2012 Corvette Z06 Smashes Previous Model’s ‘Ring Time by 20 Seconds [with Video]

As promised, GM released the Nürburgring lap time of its modestly tweaked for the 2012 model year, Corvette Z06. The most important change for the 2012 model is the available competition-orientated Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Zero Pressure tires, which helped the Z06 turn around the ‘Ring in just 7:22.68.

The lap time is 20 seconds faster than the previous-best Z06 lap time, recorded in 2005, and just 3 seconds behind the 638-horsepower 2012 ZR1, a video of which you can see in our previous posting here.

However, GM noted that in 2005, the Z06 was timed from a standing start instead of the rolling start technique used on the latest Z06 and ZR1 models.

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Second Trailer for Top Gear Season 17 Airs Online

We’ve been patiently waiting for the new season of Top Gear to come to our screens, but the time is almost here as the first episode of the series will air on Sunday.

Following last week’s release of the first teaser of season 17, BBC has now aired a second video highlighting the antics of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

Among the other cars featured in the trailer are a McLaren MP4-12C taking on a Ferrari 458 Italia, a BMW 8-Series Coupe compared to a Mercedes CL, the rally version of the Mini Countryman and a Chevrolet Corvette from the early 1990s. You can check out the trailer for the new season of Top Gear after the break.

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From Poland with Love: Arrinera Supercar Revealed in the Flesh [with Video]

It has been three years since we first told you about a new supercar venture from Poland (see here). Many had expressed doubts as to whether the newly formed company, then named Veno Automotive, could pull it off and create the country’s first supercar model. Fast forward to today, and the Polish company, which is now called Arrinera Automotive, presented the first real-life prototype of its yet to be named supercar model.

While to a lesser degree than what the original sketches from 2008 implied, the prototype Arrinera features an edgy styling and certain details like the shape of the headlamps and front air vents that are all very similar to Lamborghini’s Murcielago / Reventon series.

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VIDEO: 2012 Corvette ZR1 Laps the 'Ring 6-Sec Faster than Previous Model, Beats GT-R by 5-Sec!

And the war on who has the fastest car on Germany’s famed Nurburgring racetrack continues. General Motors wasted no time after the release of its refined for the 2012 model year Corvette ZR1 to take its flagship sports car to the Nurburgring racetrack and try it out.

The 638-horsepower ZR-1 fitted with the optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Zero Pressure tires recorded a lap time of 7:19.63, improving the previous Corvette-best recorded time in 2008 by more than six seconds (7:26.40) and beating the 2012MY Nissan GT-R’s most recent run -allegedly in less than ideal conditions though- by close to five-seconds (7:24.22).

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Wittera Releases Widebody Kit for the Corvette C5

For those Corvette C5 owners that think their cars could do with a little aero improvements, German aftermarket specialist Wittera has the answer: a new widebody aero package along with a light tuning program.

The widebody kit is offered in either carbon fiber or high-grade glass fiber-reinforced plastic, the latter of which undergoes a special process the company calls tempering. This means parts are heated to exactly 65° C (149 ° F) and then cooled down in a mold for 25 minutes in order to increase resistance and avoid cracks. The carbon fiber parts are 20 percent lighter than those made from glass fiber-reinforced plastic.

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Q&A with Endora Cars on its Corvette-Based SC-1

Coachbuilt Corvettes are a dime a dozen these days, but only a select few builds manage to stand out from the crowd. The most recent Corvette-based proposal to pop up in the news is the new SC-1 from Endora-Cars, a company based in Karlshuld, a municipality in the district of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen in Bavaria, Germany.

Now, seeing that the SC-1 captured the attention of you, our readers (albeit in a sort of love-it-or-hate-it kind of way), we came in contact with Endora Cars and asked their spokesman, Björn Marek, a few questions about their Corvette-based build. Follow the jump to read our Q&A session with Marek.

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Endora SC-1: A New Coachbuilt Corvette from Germany

The Corvette is not only a popular sports car among buyers but also among individual coachbuilders. Over the years, we’ve shown you tons of Corvette-based builds ranging from the bad-ass Rossi SixtySix and the Genadi LSR Roadster to the more recent Soleil Anadi. In other words, there’s a Corvette for every taste, however outlandish you can imagine.

The latest company to jump onto the Corvette coachbuilding bandwagon is Endora Cars, which is based in Germany. Their build is called the SC-1 and it’s styling is inspired by the American and European sports cars of the 1960s and early 1970s. Seen here in the first official renderings, the SC-1 blends certain elements of the Corvette such as the Coke-bottle profile and sweeping roof, with a sharp front nose and a unique rear end along with partially covered rear wheel arches.

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GM Celebrates 100 Years of Chevrolet and Indy 500

America's most famous race, the Indianapolis 500, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year and so does Chevrolet, whose name was tied to the “Brickyard” from the very beginning. Arthur Chevrolet competed in the inaugural Indy 500 on May 30 1911, a few months before founding the company that bears his name, on November 3 the same year. Today, Chevrolet and Indy 500 are still together, with the Camaro SS Convertible to be the 22nd Chevrolet to pace the Indy 500 race on May 29 as a common celebration for their 100-year anniversary.

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No future for the mid-engine Corvette

With GM facing well-publicized challenges -- along with just about everyone else who needs a little thing called money -- certain high-profile and expensive programs are crowding up on the back burner. Even America's sports car, the Corvette, is not exempt, with CAFE regulations clouding the view inside the 'Vette Nation's crystal ball. Motor Trend, commenting on the C7 Corvette's delayed arrival, has said that the new coupe won't appear until the 2014 model year at the earliest. The mid-engined route has also been scrapped, since it would simply cost too much to re-engineer the entire car for the purpose of easier integration of fuel saving tech like cylinder deactivation. That means a six-cylinder is still being talked about -- by GM outsiders only, at this point -- as an option for the C7. If we take the Camaro as an example, that 2014 introduction date could mean late 2012, but that still only gives you four years to mentally prepare for a budget- and economy-minded V6 Corvette. Get cracking.

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Corvette GT1 Racing Car

Winning this year’s copy of the world’s best celebrated sports car chase had appropriate acceptation for Corvette Antagonism because it marks the end of aggregation Corvette C6R’s run in GT1 racing. Corvette Antagonism begins its alteration to a all-around GT chic in 2010 that is chiefly based on accepted GT2 regulations.

The best acknowledged aggregation in American Le Mans Series history has won its chic bristles times in the archetypal 24-hour French ability chase (2001-02, 2004-06), above-mentioned to this year’s acceptable effort.

The antagonism goals of Corvette are cogent for GM because they advance abstruse innovations advanced for the aggregation which crawl bottomward to added assembly vehicles. Also, because Corvette has commonly been one of the added adorable ambassadors for the much-maligned American car maker, success for the sports car helps legitimize the aggregation adjoin all-around competition.

2010 Corvette ZR-1 Z700

Hennessey Achievement Engineering is befitting themselves active accomplishing our clamorous animalism for alarming boundless amounts of application out of (or rather, into) our cars, accepting afresh appear their affairs to action a leaner, added focused adaptation of Chevy’s admirable ZR-1 Corvette for 2010. Hennessey makes the point that Porsche 911 owners accept the advantage of advance to a GT3 RS for clue day sessions, and Viper owners additionally accept the ACR. But what for ZR-1 owners with acceleration in their veins and holes afire into their wallets?

Well, that’s area the Z700 comes to the rescue. Added capacity and hi-res pics anticipate you afterwards the jump.

Only 24 examples of the Z700 will be produced. But anniversary one comes with a account of upgrades, the sum of which commands a wallopping $207,150 including the amount of the car. First, there is the binding bang in horsepower, from 638 to 705HP at the flywheel, while the accession of carbon cilia seats and auto abate all-embracing weight and alternating accumulation (the auto abandoned scrubs 60 lbs). HPE additionally gives the glossy exoteric added aerodynamic enhancements, including a Z-Aero carbon cilia advanced splitter, canards and rear spoiler, all of which add up to 300 lbs. of downforce befitting your buried on those across-the-board corners. Finally, a comfortable alcantara council caster and shifter nob circuit out the autogenous upgrades.

Now, anyone who’s followed HPE abundant knows how actively they booty their cars. Their flagship, the aberrant Venom Viper 1000 Twin Turbo, baffled the Bugatti Veyron in an all out head-to-head acceleration antagonism for Road & Track. So, it should appear as no surpise that HPE affairs to prove that their Z700 is bigger than the accepted car by aerial out to Germany after this year to exhausted the ZR-1’s Nurburgring lap of 7:26. Whether or not this little appellation will advertise added cars charcoal to be seen. But what is accessible is Hennessey’s attraction and affection for blame anniversary absurd car they blow to the acme of their achievement potential, and for that array of car-mania, we address them.

As far as the Z700 is concerned, though, whether or not the $120K exceptional over the abject car is able-bodied spent apparently depends on the owner. No doubt, all 24 cars will accept no botheration award fabulously affluent homes

2010 Chevrolet Corvette

The 2010 Chevrolet Corvette is one of those cars whose acceptability precedes it, and in this case the acceptability abominably involves silver-haired Vegas types, gold chains, chrome auto and automated transmissions. But accuracy be told, the alone affair about the 'Vette that fits with this account is its blah interior.

Trust us: Driving is assertive back it comes to this American icon. Alike a abbreviate assignment abaft the caster will accommodate your thinking. The Corvette is asinine fast in any form, it sticks to the alley and it's added affable as a circadian disciplinarian than annihilation this able has a appropriate to be.

For 2010 there are alike added affidavit to sing the Chevy Corvette's praises. Launch ascendancy is now accepted on all manual-transmission models, a affection that will appear in accessible for demography the assumption out of eking out the best dispatch times. The new Admirable Sport copy -- an advance on the discontinued Z51 achievement amalgamation -- pairs the abject agent with different exoteric administration cues; a sport-tuned suspension; Z06-size wheels, tires and brakes; added advancing gearing; and a dry-sump oiling arrangement for models adapted with the chiral transmission.

For the ZR1, Chevy has added a adult Achievement Traction Management arrangement that allows drivers to baddest from bristles modes (Wet, Dry, Sport with Active Handling, Sport after Active Handling, Race) that optimize ability commitment for specific conditions.

One Corvette affection that hasn't afflicted is its ability ratings, which ambit from the antic to the absolutely absurd. Alike the abject 6.2-liter V8 cranks out 430 horsepower. But the Corvette does accept some antagonism that didn't abide alike a brace years ago. BMW's sweet-handling M3, for instance, has a starting amount that's not too far aloft the Vette's and provides a far nicer interior. Ford's Shelby GT500 is additionally abundant bigger this year.

As for the added big-ticket Corvettes, one arcade for the Z06 could additionally accede the Nissan GT-R and Porsche's bigger ambit of 2010 cars, including the Boxster S, Cayman S and abject 911. The ZR1, meanwhile, is alone a few admirable shy of one of our admired sports cars ever, the abstract Porsche 911 GT3.

Still, the 2010 Chevrolet Corvette is acutely a lot of car for the money, and its honking V8 will accompany a smile to its owner's face at every advance of the agent alpha button. Dye your beard argent and don a gold alternation if you charge -- test-driving a Corvette is account the effort.

Corvette ZHZ C6

ZHZ C6 Corvette Hertz Rental Hertz has now appear that they accept ordered 500 Covette ZHZ's from General Motors. The Corvette ZHZ is a Hertz alone appropriate copy with 436 hp V8 engine, paddle about-face automated manual and Hertz' chicken and atramentous acrylic scheme. Other appearance accommodate a dual-mode centered bankrupt system, alluring careful ride control, in advanced 18 inch and in the aback 19 inch seven-spoke achievement wheels, screen-mesh amalgamation and a rear spoiler.

Corvette C6

The best selling sports in the world is now coming from the European taunt on their own land. With a lot of changes in stock.

A legend

The Corvette is a legend in itself. The mere reading of his pedigree reveals a world where reason is swept away by passion. An example? The architecture of the V8 tumbled, from the first generation appeared in? 1953 alongside the latest high-tech as the head-up display, borrowed from the world of military aviation! But as good wine, Corvette improves with age. Launched in May 2005, the sixth generation to enjoy the new vintage of change. And to better appreciate what most beautiful jewel that the Paul Ricard circuit at Castle!

A car or an airplane?

Slip into the cockpit of the Corvette is still a feast for the senses. At a time when engineers Ergonomists simplify everything to the extreme, the U.S. has a cockpit of fighter aircraft. There are buttons everywhere and it takes at least five minutes to understand what purpose they serve. This mimicry with aeronautics is reinforced by the famous head-up display. A command to set the interface of his choice, projected onto the windshield. The rpm and "km / h" float before the eyes of the driver. There is even the possibility of reading the number of G that we cash in every turn!
33 hp and more

Starting the car via a button on the center console. The roar of the V8 erupts. Yum! And it is under the hood that is the second amendment to our 2008 version. The architecture of the V8 flipped (two valves per cylinder, one camshaft central) does not change, but it rolled from 6.0 to 6.2, to win passage 33 hp (or 437 horsepower total). The couple also progressing from 41 Nm to 585 Nm That figures. But when cars reach such a power, it is above all the feelings that prevail. Ca tombe bien, the Paul Ricard available to us. First step: two laps to take the temperature of the track and see what the Vette was in the belly. Out of the stands.

Faster than the Mistral!

Provided, however, not to play with the basic laws of physics? In this case, the armada of electronic safeguards (all adjustable or disconnectable) said the order quickly. Optionally, the Corvette is equipped with a magnetic suspension selective (2450). Electromagnetic dampers are able to recognize any coating, the system adjusts its setting to provide an optimal behavior. So, on the trail of Castellet Corvette plays billiards, threading curves with an ease bordering on provocation. Output chicane. Line from Mistral. The head-up display flirts with 200 km / h. On paper, his peak speed exceeds 300 km / h with a 0 to 100 km / h in 4.5 s.

Unbeatable prices!

It is 0.7 s less than a Jaguar XKR for 416 hp and as much as a Mercedes SL55 AMG 517 hp. It must be said that the Vette weighs 500 kg less than the roadster to the Star! But no time to go higher: already have the technical profile of the circuit? and the end of turn. Confidence increases, as the pleasure and the Corvette always fulfills his contract with flying colors. Happiness! But back down to earth and approach the "painful." Burning in absolute terms (from 65,850?), The note remains a trifle when compared to its rivals, much more expensive (at least 25,000? More). And 10,700? Further, the same Vette rises up! As for the more fortunate (and daring), it is to the monstrous 512-hp Z06 they will turn. A different story?

Corvette Guys for Corvette Parts and Wheels

It's show season. And if there's one car that seems to love to win at shows, it's the classic all-American sportscar - the Corvette. Corvette owners across the country are gearing up and rolling out with both rare and mint 'Vettes, or highly modified tuned monster machines, to a show grounds near you.

If you're the lucky owner of one of these classic sportscars, you're always looking for a way to stand out from the crowd. Whether you're looking for high-quality aftermarket Corvette parts, like some sharp chrome Z06 wheels to take home the blue ribbon, or looking to pick up some style accessories, there are online merchants like CorvetteGuys that have the parts you're looking for at a price you can afford.

And being a showcar star doesn't have to cost a fortune. Whether your Corvette is a weekend cruiser and you go to shows for fun, or you own a garage queen that never sees the rain, a set of upgraded wheels will go a long way towards getting the head-turning appearance you want. Whether you want to upgrade your C4 Corvette wheels to a more modern look, or like the classic lines of C5 Corvette wheels, there's lots of affordable options that will make your 'Vette look mint without costing a mint.

Exclusive footage from Transformers 2 with all Chevy Autobots, Including Corvette and Volt

Since General Motors is investing heavily on the upcoming Transformers 2 movie, 'Revenge of the Fallen' with five Chevrolet-based characters taking roles as Autobots, it doesn't surprise us at all that the automaker managed to secure exclusive footage of the film edited by director Michael Bay. The video that follows contains scenes with all five Chevy-bots, including SIDESWIPE (Corvette Stingray concept), SKIDS and MUDFLAP (based on Chevy's Beat and Trax concepts), JOLT (Volt) and of course, BUMBLEBEE (Camaro SS).

Video and Live Photos of Transformers 2 Film Corvette Stingray Concept

Earlier today at the grand opening of the Chicago Auto Show, General Motors lifted the veil on its latest concept car, the Corvette Stingray that will play the role of 'SIDESWIPE' in the second iteration of the Transformer saga, called "Revenge of the Fallen". Unfortunately for Corvette fans, GM has no intention of building a production version of the concept, which is a pity as with the exception of the 'Batmobile-ish' rear-end, we found the Stingray's design quite sexy. Click through to see live photos of the Vette from the show as well as a video of the concept with GM Design Vice President, 'soft-talking' Ed-Welburn.

Corvette Sideswipe Transformer Makes Official Debut at Chicago Show

After all the rumors and more leaks than a New Orleans levy, the wait is over for General Motors' latest Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Concept that will play the role of 'Sideswipe' in the next Transformers movie dubbed "Revenge of the Fallen" due for release on June 26, 2009. Stylistically inspired by the original Corvette Stingray race car, introduced in 1959, the Autobot concept also draws on Corvette heritage cues from other generation models to create a shape that we wouldn't mind seeing influencing the next Vette.

"SIDESWIPE represents an exercise in exploration for the Corvette," said Ed Welburn, vice president of GM Global Design. "By giving my creative team the freedom to design no-holds-barred vision concepts, it helps them push boundaries and look at projects from different perspectives."

Stay tuned on Carscoop as we'll be bringing you more news from GM's Transformer stand at the Chicago Auto Show, including the first official photos of the Autobot-ized Chevy Volt.

Anteros Coupe & Roadster: 2009 Corvette-Based Sportscar on Sale from $149,500

California based custom coachbuilder 'n2a Motors' has announced today that it is taking orders for its latest model, the Anteros that was first displayed at the 2008 Los Angeles International Auto Show. Available in both coupe and roadster body styles, the Anteros is built on the 2009 Corvette and features a body styling reminiscent of Italian, British and American designs. The turnkey Anteros Coupe and Roadster models with the 430 hp /424 lb.-ft. torque LS3 V8 start at $149,500 and $154,500 respectively while the Coupe built on the Corvette Z06 start at $176,500.

Buyers can also opt for various performance packages ranging from 525-1000+ horsepower. For example, the silver coupe seen in these photos is based on a 2009 Corvette Z06 and is modified with Lingenfelter's 630 horsepower performance package. As you would expect from a $150k+ car, Chevy's 100,000 mile powertrain warranty remains completely intact and the Anteros can be serviced at any GM dealership.

Once the order is given, it takes 'n2a Motors' approximately 12 weeks to build a complete model off a Corvette donor car. Aside from the composite body panels and the new alloys, the coachbuilder also upgrades the Vette's interior with re-contoured leather seats, leather dash, Italian carpeting, and leather-wrapped interior panels.