2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 First Drive: Absurdity and Then Some

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00:00I'm Motor Trend Executive Editor Mack Morrison. We're here today near Austin, Texas,

00:07Circuit of the Americas, but we're not here for Formula One this week. We're here to drive

00:12and to talk about the brand-new, insane Corvette ZR1.

00:17Finally, after decades of unrealized rumors about a mid-engine version, the 8th generation

00:32Corvette in 2020 saw its engine relocated to sit behind the cockpit, giving the car a whole

00:38new architecture and dynamic character to rival the best super sports cars from around the world.

00:43The change promptly saw the Corvette Stingray claim Motor Trend's 2020 Car of the Year award.

00:49Since then, the 495-horsepower Corvette Stingray has spawned the Tractara Z06 with 670 horsepower

00:57and serious aerodynamics. Enough for it to claim our 2023 Performance Vehicle of the Year trophy as well,

01:04but Chevy wasn't satisfied and we all knew what was coming. The new 2025 Corvette ZR1 is the most

01:11powerful and all-around extreme production model in Corvette history.

01:19And now I'm happy to see my friend Tony Roma, Executive Chief Engineer for Corvette

01:23and Global Performance. 1064 horsepower, 820 pound-feet of torque, 2.3 seconds to 60 miles an hour,

01:31and if you add a 3 to that figure, that's your top speed at 233 miles per hour. Insane cornering

01:36performance as well. How did you do it? Yeah, this is an amazing car. Obviously,

01:40to get these performance specs, this whole entire architecture was laid out with this in mind. The

01:46heart of the beast is our 5.5-liter flat plane crank LT7 engine. Makes the 1064 horsepower. It's

01:53the twin to the LT6 engine. It's the heart of the Z06 and the heart of our GT3 race car. That's the

01:59naturally acerated version. This is obviously a lot more than just a twin turbos put on the side of that

02:04engine. It was designed from the beginning to do this. Almost every part of the car has been upgraded in

02:09some way. The brakes, fuel system, everything was thought with this in mind. The very intentional

02:14aero with that huge wing and the underbody treatments and the flow-through hood that make

02:19over 1,200 pounds of downforce at speed, so results in a pretty incredible beast.

02:24Now, everything's pretty impressive for sure, but I want to come back here to your point and look at

02:29this engine because is it fair to say this is like the biggest masterpiece you've ever seen created

02:36out of Corvette and GM performance? There's no doubt. The small black engine team that put this

02:41together, this is clearly their crowning achievement to this point. It's an incredible piece. If you look

02:46at the insides, it looks like a high-end race engine inside, right? Titanium rods, the pistons are these

02:53really tiny, lightweight, sexy things that handle all this power and torque and pressure. It is hand

02:59built in Bowling Green right next to the assembly line where we assemble the rest of the car. The

03:02signature of the artist that assembles the engine is right there for display. It's incredible.

03:07I know you don't have an official Nürburgring time yet. Do you plan to go there to get one?

03:12No pressure. I hope we can get a Nürburgring time. It's been a long time since we've done an official

03:18record attempt. Don't rule that out. Well, in the meantime, I'm going to go drive it here at Circuit

03:24of the Americas. We were limited to about 10 total laps of Circuit of the Americas. First, in a standard

03:32ZR1 coupe running on Michelin PS4 tires and equipped with the optional carbon aero package.

03:38That package gets you a towering rear wing, front aerodynamic dive planes, and a taller front

03:43gurney flap incorporated into the hood. We then switched to a ZR1 coupe that featured the full ZTK

03:50performance package, adding Michelin Cup 2R tires and a stiffer magnetic ride suspension to create

03:57an even more capable combination. Perhaps surprisingly based on the car's specs, the ZR1 quickly proves

04:07itself relatively easy to drive hard. Chevy's performance traction management system helps you in

04:13that regard and allows you to keep the rubber hook to the road.

04:20Nail the throttle to the floor and the twin turbo flat plane crank V8 uncorks a continental

04:25shelf's worth of power and torque that never lets up. The delivery isn't peaky whatsoever,

04:32giving you plenty of confidence. Enough so that we easily saw the speedometer calmly reach 176 miles

04:39per hour on the back straight before we nailed the giant carbon ceramic brakes in time to make it

04:44through the next slow speed corner. In fact, the ZR1's braking ability and huge grip, both mechanical and

04:55aerodynamic, mean that driving this car is as much about its chassis tuning and handling as it is about

05:01monster's straight line speed. The car turns into corners with confidence, be those corners low,

05:07medium or high speed, and so much so that we wish we had been able to drive 20 more laps in order to

05:14really appreciate just how aggressively and fast it can corner before the grip gives up. Especially when

05:21you're talking about the ZR1 with the ZTK and aero packages. On the PS4 tires, we did experience some

05:28small slides and tail out moments when putting the power down for corner exits. But on the extra sticky

05:34Cup 2R rubber, driving the ZR1 becomes as much an exercise in pushing your own personal limits as it

05:41is in pushing the cars. Now Chevy hadn't yet supplied us with an official ZR1 curb weight when we filmed this

05:52video, but we expect the car to come in around the 3900 pound mark. That's significantly heavier than

05:58something like Porsche's 911 GT3 RS at 3,220 pounds or the McLaren 750's or 675LT's 3,200-ish pounds.

06:10It's even heavier than the Z06's 3,774 pounds and make no mistake, the extra heft makes driving the ZR1 a

06:19less frantic experience than any of those more purely track focused creations.

06:23And it also means you're likely to notice the sheer physical effort required to hustle it around the

06:31track. But that's not the ZR1's sole mission, and Chevy doesn't necessarily consider cars like that to be

06:37its direct competition. Thanks to its stratospheric power and torque figures, the Corvette team will just

06:44as easily sight cars like Ferrari's SF90 and Lamborghini's Revolto, both of which still come up short in the power

06:51department, weigh about as much and cost hugely, hugely more than the Corvette.

06:58Indeed, the 2025 Corvette ZR1 is its own kind of all-around monster of a performer,

07:04able to drop incinerating bombs on race tracks and drag strips. And though we haven't yet had an

07:09opportunity to drive it on the street, the car's behavior around the circuit of the Americas indicates

07:14it'll be easy to live with in more common real-world settings as well. For the full story and a much

07:22deeper dive into multiple aspects of the new ZR1, go to MotorTrend.com.

07:44and I'mầu to talk to you about occupations of the museum's rights track and a higher-world

07:49view, and that's the view of the museum's rights track, a less-quality view of the museum's rights track

07:52and a few seconds ago, yes, I'maye.

07:54I hope you're doing that in this view.

07:57See you in this view.

07:59You have the right view.

08:04You have a really large view of the museum's rights.

08:08It's a beautiful view of the museum and a great view of the museum.

08:10You have a great view of the museum and the museum's right view of the museum's right.

08:12I don't know.

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