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.