What I would like to see is Sabine Schmitz, “Queen of the ‘Ring” take this ‘Vette for the turn. Overall Winner of the ‘96 & ‘97 24 Hours of the ‘Ring, with an estimated total of 20,000+ laps there, she has knowledge as good as anyone on the planet as to really knowing the track, and the racing cred to walk the walk.

NEVER underestimate the value of smoothness on the course. Just ask Jackie Stewart about that. He used to give race/performance driving lessons, one of which was keeping a tennis ball in shallow dish mounted to the hood of the car. Seeing the speed he could do that at was AWESOME.

The simulators that pilots or F1 drivers use to train are quite different than the simulation games you play on your Playstation or Xbox.

Both the pilots and F1 drivers’ simulators are exact recreations of the machines they’re learning how to fly and drive. They replicate how their real-world counterparts behave, look and feel. An F-22 pilot certainly isn’t going to be training on an Xbox 360 or PS3, so the comparisons are completely useless.

My only argument is that it not pointless to compare the two. Is it pointless to design earthquake proof buildings on computer first or should they just build them and hope for the best?

On a side note, I play on my own 52″ HD LCD, in my own house, a few steps away from both of my cars and my motor bike.

You probably still have trouble operating your new fangled Personal Computer with all this crazy new “Interweb” stuff eh?

Further, as Jazz (#52) pointed out, some of those lines were a bit wide. Again drifting would have helped that or using the car’s understeer or push to his advantage by turning earlier.

Not a bad run but its obvious that it could have been much better. The CORVETTE’s technical flexibility was not taken full advantage of where the GT-R35’s technology would rein in the car maybe too much.

I keep thinking a modest dose of buzzed driving might have helped as this driver was good but not brave or imaginative enough to push just a bit more.

Also, don’t knock the driver, he has more balls and skill than any of the wanna bes on here. Bunch of arm chair sittin, video game playing critics.

Could GM find a faster test driver to maximize the time? Sure. But, no matter the car, if you are circling the ring in less than 8 minutes, you are a phenominal driver and have a damn fast car. Just look at the ring times just under 8 min and it shows some pretty serious machinery being driven by professional drivers.

I can’t say anything about the LS7, seeing as I don’t own one.. But I haven’t heard anything bad about the LS7, except it’s an expensive engine…

Oh so now a Nissan is more reliable than a GM car too? Does anyone not remember the twin turbo Nissan Z32 engines that were in the 300ZX? Those engines spent more time in the shop then they did out on the road… very complicated engines… that 3.8L V6 is going to take way more abuse than a normally aspirated V8 will… So I highly doubt it will be any more reliable…

441Zuke – the only thing resembling anything like a 3rd graders, is your grammar.

While this guy was a great driver, I don’t think he’s the fastest GM has, so they’re sandbagging a bit. I still think almost any of the C6-R team drivers could get a better time. I’m sure GM is waiting for the GT-R V-spec time before bringing out their big gun drivers for the ZR-1. Pilot Sport Cup tires like Porsche uses for their ‘ring times would also shave some time. I’m sure this car is capable of mid 7:10’s.

I think it’s time Nissan starts doing videos of their GT-R runs on the ‘ring.

The GT-R did the lap with the stock run-flat tires. As I’m sure the GT-R V-spec will.