Katech Corvette Z06 ClubSport - An alternative to the mighty ZR1?
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Katech Corvette Z06 ClubSport - An alternative to the mighty ZR1?
I think it looks a heckuva lot better, and hard to argue with 1.12g's on the skidpad.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...y_file?cid=336
Katech Corvette Z06 ClubSport
Gravity isn’t one of those things most people think much about. We bet you’d notice, though, if it suddenly increased 10 or 15 percent or shifted polarity and pulled you, say, to the east instead of down. Imagine this (but don’t actually do it): take the chair you’re sitting in right now and bolt its feet to a roof that slants at a 45-degree angle. Now try sitting in it. What you’d be experiencing is approximately what someone feels in a car cornering at 1.00 g.
We measure cornering ability in fractions of a g—1.00 g is earth’s gravitational pull on you at sea level—and to street cars, a full g of cornering is what a 400-lb bench-press is to the average gym rat. In the last year or so, we have tested 210 cars, only a handful of which have met or exceeded 1.00 g on the skidpad: we spotted a Viper SRT10 at an even 1.00 g, a Corvette Z06 at 1.03, a Viper ACR at 1.08, and now this Katech Corvette Z06 ClubSport at an astonishing 1.12 g. The only car we’ve tested in the last year that bests that number was a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup—a purpose-built race car—with a 1.16.
Gravity isn’t one of those things most people think much about. We bet you’d notice, though, if it suddenly increased 10 or 15 percent or shifted polarity and pulled you, say, to the east instead of down. Imagine this (but don’t actually do it): take the chair you’re sitting in right now and bolt its feet to a roof that slants at a 45-degree angle. Now try sitting in it. What you’d be experiencing is approximately what someone feels in a car cornering at 1.00 g.
We measure cornering ability in fractions of a g—1.00 g is earth’s gravitational pull on you at sea level—and to street cars, a full g of cornering is what a 400-lb bench-press is to the average gym rat. In the last year or so, we have tested 210 cars, only a handful of which have met or exceeded 1.00 g on the skidpad: we spotted a Viper SRT10 at an even 1.00 g, a Corvette Z06 at 1.03, a Viper ACR at 1.08, and now this Katech Corvette Z06 ClubSport at an astonishing 1.12 g. The only car we’ve tested in the last year that bests that number was a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup—a purpose-built race car—with a 1.16.
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Those wheels are horrible looking, IMO. At least in pics. I believe it also has a bunch of vents in the hood that are not very appealing IMO.
EDIT: Uh, wouldn't it feel like 1.00 g if the chair were turned completely sideways (i.e. rotated 90 degrees from verticle)?
EDIT: Uh, wouldn't it feel like 1.00 g if the chair were turned completely sideways (i.e. rotated 90 degrees from verticle)?
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Bolting a chair to a 45-degree surface would similar a car that has a nominal limit of 1.00g but then decreased the Earth's gravity to 0.717g (ignoring, of course, a variety of tire non-linearities including the effects of the mechanical strength of the tread).
</geek>
It'd be very interesting to see the skidpad numbers on a dead-stock Z06 if one simply swapped out the stock tires for some really sticky DOT-legal autocross rubber (Kumho V710 or Hoosier A6).
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From: Mill Creek, WA
Yeah, but then you're missing the normal (vertical) component that you feel in a vehicle during a 1.00g corner.
Bolting a chair to a 45-degree surface would similar a car that has a nominal limit of 1.00g but then decreased the Earth's gravity to 0.717g (ignoring, of course, a variety of tire non-linearities including the effects of the mechanical strength of the tread).
</geek>
It'd be very interesting to see the skidpad numbers on a dead-stock Z06 if one simply swapped out the stock tires for some really sticky DOT-legal autocross rubber (Kumho V710 or Hoosier A6).
Bolting a chair to a 45-degree surface would similar a car that has a nominal limit of 1.00g but then decreased the Earth's gravity to 0.717g (ignoring, of course, a variety of tire non-linearities including the effects of the mechanical strength of the tread).
</geek>
It'd be very interesting to see the skidpad numbers on a dead-stock Z06 if one simply swapped out the stock tires for some really sticky DOT-legal autocross rubber (Kumho V710 or Hoosier A6).
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Joined: Mar 2005
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Those wheels are horrible looking, IMO. At least in pics. I believe it also has a bunch of vents in the hood that are not very appealing IMO.
EDIT: Uh, wouldn't it feel like 1.00 g if the chair were turned completely sideways (i.e. rotated 90 degrees from verticle)?
EDIT: Uh, wouldn't it feel like 1.00 g if the chair were turned completely sideways (i.e. rotated 90 degrees from verticle)?
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From: Michigan's left coast
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I say "similar" because I don't actually have a datalogger in my car but know the results of those that do.
ESP is fun until you have to pay that annual / bi-annual tire bill.
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From: Mill Creek, WA
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From: Michigan's left coast
ESP is fun until you have to pay that annual / bi-annual tire bill.
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I'm currently running an older V300 + an older G2X. Only the latter is necessary for autocross and road course work (the V300 works best for drag racing). Less than $1000 will get you up and running. The toughest part of the installation for you would be finding a flat level spot for the main ECU, and figuring out how to mount the magnetic GPS antenna on your roof
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What do you run for tires? 335s all the way around?
Naturally I run the ESP standard on all four corners. 315 Hoosier A6s on CCW Classics.
Last edited by Chewbacca; Oct 16, 2008 at 08:51 AM. Reason: clarity
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The easy way is to mark out a circle of known diameter (100-300 meters is typical for magazines). Get the car going around the circle as quickly as it can, and time the laps. Take your best lap, or the average of your best three, or however you want to do it, and then it's just a matter of doing the math.
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Joined: Aug 2001
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From: Michigan's left coast
The easy way is to mark out a circle of known diameter (100-300 meters is typical for magazines). Get the car going around the circle as quickly as it can, and time the laps. Take your best lap, or the average of your best three, or however you want to do it, and then it's just a matter of doing the math.
BTW - the factory G-meter on the Vette should be very accurate - it's tied into the accelerometer that's part of the stability control system (probably one of Analog Device's two-axis parts with a range of +/- 1.8G). The biggest issues are that the data isn't stored in any sort of easily-accessable form, there's probably some filtering going on that might yield slightly lower numbers in transient situations, and the update rate probably isn't quite fast enough to prevent aliasing issues. Using an aftermarket data logger simply makes it easier to collect and analyze the data.
Originally Posted by Chewbacca
Jealousy? Can't imagine what they mean by that. Maybe because it wasn't measured on a "standard" 300 ft skid pad? Who cares? It's not like we're using aero to generate that grip.
I run 275/40s up front and 315/35s out back. If I ever switch to the V710 or A6, I'll run a 295/35 in the front. Trying to stuff a 315 in the front fenderwheels is too much effort for a car that frankly isn't going to ever be competitive in Street Mod.
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From: Okemos, MI
With a reasonably large skidpad, small errors in timing won't have a big effect on the resulting g-force calculation. A handheld stopwatch should do the trick.
That would work reasonably well if you could hang the scale on a totally rigid structure so that it never moved or rotated.
How do you plan on reading the scale while driving?
How do you plan on reading the scale while driving?