The 2009 Corvette ZR1 at the Nordschleife! Talk about a stranger in a strange land. I recently found a video of GM development engineer Jim Mero turning a lap time of 7:26.4 in a reputedly stock ZR1 at the above said ring. The interesting thing for me about the whole event was not the fact that the ZR1 beat the Nissan GT-R’s time of 7:29. But the fact that people were ripping on old Jim Mero for his drive in the post video comments. I thought he had done a pretty good job! I thought maybe these people should try it and see if they do any better or worst. Better yet, why don’t I try. I have GT5!
Since he was driving a stock ZR1 I started out researching the stock components. Once I had my shopping list together I went about buying all of the parts needed in the GT5 tuning shop. So in short, this is not so much a tune as it is a subjective buying guide for the stock ZR1.
Body/Chassis: Nothing to do here. PD’s weight at 1508 kg’s is correct.
Engine Tuning: Again, nothing to add. Stock LS9 Engine. Stock ECU.
Power Limiter: Set to 638hp.
Turbo: Supercharger. How PD omitted this as standard equipment is beyond me.
Intake System: Standard manifold and filter.
Exhaust: The manifolds are very simply ported and I considered them stock. The actual exhaust is valved to close at low rpm’s to reduce noise and open wide at higher speeds for full song. Still, not really a performance feature so considered stock as well. Stock catalytic converter.
Transmission: 6 Speed Close-Ratio. Another unexplained PD omission of standard equipment. Especially when the ratio’s are so easily found online. You cannot adjust the gears to match the ZR1’s exact ratio’s but it’s pretty close. You can get marginally closer with the fully adjustable set but the tooth on tooth whine is annoying and messes up the sound. Here are the closest possible settings for the fully adjustable set if needed.
Set top speed to 205 mph first.
1st gear: 2.764
2nd gear: 1.890
3rd gear: 1.392
4th gear: 1.077
5th gear: 0.875
6th gear: 0.670
Final: 3.420
Drivetrain: The ZR1 uses a twin plate clutch. The semi-racing 6 bolt fly wheel will have to do since the 9 bolt is not an option here. The differential is a stock limited slip. Stock driveshaft as well.
Suspension: This was the most difficult aspect to get together. The ZR1 uses an active electro magnetic fluid ride system that adjusts automatically depending on driving conditions. It also has the “dial in” tour or track type selector control that the driver can operate. Neither is an option in GT5. So for the sake of making the car pull off the 1+g’s of safe cornering it’s said to be capable of I selected the Height-Adjustable Sport Kit even though the OEM system is not height adjustable. I also found the factory camber settings and thought this particular kit would accommodate that nicely. I just need to convert them to GT5 settings. Please let me know if you know how to convert -1.00 degree’s of front and -1.25 degree’s of camber to the rear.
Ride Height: F/0 R/0
Spring Rate: F/10.5 R/10.8
Dampers; F/3 R/3
Camber: F/-0.1 R/-0.2
Brakes: The Bosch system controller is set at 52 and 48. Front and rear respectively. So for the sake of ease….
F/5 R/5
Tires: Sport Medium. Michelin Pilot Sport PS2’s. This was at the time Michelin’s ultra high performance sport summer class tire. To me that means sport soft. They have run a newer ZR1 on super slick sports since 2008 so I'll have to down grade the tires to sport medium.
I drove this set up in practice mode. I'm sure my online lounge drive would be more realistic with tire wear.
Manual Transmission
Traction Control: Off
Skid Recovery Force: Off
Active Steering: Off
ASM: Off
ABS: 1
Grip: Real
So there you have it.
Here's a link to the actual ZR1 lap at the Nordschleife. Try the GT5 car out then watch old Jim go round. Neither is boring.
You may have noticed if you've gone to the first page that I have some housekeeping to do yet (all that Prologue stuff etc...). Please ignore for now. I'll get it straightened out.
Peace.
And no, you were not sent this tuning by mistake. 
