbon fiber panels.

To make things a little more interesting for all of the interested parties, this one-off machine only has 2,454 miles on the odometer and goes for a price of $175,000.

Not too shabby for a limited-run, one-off piece of machine, right?

Genaddi Corvette Z06 LSR Roadster Prototype found on eBay originally appeared on topspeed.com on Thursday, 15 July 2010 14:00 EST.

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General Motors has unveiled a new commercial for the 2011 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. The commercial is only about 45 seconds long, but it does start off a bit slow. That being said, the last ten seconds is absolutely worth it as Chevrolet showcases the revving, exhilarating power of the Corvette ZR1.

For 2011, the ZR1 will be offered with two new exterior colors: Inferno Orange and Supersonic Blue. These colors will come with contrasting-color headlamps, an interior custom color stitching, and USB port and input jack included with navigation radio. Under the hood there is the same LS9 supercharged 6.2 liter V-8 engine rated at 638 HP and 604 lb.-ft. of torque. The engine is backed by an upgraded, stronger six-speed manual transmission and a twin-disc clutch that provide exceptional clamping power. With a curb weight of 3,333 pounds, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 makes the 0 to 60 mph sprint in 3.4 seconds and can hit a top speed of 205 mph.

Video: Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 commercial originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 14 July 2010 17:00 EST.

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Do it yourself projects seem to be taking off in recent years. Like going to a restaurant to cook your own food or making your own pottery, we love to get charged more to do things ourselves. Yet, who can blame companies for allowing us to indulge our need to create. They don’t have to hire people and they can charge a lot. It’s the perfect business plan.

Chevrolet has caught on to this phenomenon as well. For buyers of the new Z06 and ZR1, GM will give you the option to build your own motor and even put your name on it to guarantee you won’t be able to resell it. For a small fee of $5,800, you can travel to Detroit, which is the first place we think of for a holiday, and construct your very own LS7 or LS9 V8.

Construction takes place at the Performance Build Center, where you can take the block through all the production stages. Those who love to build and work on motors should really enjoy this, but for the rest of us, we just want our Corvette built by the people who were trained to build it.

Hit the jump for the press release.

We can now pay to build our own Corvette engine originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 12 July 2010 21:00 EST.

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Buying a car can be great fun, but no matter how good your new vehicle is, there is always room for improvement. Most car and truck manufacturers leave room for us normal people to improve, or ruin their products. That’s not to say the original vehicle isn’t good, but in that good old American fashion, we always want to better our situation, in this case, our cars.

One of the easiest and cheapest upgrades one can do is an exhaust system. Sadly, many people add exhausts to cars that don’t need them, like Dodge Neons. A performance exhaust can free up some of the power in your engine by allowing the gases to escape a bit easier. When the gases can escape, your engine runs smoother.

Anyway, when the exhaust flows better, the fuel and air exit the combustion chamber faster and new fuel and air can be burned to create more power.

This works well for certain cars, but for some, the only effect that a bigger exhaust has is more noise. Putting a performance exhaust on a 1.8-liter Honda Civic won’t help the power all the much, but it’ll make it sound like a fart can.

Hit the jump for the rest of the article.

Should you buy an aftermarket exhaust for your car? originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 3 July 2010 18:00 EST.

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According to Motor Trend, America’s favorite plastic sports car will be getting a bit of an update. Unnamed sources inside General Motors say that the new Corvette will be getting a brand-new engine.

Thankfully, the new motor isn’t a V6, so don’t worry Corvette fans, GM hasn’t sold out quite yet. The trademark V8 will still reside under the Kentucky born sports car’s hood, but it won’t be the normal 6.2 or 7.0-liter.

The new motor will be the first application of GM’s next-gen small block family and we would expect it to have direct-injection, E85 capability, and a few other tweaks.

All of these new updates should help the Vette become more powerful and more fuel efficient, not to mention a bit cleaner. Motor Trend is reporting that the new motor will be 5.5-liters and will put out 440 horsepower. Though the engine will be a bit smaller, it will have 10 more horsepower than the current car.

We can hardly wait to see the new Corvette, but don’t expect to see anything on the C7 until 2012 at the earliest.

Next generation Corvette to get new engine originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 30 June 2010 11:00 EST.

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If we had told you that the Chevrolet Corvette, arguably one of the most popular cars to ever come out of the bowtie brand, isn’t branded as a ’Chevrolet’ in other parts of the world, specifically in Europe, then we wouldn’t be surprised if you acted, well, surprised.

But it’s true. Just look at any Corvette and you’ll notice that nowhere in the car does ’Chevrolet’ appear on it. To make things more interesting, the Corvette, unlike other brands under Chevrolet, has its own twin-flag badge where the Chevrolet logo is featured a little less prominently than many of us would come to assume.

In any case, Corvettes have never been branded as a Corvette sports car in Europe, partly because most of the Chevy vehicles being sold there were badged as Daewoo brands, and if you know anything about cars, Daewoos aren’t exactly in the same league as that of the Corvette. So instead of sticking "America’s Sports Car" in a room full of Daewoos, GM decided to stick the Corvette as it’s own stand-alone brand.

But that’s all about to change after General Motors finally decided to start bringing in more Chevrolets in Europe, which it didn’t see as much of a good idea back then. According to Mark Terry, Chevrolet UK’s managing director, “The fact that they are here, in Europe, being sold as Chevrolets is the clearest indication yet of the confidence that General Motors has in the Chevrolet brand, and the direction it is headed in Europe.”

Among the Chevys that figure to invade the other side of the pond include the Chevrolet Cruze, the Chevrolet Camaro, and yes, the Chevrolet Corvette.

Chevrolet Corvette making a comeback in Europe - sort of originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 28 June 2010 21:00 EST.

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The consistent praise given to the Chevrolet Corvette by just about everybody who’s seen the sports car just keeps rolling along. While it’s already often referred to as "America’s sports car", the Corvette is now being bestowed yet another title as the state of Kentucky’s official sports car.

Now, we didn’t actually know that those titles existed - we’re dying to know what Montana’s official sportscar is -but given the overwhelming popularity of the current generation Corvette and the model’s longstanding history with the state of Kentucky - if you didn’t know, the Corvette is built from the ground up at the GM’s Bowling Green facility sine 1981 - it seemed like a fitting honor to a model’s that close to the heart of Americans for generations.

Governor Steve Beshear led a ceremonial signing of House Bill 104 at GM’s Bowling Gren assembly plant earlier this week, officially naming the Corvette as Kentucky’s official sports car. Likewise, Rep. Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, was the main proponent behind House Bill 104, saying that Kentucky and Corvette have been synonymous with each other since GM decided to move the production of the sports car to Bowling Green way back in 1981.

“This signing is particularly important because the event is being held at the Corvette Plant – the only place in the world where Corvettes are built" Rep. Richards said. "I think it is important that the community comes together to celebrate the now Official Sports Car of Kentucky and America’s favorite sports car.”

Chevrolet Corvette officially named as "Official Sports Car of Kentucky" originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 28 June 2010 12:00 EST.

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Remember that Corvette Stingray Concept Speedster that was spotted about a week ago in, of all places, Beverly Hills?

Turns out, our hunch was right. As at home as the car may be in one of the world’s most expensive neighborhoods, the Corvette Stingray Concept wasn’t in the area because someone owns it and decided to park it there. Nope. It was there for an entirely different purpose.

You see, the Corvette Stingray Concept was featured in the movie Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen - as Autobot Sideswipe - a few years ago. And with rumors running rampant that Sideswipe would be "freshened up" for Transformers 3, it was easy to put two and two together. With the third movie currently in production and filming in the area, it wasn’t that hard to figure out that this Corvette Stingray Concept Speedster just may be the new Sideswipe in the movie.

Then this video came out and everything can now be laid to rest. Need any more proof? Watch the video and take a look for yourself.

Video: Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Concept Speedster caught on the set of Transformers 3 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 22 June 2010 14:00 EST.

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