The monstrous 1,064-horsepower, 233-mph, $174,995 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is America’s hypercar, and while most hypercars are content to live on spec sheets and in climate controlled garages, that’s not what fast Corvettes are about. They’re about proving something, and the Kentucky Kaiju just proved itself some more by setting five production car lap records on some of America’s greatest tracks.
Let’s start in Virginia, home of Virginia International Raceway. Over the past few decades, this sprawling roller coaster of a track has enjoyed a wider audience thanks to Car And Driver’s Lightning Lap events and the growth of sim racing, and it now stands as a sort of American analog to the Nürburging. Specifically, everyone’s looking to see what cars can do around both the Full course layout and the Grand course layout used for Lightning Lap, and the new Corvette ZR1 with the ZTK performance package delivered.
The fastest stock production car to circle VIR’s Grand course was the $1 million McLaren Senna, clocking a 2:34.9. Key word here being “was.” The C8 Corvette ZR1 is faster than a Senna, laying down a new lap record of 2:32.3. Beyond that, the new top-dog Corvette also swiped the Full course record from its predecessor before setting its sights beyond Virginia.
Road America near Elkhart Lake, Wisc. isn’t just a power track, it’s the power track in America. With a 4,405-foot uphill front straightaway and an overall circuit length of 4.408 miles, it’s a road course that rewards enormous output and herculean brakes. The production car lap record there used to belong to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS with a time of 2:13.8, but then the ZR1 came along and laid down a 2:08.6 scorcher.
Road Atlanta, in contrast, is more technical, with a rising-and-falling corner complex morphing into esses that demand big commitment and grip, a huge downhill braking zone at the end of the back straight, and Turn 11 taking no prisoners, happily spitting drivers who got their corner setup wrong into the wall. The old Porsche 911 GT2 RS laid down a 1:24.88 lap time to take the production car record back in 2019, but the Corvette ZR1 bested that by two full seconds with a time of 1:22.8.
Oh, and there’s one more track in the East where the production car lap record is now held by the Corvette ZR1. For nearly 80 years, Watkins Glen has been New York’s home for racing, with a permanent track established in 1956. Since then, Watkins Glen International has played host to Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR, IMSA, and, um, Phish. By now, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the new Corvette ZR1 now holds the production car lap record at Watkins Glen as well, with a time of 1:52.7 on the long course. For the record, that’s 1.37 seconds faster than the GT4 lap record.
What’s more, these five production car lap records were set without much in the way of outside help. To set all these records, GM turned to its own employees instead of a single championship-winning hotshoe. Lead performance engineer of chassis controls Bill Wise set the record at Watkins Glen, lead vehicle dynamics engineer Brian Wallace set it at Road America, lead development engineer Chris Barber set it at Road Atlanta, and Aaron Link, GM’s Aaron Link, Global Vehicle Performance Manager, set two at VIR.
Overall, hats off to Chevrolet. A faster car around VIR than a McLaren Senna is one hell of an achievement, and I have a feeling the Corvette team isn’t done chasing records yet. Can we see it at Laguna Seca, Sonoma Raceway, Mosport, and the Nordschleife next?
(Lead photo credit: Chevrolet)
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The headline should have read “GM employees beat the world in the greatest American car ever made.”
That they didn’t use ‘pro’ drivers, race drivers or designated test drivers. That is just insane. Obviously these guys are well trained and practiced drivers in their own right. 3 engineers and a manager! Hats off gentlemen!
Can’t wait to see one of these brake an axle after spinning violently into a curb, trying to exit a Cars & Coffee event.
Yet every time you’ll see one of these it will be driven by and old guy in the slow lane getting passed by a Prius.
How fast was Phish around the Glen?
The tires are the things on your car that make contact with the road
The tires are the things on your car that make contact with the road
The tires are the things on your car that make contact with the road
The Corvette is the thing on the road that makes McLaren look so slow
If I had this kind of disposable income I would be really tempted to compromise on my “no manual, no sale” stance. Fortunately that’s not ever going to be a problem. 🙂
Blasphemy! Autotragic usage is a CARDINAL SIN! Even the mere consideration of it warrants excommunication.
Dammit, I considered it too! I mean, obviously… with hypothetical money. But yeah. Might actually buy an auto if I win the lotto…
Yes, but what would it have done around the TG track? Remember Jeremy said American cars can’t turn LOL
NASCAR shows they used to be able to only turn left, but now they’re pretty good at turning right.
They can if the Stig is behind the wheel
Were the previous records on these tracks manufacturer efforts? I feel like the VIR record might be from Lightning Lap. Also not surprising that you can pick up a lot of time over the GT3 RS at Road America, given the GT3 doesn’t have hypercar power. This is like an appetizer before the meal that is lap records at the big tracks (Laguna, Nordschleife). On the other hand, I would love to see more competition at these tracks, and a more manufacturer efforts at my home track of Road America would make me very happy.
There’s still a faster C8 coming too!
Absolute madness.
These are huge margins over the previous records, and these are drivers who are, at best, semi-professional at racing.
The ZR-1 delivers.
I doubt I’ll ever be able to afford a ZR-1, but it’s definitely sharpening my interest in buying a C8 Corvette that I can afford.
The difference in a great driver with a lot of experience in a car and a pro is measurable, I wonder if they are going to let the records go to others and take them back with a pro.
I get the feeling that GM has proven their point, and will leave further assault on these records to privateers.
Dual benefit: they’ve already proven it can be done without a pro driver, and they’ve proven the car you can buy from them will do it.
This is 1000% better marketing than hiring a star driver to take the record and lock it up way beyond the reach of hopeful amateurs.
I doubt a “pro” driver would shave much time off of these laps. Weather conditions and how green the track is would provide a bigger delta in time vs a driver change. These are not just some engineers who took a performance driving class. I know at least one of those names does a lot of open wheel racing, and these guys literally spend more time driving at the limit in high performance cars than an average pro does. They drive these cars 5 days a week plus what ever racing they do on the weekend during development. A typical pro driver has what, a test weekend in pre season, and then practice, qualifying, and the race, then a gap until the next race, and maybe a little more if they have a part time seat in another series. The rest is just simulator time.
typo?
“The fastest stock production car go circle VIR’s Grand course was the $1 million McLaren Senna”
cars go?
cars can go?
cars go circle around?
“and Aaron Link, GM’s Aaron Link, Global Vehicle Performance Manager, set two at VIR.
so, Aaron Link then?
Yep. go -> to
“A lap so nice, we said his name twice.”
I just saw the ZR-1 in person yesterday at the Chicago Auto Show, and I suggest you do the same, if only to appreciate in person the absolute unit of a rear wing this thing has. I mean it would not look out of place on an IndyCar.
But 2.08 at Road America, good Lord. When I started track days in the early 90’s it was a goal for the novices to get under 3.00. Despite what anyone tells you, this is the golden age of performance cars.
Isn’t every age the ‘golden age’, with continued advancements in power output, mechanical grip and aero design, along with better brakes?
Mid-70s to mid-90s would like a word.
The reason why Boomers so love the muscle cars of the 60s and early 70s is what happened during that error (spelling intentional). Look at the C3. It gained a LOT of weight and lost something like 300 hp, while the brakes stayed the same. The only thing it got was better tires.
Or take the Mustang II. Or the Camaro being available with the sub 100 hp Iron Duke. Or Shelby putting his name on K cars (which admittedly at least had more power than traction).
You are correct, I didn’t take into consideration any regulations imposed. I appreciate you bringing that up.
To be fair, the emissions of these vehicles improved a lot during this time period, so there was an advancement, but not in performance.
You’re correct that technology doesn’t take a step back….but resources can. Hoser68’s response re: the 70’s-90’s was an excellent example. Technology and advancements didn’t suddenly disappear; but the oil embargos and overall need for better efficiency resulted in generally slower cars.
As for our current generation, I could see a (kinda) similar outcome. Right now we’re in the transition to electric (I’d say we’re in the two-steps-forward, one-step-back phase… given the quick rise of EVs, and quick depreciation of those cars as well).
Now, the quirk is that EVs are faster then ICE in some respects…but not around a twisty track. They still weigh too much for that kind of performance. I’m sure that will change one day (holding my breath for solid state developments), but for now ICE rules on the track.
I could also see regulations eventually stripping cars of their power. Speed, especially in EVS, has gotten very cheap. I would argue too cheap. 1000 hp cars used to be unfathomable. Now you can pick up a used Tesla Model S Plaid in the $40s. I just found one on cars.com for $35k! That’s 1,000+ hp, 0-60 in 1.9 seconds, for the price of a rental fleet crossover. That’s within reach of teenager-living-at-home-but-making-minimum-wage financing. Fucking insanity.
Nobody needs 1,000+ horsepower in a street legal car.
You raise a great point with high horsepower cars being low in cost.
Hopefully the insurance will be prohibitively expensive for people under 25.
It would be great if we had better driving tuition, and a stricter test, or even tier levels of testing, depending on what car you drive. Although enforcement would be near impossible.
To be fair why not train everyone to a high level, regardless of what vehicle they buy.
Here in CA, if you wait until you’re 18 to start driving, the level of professional tuition required is almost nothing. My son passed his test on the first attempt, then almost almost got into a bad accident on the way home from the test…
I follow British TV shows.
There’s a great show called Vera. In the show, the main character drives a beat up Defender 90 and refuses to let anyone else drive it.
But there was a problem. The show filmed regularly on normal roads and even with the roads closed, the driver had to have a license to drive. And the actress cast as Vera doesn’t have a license to drive a Stick.
The first idea was to have the stunt driver on cast to drive the Defender, but he didn’t want to shave his beard. So, Plan B was to convert the Defender to an Automatic and put in a fake gear shift so the actress could pretend to shift and they could add sounds in post-production.
Which taught me two things about British driver’s license. First, that there are different qualifications for Automatic and Manual transmissions. Second, whatever it takes to pass these tests and get a license must be hard, because the idea of making the actress re-take her driver’s test. Paying someone to covert the vehicle to an automatic and add in noises in the editing isn’t cheap.
I didn’t know that about Vera. Post production sound must have done a great job. I did notice that there’s daylight around the top of the door. That’ll be the legendary build quality…
I grew up in the UK and you are correct, if you take and pass your UK test in an automatic car you can only drive automatics. Don’t ask me how they enforce this rule. At least that was the case when I took my test back in late 80’s. At that time automatic cars were very rare.
I think, if I remember right, the manual test would to cover stuff like hill control, stopping at a light or stop signs, (also rare, it’s mostly give way signs), on an uphill slope. You’d be required to not use the handbrake if you were only stationary for a few seconds. If you rolled back you’d fail your test.
I should also point out that the handbrake is readily accessible between the two front seats just aft of the gear lever. It’s not an ‘E-Brake’ operated by your foot like an every car I’ve driven since moving to the US in 2001. To be fair every car I’ve driven over here has either been an automatic or an EV. Oh, that’s aside from my very first car which was a ’99 V8 Mustang, that clutch was tough to get right, even though I’d been driving manuals for over 15 years..
Every manual I’ve driven has had a handbrake lever near the gearshift. I know how to start on extreme hills with it if I have to.
The craziest driver’s test I knew of was my dad’s. When he took his driver’s test, the test was to go around the block and stop on the steepest hill in town. Then the tester got out and used a ruler to put a caulk mark on the pavement exactly 1″ behind the tire. Then my dad had to start off and stop and the tester went back to see if the vehicle had rolled back more than 1″. That was the entire test.
Without a handbrake to “cheat”, I wouldn’t pass that test and I daily a stick in a hilly neighborhood. I went to that place and that hill is STEEP.