Earlier this week we posted a video that was making the rounds on YouTube that featured a 2020 Corvette Z51 keeping up with a 991.2 generation 911 GT3 RS on Southern California’s Willow Springs Raceway.
Well, our friends at Car and Driver are here with some statistical data that demonstrates how unlikely the video’s outcome actually is.
First, a look at the cars themselves. The Porsche tips the scales at 3,153 pounds which are motivated by a rear-mounted, 4.0L flat-six that spins all the way up to 9,000 RPM and makes 520 horsepower. As many here already know, the eighth generation of America’s only true sports car is propelled by a new, but familiar, 6.2L small block V8 which is now located between the cockpit and the rear axle. In Z51 guise, it makes 495 horses and hits its redline at 6,500 RPM. In the weight department, the ‘Vette is more of a linebacker (but a very mobile one) to the 911’s cornerback, with a curb weight of 3,647. The Stingray does enjoy a torque advantage over most of its adversaries though, which remains true here. Its out-twists the 3RS by a whopping 124 lb-ft (470 to 346).
How does all of that translate into real world performance? For this, we bring in C&D’s science! The new Corvette’s oft-quoted 0-60 time of 2.8 seconds matches the RS’ but after that, ‘Vette drivers will be seeing a lot of the Porsche’s big rear wing. People willing to give their Porsche dealer $190,000+ will reach 100 mph just over half a second before Corvette buyers (6.6 seconds to 7.2 seconds). They’ll also hit 150 in 15.9 seconds (compared to the Corvette’s 19.4 seconds). According to Car and Driver’s instrumented testing, the sharpest knife in Porsche’s non-turbocharged drawer covers the quarter mile in 10.9 seconds at 129 mph. The Corvette does the same feat only slightly slower at 11.2 seconds and 122 mph.
While all of this is fun to geek-out about, C&D is quick to point out that standing straight line speed “doesn’t amount to anything when setting fast lap times,” and continues with, “you can see that the Porsche will likely pull on the Corvette when coming out of corners. The Porsche killed the Corvette in 60-to-120-mph acceleration, covering that speed in 6.5 seconds compared to the Corvette’s 7.9-second run.”
Their case gets even stronger when they delve into the two cars’ handling stats. On their 300 foot skidpad, Car and Driver recorded the Porsche at an insane 1.24 lateral g’s while the Z51 could only muster a 1.03 reading. They do chalk some of that up to the 911s hardcore tires. It wears the grippiest units in Michelin’s arsenal, the Pilot Sport Cup 2R while Z51 equipped 2020 Corvettes ship wearing much friendlier Pilot Sport 4S rubber.
Next comes a “brake” down of the cars’ stopping power. Per the article, “The Z51 Corvette is equipped with larger brake rotors than a bone stock C8 and those bigger discs, fronts are 13.6 inches and the rears are 13.8, provide more fade resistance and help the Z51 bleed-off 70 mph in 149 feet. The Porsche, however, stops sooner. During our testing, the GT3 RS stopped from 70 mph in 128 feet.” This is due to the use of carbon-ceramic discs on the RS which measure 16.1 inches in the front and 15.4 inches out back.
When you put all of these variables together, it is easy to see how the GT3 RS could be the only car with under 600 HP to ever lap the Nurburgring in under 7 minutes while the mid-engine Corvette reportedly stopped the clock at the ‘Green Hell’ in 7:29.9, solidifying C&D’s point that these cars are in different leagues in terms of track prowess. We say, for triple the base MSRP, they had better be!
In case you missed the video that started this whole conversation, we have embedded below:
Source:
CarandDriver.com
Related:
[VIDEO] 2020 Corvette Battles a Porsche GT3 RS at Willow Springs
Scouting Report: Porsche 911 GT2 RS
[SPIED] Prototype C8 Corvette Z06 Testing with a Porsche 911 GT2 RS
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I have had only one Porsche, and 20 Corvettes. Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, the Corvette is the BEST VALUE for a high poeformance sports car period.
I have high hopes for the flat plane crank C8 Z06 to be more competitive with the GT3RS. Wider track & (sticky cup 2) tires will boost the Cornering G’s to 1.25… Next a higher revving engine (maybe 8K rpm) will reduce the # of gear Shifts. Carbon ceramic brakes will permit later braking points. The saddest stat that will never be on par with the GT3RS is curb weight… Even with rumors of Carbon Fiber Wheels… 600 lbs penalty is enormous to overcome… I remember a Jim Mero interview question to why there was little difference between a C6 Z06 Carbon and a C6 ZR1 around Green Hell… And he grinned while giving a BS answer because Chevy Marketing forbid him to spill his guts. Since I owned a 2008 C6 Z06 I will tell you Why the Carbon Z06 (piloted by Jim) killed Green Hell with 505 HP. Fact: LS7 doing 7K RPM hauling 3100 LBS+ FUEL AND JIM oN Fat sticky CUP 2 TIRES WITH crazy Brembo ceramic Brakes. Factory OEM people. Your Welcomed corvette community?
Porsche builds great cars! But way too expensive to buy, own, and maintain. I will stick with my C5 ZO6, C6 ZO6, and C7 ZO6 instead.
If only these Chevy engineers didnt have such Big Heads and listen to us , and communicate better with us , the Corvette fans ! i think the Corvette would be even more of a force to reckon with in the super sport car world ! and still affordable ! this should be something i hope would cause them to go back to the drawing board and continue to re-transform Americas muscle car into something that these super sport car manufactures would give Corvette the respect they deserve ! to finally get their heads out of the sand and do a mid – engine , geez , its about dam time ! yes , the Corvette is like a over weight line backer , h/p to weight ratio , ! but for $60 thousand for the Corvette , compared to $120 thousand for the Porsche GT3-RS , and the ZR1 not out yet , the Corvette is a winner for the buck in my book ! and the Corvette barely lost ! and it should not be , period ! i just hate to loose ! Lol , its time to do a true 3 section True Carbon Fiber Car ! front end , cab , and engine bay , i love the gen 4 , 6.2 L single cam , but it has to go ,its a work horse , but not for the Corvette ! sorry , design something like the kawasaki transverse 4 , double over head cam engine , all aluminum , the power bands are twice as fast and can produce more horse power faster , and with larger intake valve displacement too , but with a v-8 , and continue with the super charger , not turbo . I like the strong power band of the super charger always on tap and under control than reaching a certain rpm and a violent reaction of a turbo kickin in after spooling up that can result in disaster ! consider the Kawasaki H2R , Built Beyond Belief , its a 1000 cc Super charged beast , and it weights in at only 476 Lbs and has 350 h/p , just sayin , on my Left arm i bleed Green and on my Right arm i bleed Chevy Orange ! Lol , just sayin .
That is the hardest sentence I’ve ever had to decipher in my life.
I can’t even believe that we are comparing the two cars…Chevy has so much more catching up to do as far as engineering goes. I mean look how long it took for them to finally place the engine in the rear, they are following European engineers and Porsche by far has them all beat.
Yeah, what’s with all the exclamation marks and no periods/capitals?
In the video it was failed to mention that the porsche driver was eating an ice cream cone when the corvette was following him.
Who cares? Both cars are fun to drive in their own way, as is an MG-A. The You tubers are annoying to watch and listen to at best. I saw this video a while back and afterwards, swore I won’t watch anymore of these inept automotive “journalists” rantings and high pitched voices. If Chevrolet wanted to create a car that kept up with or beat a Porsche, most of us couldn’t afford it. Corvette is in a different market. I drove a Porsche like the one in the article, on a track, and it is awesome. But the track is the only place you can enjoy the full capabilities of the car. If you like spirited driving, on normal roads, on a trip, with a passenger, the Vette is the winner. That’s all I got to say ’bout that.
Jeff, excellent point!
In Response to Jack’s comment I am compelled to remind this community about historical facts. GM Leadership Execs pre Chap 11 bankruptcy were not sportcar engineers and even less Rear engine focused. Never wanted to fund such a project since Zora’s tenure. No where in GM history said they were corvette engineers in charge of the bean counting office at GM either. The C7 Was to be rear engined and bankruptcy prevented that FFS.
Fast Forward to today with Larry’s comment and opinion which I share. Porsche cars are way overpriced and happened to be the most profitable cash grab in the sports car Industry, beating Ferrari !!!!. Hey when you want to change spark plugs but got to drop the engine in the process Not good engineering in my pocket book. Sorry.
Segway to Jeff’s comment is important: affordability. The C8 is an fission atomic bomb to the competition in rear engine cars. The Z06 version will be The Thermonuclear H Bomb in terms of performance per $. The marketing team BETTER Have a Delete Dead weight RPO code for this model, and F@%& the Frunk and Trunk space for GOLF Bags (a dead sport with the millenials anyway).
Seems like apples and oranges here. How about waiting for the ZO6 or ZR1 then test them. I would take the vette any day of the week. I have always thought the Porsche was overrated. The vette still has the best bang for buck. Why wasn’t a more base version equal to the vette tested instead of a friggen race car vs the daily driver??
I feel like I should reiterate a few things here.
1. It was just a YouTuber who was lapping for fun with a buddy that started all of this.
2. Enough people online were talking about there C8 keeping up with the GT3 RS that the actual experts at C&D felt compelled to step in and say “not so fast”
3. Anyone who is down on the ‘Vette shouldn’t be. As some have pointed out here, the 911 has something like 47 variants and the 3RS is the second rung from the top (it is also going out of production as thru transition to the 992 generation) and it is being compared to the base Stingray with a light performance package (Z51).
4. There will surely be C8s that can outlap this thing, in C&Ds own testing at VIR, the C7 ZR1 has already bested it by 2.1 seconds and the ’15 Z06 (without the magride update) was just 3 seconds behind that.
5. An apples to apples comparison between the new, previously mentioned, 992 (wait ’til you see how much they are charging for the base car now, blows my mind every time I see it!) and C8 has been done multiple times already and the ‘Vette does exceptionally! See here: https://www.motortrend.com/cars/chevrolet/corvette/2020/2020-chevrolet-corvette-c8-vs-2020-porsche-911-comparison-test-review/
As always, thank you for reading and contributing to our community, everyone!
I don’t think either driver was that good, especially when it came to passing slower traffic. Say what you want about the new C8, it’s an incredible “bang for your buck” and the Z06 will take everything up a notch or two. As for the ZR1, LOOK OUT……………..
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