[zx9rmal]

I know you guys have heard this a million times, but what a machine! As much as I loved the 1LE, a truly 1st class high performance track capable car, the ZL1 is a woody on wheels. The interior is beautiful. For the life of me I can't understand how these magazine testers dump on the interior.

As a newbie, when I first starting driving the car it was immediately familiar because everything is laid out like the 1LE. But then I looked at the gauges and I wondered what the hell did they do to the volt meter? -15 to 0 to +15, and this funny icon above the numbers. When I saw the thing moving as I'm driving, it hit me. Oh, that icon is the scrolls!

Because I believe in an aggressive but CAREFUL break in, now that I'm at 200 miles, I'm taking it up to 4500 rpm and getting into the throttle a bit, as well as using engine compression braking.

So at a little more than half throttle, as I'm going through the gears, the pull is definitely stronger than the 1LE. But when I look at the boost gauge, it's only getting up to 0! I'm trying to imagine what this thing is like at full throttle, with that boost gauge up towards 15 lbs. Respect.

I didn't realize until I started researching the car before purchase that the transmission ratios are different. Closer ratios and a longer first gear. I had to adjust my driving just a bit to keep the rpm's where I like it. I wish the 1LE had that longer 1st gear because I felt that it wound out just a bit to soon.

I keep the suspension in track mode. The handling is superb, basically identical to the 1LE. Maybe, in very hard cornering you feel a very slight difference in front end push.

And that exhaust sound. Definitely different than the 1LE. Always in track mode.

The one thing I notice that I'm not thrilled about, which I also had in the 1LE, is intermittent chatter when engaging the clutch to roll out in 1st gear. Is this clutch chatter or related to the eLSD? Is this a characteristic of the car? I do not want the dealer screwing around with the car.

Well, I'll leave it at that. Hopefully, my little write up will bring you guys back to when you first got your ZL1.

Thanks for a good forum.