Another reason why the ZR-1 won't be forgotten. ‘or this 0-10-150-0-0 battle, a call to Lingenfelter Performance Engi neering in Decatur, Indiana, was a natural That's because John Lingenfelter never fails to return our phone calls, no matter hhow harebrained our scheme, We've also road-tested nine of the highly modified GM cars he’s turned out in the past nine years. They've all been well prepared, ‘easily drivable, and brutally fast. LPE is best known for modifying Corvettes, so no one was surprised when LPE project engineer Jason Haines showed up for our test in a bright-red 1994 ZR, borrowed from a Florida customer Under its hood was what the Decatur gang calls its 415-cid LTS package. Its 2R-1 V-8 is upgraded with steel cylinder liners to allow for the enlarged four-inch bores. Custom pistons and rods, a stroker erank: shaft, and ported and polished heads with a custom valvetrain and a larger throttle body complete the package. Displacement ‘grows from 5.7 to 68 liters. This surgery costs $33,900, which includes B&B exhausts and yields 620 of a total of 640 hp and 510 pound-feet of torque. This eon- testant had stainless-steel valves and an enlarged and polished intake manifold, which added $3500 and 20 horsepower. It also had a 3.7311 axle rato, a larger radi ator, a single-mass flywheel, and silicone coolant hoses, which added another $2354, ‘The front brakes are LPE/Alcon 13.5-inch- diameter slotted rotors with fourpiston calipers. The $3889 spent on these binders Lingenfelter 415 ZR-1 asec SF ne see ‘om 238 mp 1 RENNTech SLR7.4 and Corvette outbraked the Ling ‘not by enough to topple this ear lead. The red super-Vette wou way average of 23.3 seconds, runner-up Steeda Q by 2.8 soos Lingenfelter’s car is test careful preparation. The fi was selected to make for as ‘wasting gearshifts as possible. was filted to the Vette's elect pension ($210), making it squat ‘taction in lower gears, This ‘completed the grueling tests w broken pars, any degradation = ‘mance, and not even a hint of We hope our 0-to-1S0-es becomes a new performance be (Our first champion has done iim ‘onds: the 415 ZR- from Lins formance Engineering. — included carbon-metallic pads fitted all around. Other than the owner-installed rocker panels, there's not much to distinguish this ZR-1 until you start it, which takes a few extra seconds of cranking. The exhaust rumbles busily at idle, and a ratty patter ‘emanates fromthe gearbox, thanks 1 the light flywheel. On the road, the V-8 offers effortless surges of thrust. The exhaust isa bit loud for everyday use, and the engine is 0 ‘muscular that the stock traction ‘control engages with annoying fe- quency. (We switched it off for ‘most of our driving.) These are minor con- cessions for such impressive power. Politeness isn’t a factor at the track, here the raucous Corvette went to work with clockwork efficiency. Part-throttle clutch drops at 1100 rpm launched the ear consistently. Full throttle could not be applied uniil second gear without pro voking huge wheelspin. A slick-shifting gearbox kept the DOHC V-8 on full boi, land speeds wound up onthe test computer like the altimeter on the space shuttle ~60 ‘mph in 3.6 seconds, 100 in 7.5 ticks, 150 in an astonishing 15.6 seconds. In the quarter-mile (11.6 seconds at 128 mph), the Lingenfelter enjoyed an untouchable lead over every other ca. When we hit the brakes at 150 mph, some slight weaving was easy 0 control and fade was not an issue. Only the [encatare le 150 mph "100 mph