Officially breaking cover last year, the Corvette ZR1 was (briefly) the most powerful production Corvette ever made, at least until GM dropped the sheets on the new ZR1X. Regardless, the C8 ZR1 is still a monster in every regard, throwing down with more than a thousand horsepower thanks to the twin-turbocharged 5.5L V8 LT7 gasoline engine. Or at least that’s what GM says it’ll do, which begs the question – what will the ZR1 post on the dyno?
To find out, Paragon Performance strapped a new C8 Corvette ZR1 to the rollers to see what would happen, capturing the results in a recent livestream video.
Apparently, the team picked up the new ZR1 the day before at the GM Bowling Green plant in Kentucky, and already had 500 break-in miles on the clock. In fact, Paragon now has two C8 ZR1s on hand for testing.
The dyno runs were performed in several different gears, including a full third, fourth, and fifth gear pull, showing the results to the audience.
After the runs, the final dyno result are revealed, with the new ZR1 laying down an impressive 1,028.6 horsepower and 839.85 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels, figures that suggest the car may be underrated from the factory. For reference, GM rates the C8 ZR1 at 1,064 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 828 pound-feet of torque at 6,000 rpm, numbers which typically refer to output at the flywheel, as compared to the numbers that Paragon measured at the rear wheels
Looking ahead, Paragon hopes to eke out even more from the LT7, testing out modifications such as intakes, exhaust systems, and the like. And because turbocharged cars like the ZR1 are more sensitive to changes in octane, temperature, and fuel quality, they expect to see even bigger variations in performance than naturally aspirated models like the Stingray.
Make sure to check out the full dyno run video below. The big number reveal can be found at the 14-minute, 47-second mark:
Comments
I wonder if GM is being cheeky and underrating these cars
I don’t think terribly so. Every car from the factory will varry a little, so they OEM’s do a spread and tend to take a lower standard deviation. Also there is test parameters, where old school tests were just ran at STP like this one is, SAE ratings because of Ford’s mustang overrating back in the day requires what essentially is track conditions. Hot engine bay, hot oil, flaming hot piston heads, so your start from cold engine will slight outperform SAE every time. Finally, power transmission has vastly improved. Power to the wheels used to be ~80% crank power due to torque converter losses, or the inefficiency of a Ford 9″ rear end. Modern transmissions can post up to 97% efficiency, and modern rear axles up to 98% efficiency, which 5% loss is a far cry for 20% as seen in the 2/3 speed automatics. This car might be running 1080/1100 at most at the crank.
Impressive. I wonder if the dyno equipment needed to be upgraded now that 1000 hp is potential
I bought a new gmc in January and was refused your military discount
That color!