Me telling you that the new Chevy Corvette ZR1 is quick is kind of like saying that water is wet. Of course it is, right? But now that people outside General Motors are testing the car with real instrumentation, we’re seeing just how quick it is in the public’s hands. For proof, a totally stock ZR1 on factory tires just ran from zero to 60 miles per hour in 2.2 seconds.
Car and Driver conducted the experiment and named the beastly Bowtie the quickest rear-wheel drive car it’s ever tested. It beat a European supercar, in true Corvette fashion, reaching 60 mph a tenth of a second quicker than a McLaren 750S. That’s scootin’.
Now, the 1,064-horsepower Corvette ZR1 has a lot more grunt than the McLaren, given that the 750S is listed at 740 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque. But that isn’t always an advantage when it comes to off-the-line traction. The Chevy’s Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R ZPs surely helped it succeed as they measure 345 millimeters wide out back; meanwhile, the Macca makes do with 305mm-wide Pirelli P Zero Trofeo rears. To round it out, the ZR1 weighs 3,831 pounds—a full 625 pounds more than the McLaren, but because the Corvette’s engine is so mighty, its power-to-weight ratio is still better.
That 2.2-second time achieved by Car and Driver is also a full tenth quicker than Chevy’s own estimate, for what it’s worth.
The thing about the Corvette ZR1 is that the gap only grows as the speedometer climbs. The 5.5-liter LT7 V8 with a flat-plane crank and the largest twin turbos ever fitted to a production car is a total worldbeater. (They measure 76 millimeters apiece on the compressor side, in case you were curious.) Car and Driver says it trounced the quarter-mile in 9.5 seconds at 149 mph, compared to the 750S’s time of 9.8 seconds at 145 mph. Beyond that, the McLaren was a full second slower to 150 mph than the Chevy, and it tops out at 206 mph while the ZR1 can go up to 233 mph.
My guess is we’re about to see a lot more crazy stats like this as the Corvette ZR1 takes on drag strips and road courses around the country. And while it’s nowhere near cheap at $175,000 to start, it’s a heck of a bargain compared to the $325,000-and-up 750S. It’s undeniably the peak Corvette—at least, for now.
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