Porsche should never be ashamed. They are great cars, and this is coming from a veteran corvette racer.

My story...a new Z06 vs 997 GT3:

I drove against a new 997 GT3 at my local short course (1.2 miles and 10 turns) last weekend and we were fighting back and forth lap after lap. Now this was a short and very tight track, which definately gave an edge to the Porsche, as I found it difficult to get enought speed to pass him. We were both on new sticky r compounds, so tires were equal. Both cars were stock, with only an air intake in mine.

I found he could take the slower hairpin corners faster and could carry a few mph more through the fast left/right/left esses. It was only on the straits and the high speed sweepers that I could catch and pass him. Then when we got back to the hairpin and esses, he was right on my @ss trying to pass me. It was one of the funnest times I have had in a while. He was trying to get more speed on the main straits by maximizing his corner speed, and I was throwing my car into the esses to the point that I was drifting the whole way through to keep enough speed to utilize the HP on the main strait.

This was my home track, and I have won a few time trails at this course. I was pushing my car and my driving abilities to the LIMIT. He was an instructor. So, from a driver perspective we were dead on with eachother...the perfect storm.

After 25 minutes of battle, I started from behind, passed him on the 4th lap, he passed me a few laps later, and I finally passed him again before the checker flag. I had driven hard and rarely found good competitors, but we were matched! Matter of fact, I drove SO hard that I pulled a muscle in my arm trying to hold on to that beast of a Z06. I literally couldn't work out in the gym for a week until it healed.

In the end I would say we were DEAD on eachother. If the course was longer and faster (like watkins glen, road america) I probably would have eventually pulled away, but his GT3 was soaking up the turns lik a knife through butter...making me push my car beyond it's low speed abilities.

My assesment of both cars (with no magazine talk, no numbers, purley from a driver's perspective)...the GT3 looked easier and more composed through the corners. He was having a much easier time getting his car through a corner quickly. On the other hand, I had to MUSCLE my car through every corner (and it worked, but I was exhausted). I had to drive twice as hard as the Porsche guy and my raw hp and torque made up for my 2-3 mph lesser mid-corner speed. I feel the GT3 had me in the low-medium speed handling department by a slight margin. They are two totally different cars, and need to be driven differently to get fast lap times.

The Z06 had WAY too much body roll, and this track event made me to decide to completely ditch the leaf springs and go with a competition coil-over/sway bar kit, like I had on my previous C5Z06. I think with some heavier springs and dampers, I can get another 30%+ of handling capability out of the car and not have to fight the thing around the course.

In the end the GT3 could not stand up to the raw HP, torque and weight advantage of the Z06. The acceleration was AMAZING off any corner, at ANY time, under ANY condition, and that is the Z06's advantage, the longer the straits..I am gonna get you! The GT3, on the other hand, is a "momentum" car and needs to driven more smoothly to obtain quicker lap times, but remians composed and upright.

I tell you if that GT3 had 100 more HP, I would have been toast that afternoon. Fortunetly for me, that was not the case. In the end, the Z06 was faster (even on a short course) and with some suspension tweaking, it will be even faster, but the GT3 (for it's disadvantes) did AMAZINGLY well.

I say hats off to both, and for me, one should not have this much fun in a single day!