Shortly after announcing its C8 Corvette Nürburgring Nordschleife lap times, Chevrolet put up onboard videos on its YouTube channel. Naturally, they make for excellent viewing and reveal something key—setting fast laps like this is serious business.
Especially in the case of ZR1 and ZR1X, you’ve got boatloads of power to manage on a circuit where the bumps, curves, and undulations simply don’t end for over 13 miles. All credit to the engineers who drove these lap times, and the people on the Corvette team. They made a couple of monsters.
There are other interesting insights to glean here from watching the video and looking at the data. What becomes obvious is that both the ZR1 and ZR1X are bullets in a straight line. Down into the compression at Fuchsröhre, both are touching 186 MPH, and at the end of the long Döttinger Höhe straight at the end of the track, they both briefly touch 199 MPH. The fact that max speeds are identical is interesting too. Despite its extra 186 hybrid horsepower, the ZR1X really isn’t that much quicker than the ZR1.
That’s evident in the lap times, with the ZR1 doing a 6:50.763 and the ZR1X doing a 6:49.275—astoundingly similar over a huge circuit like the Ring. Both have the same basic aero and tire package, and it seems the extra weight of the hybrid system negates the horsepower advantage. So the lap time comes down to the extra mechanical grip the ZR1X’s electric front axle generates.
These videos also give us an opportunity to compare the ZR1 and ZR1X to its closest Ring rivals, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series. Neither has nearly as much power as the 1,000-plus-hp Corvettes, so they make up time with cornering speeds and under braking. The fact that Porsche and AMG use pro drivers, too, has to count for something as well, though GM’s engineers are extremely handy. In any case, it’s a fun comparison to watch how the ZR1X and the GT3 RS end up within a tenth of a second despite the Porsche only being able to top out at around 180 mph.
And let’s not forget about the Z06 either! It’s a couple of years old at this point, but its 7:11.286 lap is still a fun watch, and deeply impressive.
So sit back and enjoy. We sure have.
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