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  • Three cars, 2235 brake horsepower combined

  • and a mere $300,000 for the lot.

  • Welcome, my friends, to America.

  • The Corvette ZR1 is quite possibly the angriest car ever.

  • At its heart lies the LT5 6.2 litre V8,

  • producing a 755 horsepower,

  • thanks to a 2.7 litre Eaton supercharger.

  • The numbers really are extraordinary,

  • none more so than the $130,000 price tag,

  • because that means it offers similar performance

  • to the McLaren 720S for under half the price.

  • First things first, you can get an eight-speed auto with this car,

  • but you can also get a seven-speed manual

  • and I'm pleased to report that we have the seven-speed manual here.

  • How absurd is a manual gearbox these days in a 755 horsepower car.

  • Time now to state the obvious.

  • This car is biblically, almost painfully fast,

  • up to 4,000 RPM or so.

  • It's much like the Z06, but beyond that, well...

  • Why don't I just demonstrate?

  • It just...

  • It just likes the afterburners... and flies.

  • This is the point where most racing drivers claim

  • that turning everything off is the best way

  • to yield the most fun and the lowest lap times

  • But Chevy's engineer's claim, even with Lewis behind the wheel,

  • it's faster with the performance traction management system switched on.

  • And who am I to argue, so, right now we're in track mode

  • and quite frankly, I'm glad the safety blanket

  • because despite our sticky rubber, despite all this aero that's on our side,

  • you can feel this car wanting to break traction all the time.

  • There is more to this car than just endless power

  • and a massive, massive engine, though.

  • There's some finesse here, too, especially the brakes,

  • enormous Brembo carbon ceramic discs.

  • Now, Corvette claim this car will stop

  • from 212 miles an hour to a standstill in about eight seconds.

  • I'm not going to do 212 miles an hour, but I can demonstrate what they mean.

  • Yep, yep, those work.

  • The truth with this car is that the standard C7 Corvette

  • is a really, really well sorted car,

  • so, Chevrolet was going to have to go some to mess this one up.

  • And they haven't at all.

  • This car is mind-scramblingly good.

  • But it isn't your only option if you're in the market

  • for a Chevrolet that eats racetracks for breakfast.

  • This is the 650 horsepower Camaro ZL1,

  • powered by the same LT4 supercharged V8 you get in the Corvette Z06

  • and fitted here with the hardcore 1LE pack.

  • Only available with a six-speed manual, it adds a bigger front splitter and wing.

  • New appropriately-named Goodyear Eagle F1 supercar tyres

  • and some extremely trick lightweight Multimatic dampers

  • that can be adjusted for camber and ride height,

  • so, you can dial in your perfect track setup,

  • using your favourite spec.

  • How could anyone drive this car and think: "I know what I need,

  • another 100 horsepower, like you get in the Corvette"?

  • But full throttle in this car...

  • Well, it's still a bit like being punched in the face... in a good way, of course.

  • Now, it's not a small car, this. You've got seats in the back.

  • It weighs over 1,700 kilograms. It's big. It's brutal.

  • Throwing it around is a physical experience,

  • so you might think, on a racetrack, it would all start to unravel...

  • but you'd be wrong because that's where this 1LE package really comes alive.

  • It's so positive. Turning is so immediate.

  • If you needed proof of just how fast this car is around the track

  • well, it's done a lap of therburgring in seven minutes and 16 seconds.

  • That's in the big boy leagues.

  • And boy, can you feel it.

  • It's the least powerful car here, but feels like the fastest.

  • Although the Corvette will probably haul it in on the straights.

  • For anyone that thinks American cars can't handle corners,

  • I invite you to try one of these.

  • The thing is you don't have to have this fully spec car.

  • You can have the 1LE track package, with the non-supercharged Camaro SS,

  • less power, potentially more fun to throw around.

  • It all comes down to honesty.

  • How are you honestly going to use your car?

  • Do you prefer the track or do you prefer the road?

  • Or do you prefer the dragstrip?

  • Meet the Dodge Demon, a car designed specifically to pull a wheelie

  • and smash the quarter mile in under ten seconds.

  • It takes a Challenger Hellcat and fits a bigger supercharger,

  • new pistons and crankshaft, a higher rev limit,

  • higher flow fuel injectors, wider track, 18-inch drag radial tires

  • and a beefed-up transmission and drivetrain.

  • This is the world's fastest production car... for $85,000

  • The big surprise here is that

  • despite this car being so focused on the drag strip

  • it's not actually that much of a pig to drive when you get on the track.

  • There's a couple of reasons for that. Number one is

  • these massive 315 section Nitto drag radial tires.

  • They actually give you loads and loads of grip.

  • And the other is the adaptive Bilstein dampers,

  • so you can have it all roly-poly in street mode,

  • like a proper old-school muscle car,

  • or you can tighten things right up in sport.

  • Now, this thing does weigh over two tons so, it is... it's quite sizable,

  • but it can be hustled around, as I said earlier,

  • at quite outrageous speeds and just listen to that engine.

  • It just squeals away...

  • snorts away... and generally misbehaves.

  • I can honestly say I don't think I'll ever get bored of that.

  • But none of this, of course is the Dodge Demon's party piece.

  • For that we need a prepped drag strip and our skinny front tyres.

  • which we don't have, but what we do have is a straight.

  • So, I'm going to stop here.

  • If I hit this button here, that gives us the full 840 horsepower.

  • It knows that we have 100 octane fuel in the car.

  • Next we hit the SRT button and go into drag mode.

  • There we go, drag mode activating systems check.

  • Trans brake feature access by pulling back both paddles.

  • Foot on the brake. Increase engine speed.

  • Release one pedal.

  • Release brake pedal.

  • Well, that was interesting.

  • This car produces so much torque that honestly, on this surface,

  • well, it just overwhelms the rear tyres.

  • But you can feel the fury of this thing, spilling out of every pore.

  • Nought to 60 in 2.3 seconds.

  • Do you know what? You can keep your Tesla P100D.

  • How on earth I'm supposed to choose between three cars that are so good

  • at what they're supposed to be good at, I'm not really sure,

  • but I've made a decision and this is the way it goes.

  • The first to fall is the Corvette. Don't get me wrong.

  • It offers obscene amounts of performance for relative buttons,

  • but there is a bit of a whiff of midlife crisis about it.

  • Next to fall, it pains me to say, is the Dodge Demon.

  • I absolutely love this car.

  • I love its single-minded focus on its mission statement

  • and then how thoroughly they've done the engineering to make it happen.

  • Let's face it, it's the coolest car here, by an absolute mile.

  • But the only car I can actually imagine using in Europe and working for me

  • is this one, the ZL1 1LE.

  • It is amazing on track. It's usable on road.

  • It's to be mentioned in the same breath of the 911 GT3 RS.

  • That's not an overstatement.

  • And let's not forget, this is half the price of the Porsche.

  • That's just astonishing

Three cars, 2235 brake horsepower combined

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