Adhered to the Hamilton Hall dorm wall at Wright State University is a glossy poster of a jet-black sports car. It hangs low over an unmade bed, its corner blemished with a slight tear from an errantly placed thumbtack during orientation week.
A young engineering undergraduate, sitting at a desk just a few feet away, is staring directly at the poster. Instead of reviewing for an upcoming exam, his eyes remain fixated on the vehicle’s sleek bodywork, ominous quad exhaust pipes and Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes. Locked in a trance, the student daydreams about what it would be like to drive the sinister-looking monster.
Unbeknown to that 19-year-old scholar, and thousands of miles from Wright State University, Autoblog holds the key to the vehicle pictured on that very poster. It is the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. With a 638-horsepower supercharged V8 mated to a six-speed manual transmission and a top speed of 205 miles per hour, it is the most powerful production car in General Motors’ history.
The ZR1 has been upgraded and enhanced for 2012, so what is it like to drive America’s premier sports car on public roads? Can the beast be reasonably tamed? Be pleased to learn that this evil brute is nearly everything expected, a little less and then a whole lot more.
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