[Badgerbimmer]

Just finished up two days at Road America with the ZL1 and thought I'd offer my thoughts on the car.

The first day didn't go to well.... At my 500 mile oil change I told the service adviser about the tranny overfill issue. He assured me based on my VIN number (feb 2017 build) it wasn't an issue in my car. In retrospect that was obviously complete BS. Anyway first session tranny fluid temp goes off the chart, backs out a coupling and starts leaking tranny fluid which hit everywhere including the exhaust, there was so much smoke it looked like the engine blew! Took it back to the dealer asked them politely to get it fixed, which they scrambled to do. Apparently there is a TSB out on the coupling issue. The dealership needed to go to 4 different dealers to find the new coupling and gather up enough tranny fluid to get the car fixed. They finished at 7 pm Friday night. Big thanks to the Father/Son technician team that worked that late on a Friday to enable me to track the car on Saturday. No over heating in 4 half-hour sessions on Saturday.

On to the cars performance. The ZL1 is stock but for Pagid RS19/29 pads, Castrol SRF fluid, Moreno Camber plates. Running -3 with zero toe front, -1.75 zero toe rear. As a reference I am coming from 15 years of tracking an E46 M3 which I purchased new and replaced the suspension (Koni Dbl adj), brakes, every piece of rubber in the car, pulled out a bunch of the interior etc. Dry weight was 3,180 engine was likely around 360hp. I ran on 275 Pirelli slicks. (when I did a session in my car at Road America, on the wets, with Randy Probst driving, yes that Randy Probst, he said wow this car is really dialed in as we went through the carousel drifting at a 45* angle!) Best lap that I could find on my traqmate at RA was 2.36.2.

Comparing these cars to each other on a track is like comparing a digital caliper to a tape measure. They both get the job done but in very different ways. The M3 is all about precision, the ZL1 brute force. I have to say the brute force is more fun! As configure the M3 is able to carry way more speed in every corner and brake way later into every corner. Obviously the ZL1 is way, way faster between the corners. By the second session in the car on clean laps (i.e. not having to get a wave by) I was able to get into the 2.34s. The ZL1 is a consist 2 seconds or so a lap faster than the M3. I assume as I gain more knowledge of the car I will be able to go a bit faster but.......

My thoughts on the ZL1. The obvious - the engine, the A10 tranny and the eLSD are fantastic. The tranny always seemed to be in the right gear. The engine pulls like a beast and coming out of corners it just hooks up and goes. The car is well balanced and fairly easy to drive with pace. The tire grip gives out way before the car starts pushing. I find the suspension to be more than adequate and the brakes are great. (although it takes a long time to bring a 3850 lbs car down from 150mph). Its also really fun to pass Corvettes, 911 GT3s etc on the straights!!

The but.... The big limiting factor in the car is the tires. Everything on this car is better than the stock tires. The brakes overwhelm the tires, the suspension overwhelms the tires, the engine power overwhelms the tires. In the 4th session of the day and trying to push the lap times I was in 4 wheel drifts in virtually every corner (my buddy in his GT350 with Pirelli's was following and said it was a hoot to watch). Also when trying to brake later and really get on them hard the tires start locking up. Now I don't know if the tires where just starting to lose their grip after that much track time or I was just hitting their limit. Put a set of Pirelli's on the car and its an easy 5/6 seconds a lap faster at Road America. This would put the stock car in the 2.28/29 range which is moving along pretty good.

In summary, for a car you can drive to the track on stock DOT tires not touch and run on the track it is fantastic! It is s**t eating grin fun to drive and altogether worth every dime it costs. Change out the brake fluid and pads, add some camber put on some real race tires and you have yourself a really fast car. I love this car!!!

[hzycamaro]

Thanks for your detailed report. Sorry for the wasted track day. I've never driven light cars on track and it's interesting to see your comparison between ZL1 and M3

[Roostie]

Excellent review, thanks for writing it.

[driven2exceSS]

Sorry to hear of the mess on Friday, sounds like you were taken care of and the weekend was a success!! One question, to carry over from another thread, you were running in full auto?? Fantastic review BTW!

[Badgerbimmer]

Yep I let the A10 do its thing, works great. There are some hard shifts under full power up in the 4/5/6 range that unsettle the car a bit. Not sure if that is something others have noted or if that may be a problem caused by the over heating issues. Didn't happen all the time and when it does you get used to when you know it might be coming.

[2010REDSS]

Mark,

It was a real pleasure to meet you at RA this past weekend!

Great write-up and review.....I enjoyed watching you (and your buddy David in his GT350) tearing through the traffic in your run group.....great driving!

I'll post some of my ZL1 1LE thoughts and results in another thread when I get a chance.

Hope to see you again at RA (BMW CCA event in September is my next RA trip)?

Take care and keep having a blast with the ZL1!!

[hzycamaro]

Originally Posted by Badgerbimmer

Yep I let the A10 do its thing, works great. There are some hard shifts under full power up in the 4/5/6 range that unsettle the car a bit. Not sure if that is something others have noted or if that may be a problem caused by the over heating issues. Didn't happen all the time and when it does you get used to when you know it might be coming.

Wow, that's amazing. I also saw a lot ZL1 A10 owners said they left it in full auto on track and it worked great. My car is A8 and I have to use paddle shifters on track because A8 sometimes does unexpected downshift which is really annoying. It can be because I didn't activate the performance shift mode but it seems A10 is really much better than A8

[Badgerbimmer]

Originally Posted by 2010REDSS

Mark,

It was a real pleasure to meet you at RA this past weekend!

Great write-up and review.....I enjoyed watching you (and your buddy David in his GT350) tearing through the traffic in your run group.....great driving!

I'll post some of my ZL1 1LE thoughts and results in another thread when I get a chance.

Hope to see you again at RA (BMW CCA event in September is my next RA trip)?

Take care and keep having a blast with the ZL1!!

Hey Todd,

Was great to meet you and the Iowa crew! Look forward to your review and report on your sub 2:30 laps. I'll leave the specifics of how low you went to your report!

I will be at the Friday sessions with the BMW club, I have found that to be the best day as the run sessions are a little looser and there are only RA experienced drivers on the track.

Enjoy the rest of the season!

[Sp00ner]

Originally Posted by hzycamaro

Wow, that's amazing. I also saw a lot ZL1 A10 owners said they left it in full auto on track and it worked great. My car is A8 and I have to use paddle shifters on track because A8 sometimes does unexpected downshift which is really annoying. It can be because I didn't activate the performance shift mode but it seems A10 is really much better than A8

Personally, I've never had it downshift on me unless I was stuck behind another driver for a long period of time that was going way slow and it would start stepping out of PSM. The only time I had to drop to using the paddles was during a rain storm where I couldn't keep it in the range to keep PSM engaged.

I gave a ride along to a track rat that's been racing a 2000 Z28 and he didn't realize it was an auto until like lap 5 or so.

[hzycamaro]

Originally Posted by Sp00ner

Personally, I've never had it downshift on me unless I was stuck behind another driver for a long period of time that was going way slow and it would start stepping out of PSM. The only time I had to drop to using the paddles was during a rain storm where I couldn't keep it in the range to keep PSM engaged.

I gave a ride along to a track rat that's been racing a 2000 Z28 and he didn't realize it was an auto until like lap 5 or so.

Really? Maybe I should try the performance shift mode again to see how it works. I didn't know how to activate and keep performance shift mode before I started to use paddle all the time on track.

[driven2exceSS]

Hmm.. Maybe I'll give it a whirl too. IDK

[Nick S]

I was there on sunday to visit with Todd and get a ride in the ZL1 1LE (which was awesome by the way Todd...thank you very much). I was hoping to meet you as well Badgerbimmer and I wanted to ask you how the A10 was doing on track. Sounds like you had a great time and once properly filled the A10 did well for you.

Congrats to Todd as well on the awesome lap time you put up on Friday! I won’t steal your thunder though and I’ll let you post up your time though!

[Sp00ner]

Originally Posted by hzycamaro

Really? Maybe I should try the performance shift mode again to see how it works. I didn't know how to activate and keep performance shift mode before I started to use paddle all the time on track.

Activate is just redline it once at full throttle, after that it will stay engaged unless your driving drops way off, and it will step down gradually as it does.

[2010REDSS]

Originally Posted by Badgerbimmer

Hey Todd,

Was great to meet you and the Iowa crew! Look forward to your review and report on your sub 2:30 laps. I'll leave the specifics of how low you went to your report!

I will be at the Friday sessions with the BMW club, I have found that to be the best day as the run sessions are a little looser and there are only RA experienced drivers on the track.
I
Enjoy the rest of the season!

Mark,

Looking forward to seeing you again that Friday at RA! Take care until then.

Originally Posted by Nick S

I was there on sunday to visit with Todd and get a ride in the ZL1 1LE (which was awesome by the way Todd...thank you very much). I was hoping to meet you as well Badgerbimmer and I wanted to ask you how the A10 was doing on track. Sounds like you had a great time and once properly filled the A10 did well for you.

Congrats to Todd as well on the awesome lap time you put up on Friday! I won’t steal your thunder though and I’ll let you post up your time though!

Nick,

Great to see you again at RA! My pleasure on the ride....always enjoy having another Camaro guy in the passenger seat!

Got buried at work and a large volunteer event here in our community last week (John Deere Classic) so just now finding time to post.

Think I'll post up the times in the RoadAmerica Expectations thread that Mark started....and then of course the fast laps thread. Really jacked about how great the car performed!!

Hope to see you again this season!