Porsche Carrera GT vs Chevy Corvette: Which Is Better?

[gordonjohnson]

Mixing BMW-parts

Hello everybody !

Here's a complete newby as far as kitcar building goes. I'm still (for a long time now) thinking about what to built and if I could make it work. My choice was almost made for an Autotune Gemini, but recently I found out about the Marlin Sportster. I like the BMW idea of this built, so I'm considering the options now.

My actual question is: Could I use suspension, gear box, rear axle etc. of E30 BMW's and use the BMW E36 M3 engine, wiring loom etc or that of http://www.auto-parts-wholesale.com/mm/bmw/7-series/760.html"? I think it would be cheaper to use as much E30 parts as possible, but I like the M3 engine ... Besides that I read somewhere that using E36 suspension, axle, diff bits give more trouble in mounting ? Or is this all just coming out of the mind of a mad man and would I better buy a complete E36 M3 ? Finally perhaps anyone who says that an M3 enginge is not necessary or useless anyway ?

Like to read your thoughts on this ! Guess I'll might have some more questions/thoughts before and after the purchase ! Hope to read some usefell stuff !

Cheers !

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

This isn't even a fair poll. The vette is one of the worst cars for the money. The Carrera GT is a great supercar. The vette... well let the old men buy them!

Plus which looks better?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2CorvetteZ06s.JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SC06_2005_Porsche_Carrera_GT_edit.jpg


gotta be the Carrera

 

[turbo]

Like Russ pointed out a couple of years ago, the nationality of the nameplate means nothing. Ford closed their Marysvill, OH, plant saying that it was old and antiquated and citing high labor costs. Honda bought the plant, hired back most of the Ford labor force and launched the production of the Honda Accord, built in the USA with the highest percentage of US-made parts of all the cars that were supposedly manufactured in the US, and took the #1 spot for mid-sized cars sold in the US. The only way Ford was able to topple them from the #1 spot was to buy their own cars (Taurus) from themselves and lease them to rental car companies at huge discounts.

 

[K.J.Healey]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SC06_2005_Porsche_Carrera_GT_edit.jpg

I felt my heart sink when I looked at that. Its so nice.

 

[rcgldr]

I own a Z06, and would prefer the Carerra GT, however, I don't have $450,000 (USA) to buy the Carerra GT. The Carerra GT has 606hp and is lighter than the Z06. Nordschleife time in the Carerra GT is 7:28, while a pre-production Z06 ran a 7:42.9, although the actual car has had slight improvements since that run.

However, the Z06 just looks like another Corvette, so it doesn't attract a lot of attention and I use it as my daily driver (or my motorcycle).

Regarding the Nordschleife "production" car record, a Radical SR8 holds the current record at 6:55. This is basically a street legal (in some countries) race car.

Sedan type race cars run faster times than 6:55, but these are true race cars with slicks. A video of a BMW M3 GTR race car running combined Nurburg F1 track and Nordschleife:

http://jeffareid.net/real/m3gtrnrd.wmv

 

[Cyrus]

GREATTT VIDEO JEFF. Thats what I call being alive!

 

[Stingray]

The Carerra if far better than the Vette. Mainly due to the fact that it doesn`t matter how powerfull the car is, if it can`t transfer that power to the road it sucks, and unfortunattly that is where the Vette falls down they still use leaf sprung suspention in the 21 century. My dad had a 1950`s Landrover with leaf sprung suspention!

I bet both cars have pneumatic tires too . Stop making stuff up and learn a little about cars before condemning them over nationalistic prejudices. That Land Rover uses heavy longitudinal multileaf steel springs that serve as suspension links. Corvettes use lightweight transverse composite springs that do not affect the suspension geometry in any way. Such a spring is no better or worse than an equivalent coil. It just takes up space differently.

Vettes are actually known to be excellent at transferring their power to the road. The design is about as good as it can be for that purpose. For overall chassis performance, nothing else can touch a Z06 on the track for anywhere near that price range (unless you go to stripped out race cars with no bodywork, near-solid springs, and 2" of ground clearance). You can argue about various subjective qualities, but the Vette is an excellent value if you want to go extremely fast in comfort for relatively little money.

All that said, I don't see how anyone would take the Vette over the Carrera. The Porsche costs 6 times as much, so it had better be a much better car.

 

[moose]

This isn't even a fair poll. The vette is one of the worst cars for the money.

The Carerra GT costs something like 8 times more though...

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

The Carerra GT costs something like 8 times more though...

Right but at the Z06's price tag of 70k, I'd rather have a BMW 6 series or Audi A8.

 

[Stingray]

Right but at the Z06's price tag of 70k, I'd rather have a BMW 6 series or Audi A8.

Ok, but those cars are designed to do completely different things. If that's what you like, I doubt you'd want a CGT either.