Corvette Forum First Drive Video Changed a C7 Owner’s Mind about the C8
See side-by-side footage and telemetry comparing the C7 ZR1 and C8 Z51 as they lap Spring Mountain.
While the eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette C8 has already won over many converts, as a recent Corvette Forum poll showed, there are plenty of people — in fact, just fractionally more than half of us — who still prefer C7 to C8. (Not seen them side-by-side yet? You can do so here.) And among the older-is-better crowd is C.W. Lemoine, who owns a 2019 C7 ZR1 which, he says, he still believes to be the better car — but not by the margin he’d originally expected.
Last November, Lemoine spent two days turning laps in his ZR1 C7 at the Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Country Club‘s track just west of Las Vegas, by chance the same circuit where Corvette Forum editor Derin Richardson put the C8 through its paces just last week for his recent two-part review. And when the two days were over, Lemoine went home with a copy of the video footage and telemetry data courtesy of the Vette’s performance data recorder.
When Lemoine saw Corvette Forum’s video of the C8 lapping Spring Mountain’s 2.2-mile Villeneuve configuration, Lemoine decided to compare Corvette Forum’s lap data to his own best lap at the wheel of the C7 Corvette ZR1, and you can see the results in the video above. “At first I was thinking [the C8] was just going to be crushed [by my C7] ZR1, because I ran about 1:46.9, which … was faster on that day than the hot lap with the instructor,” said C.W. “He had a 1:47-something. So I thought ‘Hell, that’s pretty good. This should crush the C8.’ What you’ll find is [that] it doesn’t.”
It’s obviously not the most scientific of comparisons, as the 2019 ‘Vette is on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, while the 2020 is on stock Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber. Corvette Forum’s tester C8 also never turned an entire lap from a rolling start, so Lemoine had to compare portions of two different laps for a fair comparison against his own lap.
And, of course, his ‘Vette is a range-topping 2019 ZR1 vs. a 2020 Corvette Z51, putting him up by 260 horsepower and 245 lb-ft of torque. Plus obviously, the videos pit different drivers with different experience levels on different days. As Lemoine says himself, while the other driver is a pro, “I’m an average driver — but I was still fairly quick that day.”
In the interests of fairness, Lemoine follows up with a comparison against a ZR1 lap from a professional driver, pitting pro against pro. And he’s the first to admit that all things considered, his comparison isn’t the most controlled. But we have to agree that even if a better comparison could be made, his is nevertheless quite interesting and instructive.
It also gives us all a great chance to see and hear the two cars driven around the same circuit, and to get something of a broader picture of their performance side-by-side. And Lemoine. isn’t just comparing onboard video here, either. Using Cosworth Toolbox, he gives a pretty detailed turn-by-turn analysis of the entire lap, comparing lap times, G-forces, speeds and control inputs from laps with both the C7 and C8.
Speaking about the gap in the two cars’ relative performance, Lemoine told his viewers that “…with the speed differential and the power differential, I was expecting, no kidding, the ZR1 to be gapping ’em.” But as he discovered, that was certainly not the case.
“It is amazing that the C8 was even close,” he continued. “And now, granted, these drivers, they’re instructors, they’re great drivers. But still, I’m just blown away by that.”
A popular YouTuber with over a hundred thousand subscribers, Lemoine is clearly a deeply multi-talented guy. Also known by his callsign “Mover”, he’s a Louisiana native who’s an experienced F-16, F/A-18A+, and 737-800 pilot, and on his YouTube channel regularly shares videos not only about sports cars, but also commercial and military aviation, gaming and more. And that by itself would probably be plenty to keep most people busy, but not Lemoine. He’s also a Krav Maga self-defense instructor, a law enforcement volunteer, and the author of both the Alex Shepherd and Spectre series of military/espionage thriller novels!
Located about 1.5 hours west of downtown Las Vegas on State Route 160, Spring Mountain is home to more than six miles of paved track that can be run in more than 50 configurations, as well as several racing schools including Ron Fellows’ ZR1, 7th, and 8th-generation Corvette Owners Schools.
Photos by Derin Richardson for Corvette Forum