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Corvette's notorious bad luck struck Chevy's test team once again at the Nürburgring, after two high-speed crashes during industry testing sessions pushed all three C8 ZO6 test cars out of today's crucial timed test sessions.
A BMW M8 test mule crashed heavily on the fast Kesselchen sector, rolling at least once & leveling a large section of barrier.
Meanwhile, unconnected but only a few hundred yards up the track, a Tesla Model S Plaid also suffered an impact with the barrier in the Klostertal sector.
Both drivers are believed to be in good condition, despite the severity of any Nordschleife crash.
The crashes couldn't have come at a worst time for Corvette, which started testing the new 2022 Corvette Z06 prototypes on the 20.8-km Nordschleife only last week. This month there are only 2 weeks of testing time available to manufacturers, and rain is set to close off the last day of testing tomorrow.
The accidents at Kesselchen and Klostertal demanded immediate repair to the barriers, plus extensive clean-up operations.
The result :
Of nearly 10 cars lined up for an empty-track hot lap during the 2-hour session, only a McLaren 765LT and a Cadillac CT5-V made a lap, neither of which were even approaching lap-record pace.
Maybe that's because track conditions were compromised in the affected section, maybe not.
The nature of the secretive test sessions makes an official statement highly unlikely.
While today's official timed session couldn't have supplied the Corvette with a "full" lap record which requires OEMs to spend big bucks to rent the track exclusively, and keep a notary on hand, it might have provided GM with a much-needed Nordschleife win.
There is still a gap in the public schedule on Friday that could offer GM an official lap-time attempt, but with the weather forecast calling for yet more rain, that might be a moot point.
There's another industry test session scheduled for September.
Would be a great job on just spending every day being a Corvette driver doing design testing !
A BMW M8 test mule crashed heavily on the fast Kesselchen sector, rolling at least once & leveling a large section of barrier.
Meanwhile, unconnected but only a few hundred yards up the track, a Tesla Model S Plaid also suffered an impact with the barrier in the Klostertal sector.
Both drivers are believed to be in good condition, despite the severity of any Nordschleife crash.
The crashes couldn't have come at a worst time for Corvette, which started testing the new 2022 Corvette Z06 prototypes on the 20.8-km Nordschleife only last week. This month there are only 2 weeks of testing time available to manufacturers, and rain is set to close off the last day of testing tomorrow.
The accidents at Kesselchen and Klostertal demanded immediate repair to the barriers, plus extensive clean-up operations.
The result :
Of nearly 10 cars lined up for an empty-track hot lap during the 2-hour session, only a McLaren 765LT and a Cadillac CT5-V made a lap, neither of which were even approaching lap-record pace.
Maybe that's because track conditions were compromised in the affected section, maybe not.
The nature of the secretive test sessions makes an official statement highly unlikely.
While today's official timed session couldn't have supplied the Corvette with a "full" lap record which requires OEMs to spend big bucks to rent the track exclusively, and keep a notary on hand, it might have provided GM with a much-needed Nordschleife win.
There is still a gap in the public schedule on Friday that could offer GM an official lap-time attempt, but with the weather forecast calling for yet more rain, that might be a moot point.
There's another industry test session scheduled for September.
Would be a great job on just spending every day being a Corvette driver doing design testing !
