General Motors has been teasing a new ultimate Chevrolet Corvette for a while. One that would be so legendary that it was rumored to be bestowed with the name Zora, a reference to Zora Arkus-Duntov, the man known as the father of the Corvette. Now, the Zora is here and it’s all kinds of awesome. But, hold on, what’s up with that name? ZR1X? Did GM not learn anything from the Toyota bZ4X?
The ZR1X might have a silly name, but it’s legit. As Sam Abuelsamid wrote, this thing has the ZR1’s 1064 HP LT7 twin-turbocharged V8, but now there’s also the electric drivetrain from the E-Ray in there, too, making the new ‘Vette have a total output of 1,250 HP. Holy heck. But, still, that name. DialMforMiata:
I don’t get it, GM. You’ve been referring to it as the Zora for years. Everybody calls it the Zora. Zora is a cool name and this monster is a brilliant way to honor the man who gave you your halo car for the last 70+ years. So what do you do when you drop it? Give it a name only McLaren would love! Just call the damn thing the Zora already!
Hotdoughnutsnow:
ZR1X – pronounced Xerox.
Uh oh, looks like we found a new Bees Forks.
Anyway, Jason’s all excited about his new-to-him Citroën 2CV, and he wrote a Cold Start about its funny newspaper ads, which include a comparison between the 2CV and a camel. Sid Bridge:
I miss the good old days when if my camel’s leg broke, I could just shoot it. Now camels just come with a can of Fix-A-Flat.
I’ve been gushing over my 1997 Honda Life, and I finally introduced the car to our readers today. Drew writes:
I still think the headline could have been Mercedes Acquires Honda, (if you wanted to go a different route, Mercedes gets a Life would also work) but I’m very glad you are happy with it. It looks like a great find!
Finally, Thomas wrote about how the Toyota Avalon is actually a great car, and your grandparents were right all along. SoCoFoMoCo:
You can buy one at an estate sale and cruise it until your estate sale comes around. The circle of life.
Have a great evening, everyone!
These are all excellent today! (Yesterday? I had the day off, so I missed these.)
Belongs in a garage with an Xr4Ti
I don’t think GM has ever officially referred to it as “Zora”. The press and people online latched onto that name since we had to call it something.
Plus, someone mentioned that ZR already refers to “Zora Racing”.
Most importantly, big corporations tend to shy away from making their products after workers. Except for the founders or when companies are small, I can’t think of too many instances when a large corporation named a product after a worker, regardless of how influential they might have been.
Is there is an Apple Steve Jobs version of the Mac? Not that I know of. The Apple Lisa was supposedly named after Job’s daughter but again, he was a founder of the company and Lisa wasn’t an employee.
In more modern times, would Apple ever have named a version of the iphone after Ives?
Dieter Rams is one of the most influential product designers, and I might be wrong, but I don’t think any products he designed were named after him.
I still think they could have come up with a better name, but FFS you are complaining about the NAME of an unbelievably awesome car. This goes beyond nitpicking.
They did a “Woz” edition of the Apple IIGS named after Steve Wozniak, the other founder. Had his signature on the front of the case.
Maybe they’re planning a cross-promotion with Srixon? After all, being able to fit two golf bags has been a longstanding design requirement for the Corvette.
The Corvette ZR1Xon, your best option was you’re late to a tee time!
Is there any chance Nintendo’s lawyers had something to do with GM picking a name other than ‘Zora‘?
This is probably lame, but this was like half the appeal to me. Given that the Corvette is already called sting ray, having the same name as fish people would fit. Plus if you played Majora’s Mask, you know Zora are the coolest of the five main groups. Oh yeah, and the guy who designed it, nice tribute.
Heck yeah they’re the coolest. I know the Switch gets a lot of grief for its graphics, but I think the appearance of Zora’s Domain in the newest games is absolutely stunning.
Nothing like adding the X to the name like ….. Checks notes.. like Jeep and Isuzu and …….. Everyone did in the late 90’s early 00’s….
Does it come with an unlimited supply of Mountain Dew?
ZR1X just feels so clunky to vocalize.
Alphanumeric marketing criticisms aside, all the best known GM products have 3 letters. 1LE, LS3, 454, Z06, LS7, ZR1, LSX, 427, and so many more. All of those trifectas of seemingly random letters and numbers are completely meaningless to regular folks, but anyone who knows GM or muscle cars will recognize them *instantly.*
The use of four characters in “ZR1X” doesn’t work. Three sounds badass, four sounds like a model number for a leaf blower or running shoe.
If GM insists on not calling it Zora, why not ZRX? Replacing the ‘1’ with the ‘X’ would sound so much better than just slapping it on, and would convey the difference accurately.
There’s still time to fix this, GM! Literally, badge engineering will make the name so much better.
Don’t get into motorcycles… 4 characters seems to be the baseline for motorcycle names. Then you’ve got monstrosities like the ZX-4RR (I have one of these and I hate saying it out loud), the MT-09 SP, and the dreaded CBR1000RR-R SP.
I knew the cbr names got clunky. I did not know they got THAT clunky.
Make a 4 door version for Caddy and call it the Zoraq.
It would have to be pronounced like an Infiniti model, Zora “Q”
I’ve just had a terrible, marketable idea. Fix-A-Flat with a gun-shaped applicator. Additional marketing opportunity: make it part of a “go-bag” car kit for roadside emergencies. Make it look tactical, throw some PALS (MOLLE) webbing on there, make some money.
You are correct. It is terrible. If you can get it past the lawyers, it will sell well. Stock it at the Autozone next to the Calvin peeing decals.
Woo hoo! My Gen-X rant power finally pays off!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw the ZR1X name and thought “Xerox”, but I also keep wondering why they didn’t call back another model and call it the ZR1 Grand Sport or ZR1 GS instead of following GMC’s lead of adding an X to their top trim level (AT4 becomes AT4X).
I still can’t get David Gray’s Babylon out of my head for the Avalon. That’s a stupid little thing that’s been rattling around in my head for almost 30 years. If musicians were more willing to sell out back then, I bet they could have made it work, but I don’t think the Venn Diagram of Avalon buyers overlapped much with indy British Singer-Songwriters fans in the late 90s. Maybe Lawrence Welk.
In some versions of Zelda, Zora was called Zola (probably due to the fact that the Japanese sound straddles the two English sounds). I always just loved that it also straddled two famous authors, as well.
Do not take ZRIX if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Side effects of ZRIX may include whiplash, uncontrolled grinning, and excessive law enforcement attention. If you encounter any of these side effects with ZRIX immediately seek out a twenty year old Avalon.
Ask your doctor if ziyrixxy is right for you!
Even knowing enough Corvette history to know who Zora Arkus-Duntov was and what he did / stood for, I still thought Zora was a goofy name for the car when the rumor mill started a few years ago. Not that ZR1X is much better, but at least it makes sense in context of the car (ZR1 being the big bad of Corvettes and X commonly referring to all wheel drive).
I suppose if it were me I’d have saved ZR1 for this car. Or maybe just had ZR1 electrified and non electrified versions?
Oof. Don’t give GM any ideas. They could still rename it the eZR1.
I was going to get a new Corvette, but the name is dumb so I’m not going to… well that and I dont have the money. But it’s mostly the name.
The difference between BZ4X and ZR1X is a ZR1 exists and everyone knows what it is. The BZ4X means nothing to anyone.
But hey, they shortened it to bZ for the next model year, so it means slightly less of nothing to people!
Last time I got a package of ZR1X, it came with two… a left ZR1X and a right ZR1X. Lots of caramelly goodness to be had.
My package of ZR1X was a tolerable though very sugary cereal, that I had for breakfast in a bowl with milk. The kids really like it, though.