The Ponte Vedra Recorder | Page 29

Ponte Vedra Auto Show 29 Ponte Vedra Recorder · September 10, 2015 Top photo provided by AutoViva. Bottom photo by Brett Levin Corvette Continued from 28 was a big step for a car manufacturer to take back then. They were just starting to grasp an understanding of electronic fuel injection and there were mandates from the government to reduce pollution and increase fuel economy, but in doing so it made the performance level of any kind of car God-awful. This was really breaking out of the box in the performance world.” The car officially debuted in 1989 at the Geneva Auto Show and by early March of the following year the ZR1 — in an effort to help market the car with its extravagant price tag — had set a new world record for the highest 24-hour/5,000-mile land-speed over 175 mph. According to Weisman the ZR1 was not economical, however. Despite its wider tail and slight taillight variations, when compared to its non-ZR1 counterpart, the body style differences were not distinguishable enough to warrant the large differential in price. “Think about the guy who spent 70-80 grand on this exotic Corvette and then nobody knows what it is because it doesn’t look a whole lot different,” said Weisman. “There just wasn’t enough body work done to it for the layperson to say ‘Oh hey, that’s an $80,000 Corvette!’” In the final three years of ZR1 production Lotus made significant modifications to the cylinder heads, valve train and exhaust system, which brought the horsepower up to 405 with 385 pounds of torque per foot. “It truly was the ‘King of the Hill’,” Weisman said. According to Weisman only 6,939 ZR1s were produced in the six-year period and four of them are set to be on display at the Ponte Vedra Car Show on September 13.