A 2:41.3-second lap around VIR’s Grand West Course? That’s just obscene.
The video you’re about to watch is astonishing.
In it, GM engineer Jim Mero beats VIR’s Grand West Course into submission with the mallet that is the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06.
Mero and the Chevy team spent a few days at the track with a bone-stock car, and this video is the fruit of the effort. It’s a scalding 2:41.3 lap time, which is enough to put the Z06 in the ring with some of the world’s most brilliant supercars.
Which machines do I speak of? By comparison, our friends at Car and Driver recently whipped out a 2:43.1 time in the Porsche 918 Spyder. It’s the fastest anyone from the magazine has managed to lap the course.
Watch it go down, as captured by the Vette’s Performance Data Recorder.
The Corvette in the video is running heavy-weight oil and the most aggressive suspension settings detailed in the owner’s manual. Other than that, it’s just Mero coaxing crazy velocity from the car.
The dude’s no stranger to whipping a Corvette around, and anyone who knows him will tell you he’s one hell of a driver. If his name sounds familiar, it should. He’s the man who scalded the Nürburgring with the C6 ZR1 not so many years ago:
Speaking of the Nurburgring, it’s no secret that GM will take another stab at the Green Hell with the new Z06. We can’t wait to see what Mero does there.