The 2025 Chevy Corvette ZR1 represents the summit of American performance cars. It boasts a jaw-dropping spec sheet highlighted by four-figure engine output and a top speed in excess of 230 mph, making it the fastest American production car ever made. But how fast is the first production Corvette with a four-digit horsepower rating around the famous Nürburgring in Germany? Newly appointed Corvette chief engineer Tony Roma shed some light on the question at a recent National Corvette Museum event.
“We do have more development going on yet this year. If we have something worthy of talking about, we will talk about it,” Roma replied to a question about whether the C8 ZR1 has an official Nürburgring lap time. “It’s more involved than you would think to actually get a certified time, and it costs us a lot of money. Nürburgring got smart a couple years ago, and they charge you for the privilege of talking about it. We know everybody wants to know [the Nürburgring time]. I can tell you the cars are super fast, but right now, we don’t have anything to talk about.”
For reference, the unofficial Nürburgring lap time for the C7 ZR1 is 7:04.00, and the C8 Z06 achieved a 7:10.51 lap time. It’s a pretty safe bet that the C8 ZR1 will manage a Nürburgring lap time under the seven-minute mark. Its closest American rival, the limited-production Ford Mustang GTD, achieved a stunning lap time of 6:57.685 at the track, followed by an even faster time of 6:52.072.
Since its first unveiling last summer, the 2025 Chevy Corvette ZR1 has been crushing track records. It claims the records at Road America, Road Atlanta, the long course at Watkins Glen, and both the full course and grand course at Virginia International Raceway.
The C8 ZR1 is powered by the twin-turbocharged 5.5L V8 LT7 gasoline engine, which features a flat-plane crank and dual overhead cams, all while delivering an estimated 1,064 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 828 pound-feet of torque at 6,000 rpm. The new ZR1 also incorporates massive aero enhancements, in particular with the optional ZTK package on board, which includes high-downforce elements like a massive rear wing, front dive planes, and advanced underbody strakes.
Comments
“Nothing to talk about yet”. Translation: they’ve ran it before and it didn’t set a good time. Hate to say it, but hopefully they are making it better for another run.
“they’ve run it before”
I wonder if they ran into the GTD issue where they had bad weather. After setting 5 different track records in the US by good margins I wouldnt think the ring time would be slow
Larry, you hit it right on the nail. I can’t understand why the C8 generation is falling short in terms of getting a decent lap time at the ‘ring. Looks like they’ve got everything needed for a sub-7 lap time. Mid-engined, high horsepower, immense amount of downforce, top-notch drivers, exceptional tires… so is it the gearing? Is the e-diff holding the car back? I can’t really wrap my head around it. I’m 72 years of age… have owned my C7 ZR1 3ZR in Sebring Orange for a few years now. By far one of the most emotional cars I’ve owned.. and I’m very happy that Mr. Mero did a astounding lap at only 7:04 seconds. According to him, the C7 ZR1 could’ve been a sub-7 car easily. You would think the new ZR1 with 300 more horsepower and downforce would be under 6:50. RON
Yep. Something is fishy. GM is doing a PR offensive bragging about all of the U.S. track records it has set. The N ring silence is deafening. The C8 platform should be dominating. Heck, even the Camaro ZL1 1LE with 400(!) less hp ran a 7:16. Couldn’t a C8 with more modern rubber, suspension, and aero knock a half minute off of that?! I mean, 1064hp is staggering and it should be able to overcome other flaws.
the 7:10 was an unofficial magazine time with some pretty poor driving, Misha Charoudin ran a 7:23 in heavy traffic and said it should easily be a sub 7:00 car
@WS6
The driver who did the test also mentioned that GM themselves got a similar time to 7:10… You can go and check the article… Also, I don’t believe a thing that comes out of Misha’s mouth…. you have to understand the majority of his viewers are based in US… so he is obviously going to speak very highly of the car….. the video has 1.3M viewers as of now… guessing 90% of those viewers are Americans…
Ron
They did that lap early in the morning when the temperature was around 15°C. This is very suboptimal temperatures for these tires. Further, despite being unfamiliar with the vehicle, the driver was not given warm-up laps to acquaint himself with the vehicle. He did one, and ONLY one, lap in the car Which was his time lap, and if you watched that lap you could see him spinning on what he described as the slick surface which had a lot of dew on it in spots. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to get their best time in a vehicle on the first lap they ever drive in it, period, And especially on a damp dew covered track in cold weather. It was a sham.
Sadly this is the way GM has always “done business”, if it is a successful endevor, they’ll brag about it and pat themselves on the back, if on the otherhand, they’re either failing or the results are not what they expected, they’re quiet while probably trying to figure out why there isn’t a successful outcome. But here is the reality, while the GM Mavens (the powers that be in the business) are assessing their attempts at a successful but failing endevor, others who are also in this same business are successful at that same game, and it is maddening plus it’s also an embarrassment too! Believe me if Chevy had a winning combination in any of the newer C8’s that could take down that very, very special and very, very expensive Mustang that so far, has been turning in some amazing times at “The Ring” in Germany, GM would be dancing in the streets, bragging about their accomplishments with either that Z06, ZR1 or (gasp!) some sort of a secret midnight run with “The Zora”…or whatever Chevy will be calling their latest entry to take on “The Ring” and set some amazing times, hopefully putting that mean and nasty Mustang back on the trailer once again regaining that “Pride Trophy” for the best lap times for the Mighty C8 Corvette Stingray. But…that’s not happened, and to make matters worse that bad boy ‘Stang now just turned in a faster lap by ’bout 5 seconds than it did not that long ago! That was “a shot across the bow” from Ford to Chevy saying “go ahead, try whatever you want but you haven’t a chance in hell of breaking our latest lap times”, and should you actually match or beat our times…we’ve got another ace up our sleeves that we can unleash should you even come close, let alone beat our latest lap times”! So there!
That, is a tough one to have to deal with when you’ve got every inch of your pride hanging out to dry and you’re still sure you can’t (yet) beat the competitor’s horse (no pun intended) and to try and to fail would be a real tough pill to swallow and GM is not one to take chances, either you’re damn sure you can do it, or you just have to wait until you’re sure you can put that nasty pony car from Ford back on the trailer and regain you’re bragging rights. My money is on Chevy, one day hopefully being able to “Git R Done” but in the meantime…you just have to turn the other cheek and bite you’re lip cause you ain’t holding the winning card, not yet.
I figure that they are making some improvements to make sure it can ace the test and beat the others….
If not, there is always the upcoming Zora…
Ford and Chevrolet do brag, but I know Ford brags a lot more in general about their capabilities. Remember the overrated SN94s that ended them with a fine for misrepresenting their power (granted, pretty sure Chevrolet has somethings similar, but still)…
I don’t think any of us Vette guys really care, it’s American not European. Very few will spend 300k for a Mustang and the new Z will be slapping the $hit out of most everyone. They may be just messing with people too. Myself I don’t really care.
Chevy has never been shy about a little bit of competition in anything they do, be it sales, racing or design and engineering, but Chevy is a large and mostly profitable division of GM and so it has to sometimes “go with the flow” and step lightly making sure not do anything questionable or self defeating, so in the case of the “missing Ring lap times” for the C8, there is some careful thinking about why their not yet where they’d like to be because bragging rights have been a part of the Corvette’s history since the mid 1950’s (1956-1957 I believe is when Corvette finally got it’s groove on in racing and it’s been going strong ever since then) and so here it is 2025 already and Corvette has remained a consistent winner proving that you make get knocked down once in while but you can always find a way back up to the top!
So what’s my point? Hang in there, it’ll just be a matter of time before someone at Corvette Competition puts the right formula together that’ll send the Corvette C8 back up to it’s rightful place on the podium, center stage. Right now though, Chevy/Corvette is taking a “watch and see” attitude while carefully studying what it’s going to take to bring a winning lap time back into their corner…rest assured Chevy/GM is sizing up the competition (read: Ford) and before “pulling the trigger” and taking that winning shot, they’re are making sure that can do what has to be done, successfully all the while planning the next step because the competition never rest, if it isn’t Ford it’ll be Porsche, or who knows, there are always others who are setting their sights on promoting a winning lap setting time at The ‘Ring and the fact that Chevy/Corvette continues to want to be a part of this competition is very reassuring.
They need to test both the ZTK and non-ZTK models at the ‘ring
All this investment in a hi po supercar and too stingy to pay the fee? Perhaps set up a fund raising initiative for the Nurburgring cause
Chevy and Porsche are the only sports car makers capable of dividing their trim levels into multiple different levels (relative to “adult” cartoons):
Stingray and Carrera lines (including E-Ray, Carrera S, and Carrera GTS) = The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, Fionna & Jack
Z06 and GT3/Turbo lines (including Z07, GT3 RS, Weissach variants, Manthey Racing variants, and Turbo S) = Family Guy, American Dad, and arguably Rick & Morty
ZR1/ZTK and GT2 RS = South Park, Harley Quinn, etc.
Your thoughts?
Fionna & Cake, my bad lol…I didn’t recognize cake as an actual name
Chevy goes primarily for testing, for I think one week, scheduled ahead of time. They, unlike porsche, etc, have their engineers do the driving. Other manufacturers use professional racecar drivers. Chevy is not there with the sole purpose to achieve a lap record. They are there to gather data and refine their product. If they record good times while they are there it is a bonus. The weather has not cooperated with their trip in the past. Corvette has stated it is expensive to get the vehicles and personnel over there. Porsche has the luxury to be in the same small country as the ring and has many opportunities for testing and timed laps. The emergence of segmented times, some in the wet, of previous visits to the ring with previous gen cars, supports this. Jim Mero has also corroborated this information. Chevy typically does not release nurburgring times for the reasons stated above and maybe others. As to why they choose to be what some would say is frugal when it comes to setting lap times in Germany, someone should ask GM. Even in the American lap records with the C8 ZR1 5 different engineers set those lap records at 5 different track (configurations). The engineers are certainly good drivers, but they are not professional racing drivers. Could they be waiting for the Zora to release a timed lap? Maybe. I wouldn’t hold my breath. The absence of official ring times does not make them any less potent. As evidenced by the high demand for each C8 model as it releases, Chevy does not need a published time to sell units like hot cakes. That may be all there is to it. They don’t see a need to spend money chasing lap times on multiple trips across the Atlantic to sell cars. The C8 ZR1 smashed records on the American tracks they took them to. I personally think that amplification on a 13ish mile track would be dramatic.