On Friday, February 26, 2010,
Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch set out to reach the 200 MPH mark. It was a cool, overcast morning with about a 10-15 MPH winds.
After Spring Mountain personnel loaded one of it's 2010 Corvette ZR1s on the flatbed truck, it was off to the dry lake bed. John Morris, Spring Mountain's co-owner and our helicopter pilot, set off to recon the area by air. What he found was a dry lake bed that wasn't completely dry. One side of the lake bed had standing water and a good portion was slightly wet. This forced the driver to start at the wet end of the bed and and finish on the driest section. Unfortunately, that meant driving directly into the wind and resulted in a path of less than 3 miles to complete the run.
After several low speed (150 mph) runs our driver, Dave Petrie (General Manager), navigator/lookout Mike Weeks (Sales Manager) and our range officer Victor Resendiz (Head Instructor) gave the green light.
Our team made 3 attempts but just didn't have enough space to make the magic 200 MPH. After reviewing the video and audio feedback, I estimate our speed at about 190 MPH (camera angle in the video wasn't straight at the speedometer, so estimates are adjusted matching speed callouts to camera information).
Only 190 MPH!? We aren't satisfied. We will learn from this event and are confident that we'll hit 200 MPH or higher on our next attempt. Stay tuned!
Special thanks to our Ground Crewman, Ricardo Apolinar, for preparing, transporting and cleaning our ZR1.
We shot much of the video from a helicopter so it's a bit shaky in spots. Hope you enjoy!
VIDEO: ZR1 High Speed RunSpring Mountain's
Ron Fellows ZR1 School is the only school where any driver (not just those lucky ZR1 owners) can learn to drive this amazing machine. To schedule your school, call 800-391-6891 and ask for Donna or Melinda.
