[VIDEO] How Do the C4 Corvette ZR-1 and Original Viper Hold Up After 35 Years?

Take a moment to think this: the most revered American performance car of the entire decade of the 1980s is a Buick. Not only that, but here in the land of swaggering, burbling V8s and “Rock Crusher” manual transmissions, that Buick featured a turbo-V6 and could only be had with a four-speed automatic. That fact is even more mind-boggling with the context of the L88s, Hemis, and Boss 429s, Side-oilers, LT-1s, 455s, and LS6s of the two decades prior, and the even more potent bent-eights that Detroit has produced since the dawn of the ’90s.

We love and respect the Grand National Xperimental around here and partially credit it for General Motors getting its act together and taking its go-fast V8 seriously again, but the above paragraph is still crazy to think about nearly 40 years later. It was 1990 when GM’s halo car, the Chevrolet Corvette, was finally allowed and able to one-up the blacked-out 276-rated-horsepower GNX with the “King of the Hill” ZR1.

That ultimate ‘Vette and its high-tech DOHC LT5 V8 were a sensation, a revelation, even. Without resorting to forced induction, the potent team of Chevrolet and Lotus engineers – with an assist from the masters of aluminum construction at Mercury Marine – were able to extract 375 ponies from 5.7 liters at a time when the base Corvette was only pushing 245 and the Mustang 5.0 could only muster 225. It could sprint to 60 in the mid-4s, hit triple digits in just over 10 seconds, stop the quarter mile clock in 12.8 @ 111 MPH, and keep going (and going, and going for as long as you had the road, concentration, and nerve to keep your foot in it) until 175 MPH.

Unfortunately, the sensation was short-lived. At double the price of the regular, and always-improving, C4, with little to differentiate it, sales fell sharply every year after its white-hot introduction, and that’s just accounting for internal factors to the decline. Around the same time ZR-1s were hitting showrooms, a team led by future GM vice chairman, Bob Lutz, across town in Auburn Hills, pulled the cover off Dodge’s modern interpretation of an old Corvette rival; the Shelby Cobra, which was even co-signed by Carroll Shelby, himself. The finished product, dubbed the Viper in a nod to its serpentine inspiration, found its way to customers starting in 1992. It was motivated by a hulking 8.0L V10 based on a similar truck engine that, like the LT5, was fine-tuned by Chrysler’s contemporary in-house exotic brand, Lamborghini.

The result was an even 400 horses to go with 465 stump-pulling torques motivating 3,534 lbs. with minimal creature comforts, safety nets, or much consideration for build quality, but nobody cared about any of the negatives because it looked like it was beamed to Earth from another planet where style reigned supreme.

Both nameplates battled through multiple generations, with the ZR1 ultimately returning the favor as the external factor that backed the Viper into a small niche and eventually retirement in 2017. Some 35 years after both burst onto the scene to revitalize American performance, one of the many Fast Lane YouTube channels got the originals together to see how they hold up. It isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, with the Viper being a pampered, 17,000-mile 1994 model with some brand-new Michelins, while the ZR-1 hails from the inaugural year 1990 – though the ’93-’95 would have been a better comp with its upgraded 405-horse LT5 – and has lived a rougher life, at one time even featuring an aftermarket turbo kit. We won’t spoil the results of the drag and roll races (at altitude), except to say that the first run had a notable hiccup when the ZR-1 pilot left the LT5 in valet mode, limiting it to just 200 horses. Overall, what a fun and exciting era full of promise, a promise that has been more than realized with the most recent volleys in the battle reaching the incredible heights of 645, 755, and 1,064 horsepower. It’s safe to say that the American performance door that the GNX cracked back open after 15ish closed years has been completely kicked down!

Source:
TFL Classics / YouTube

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