The 2025 Corvette ZR1 is on the horizon, slated to hit dealerships this spring with a price reaching for 175 grand. With production set to commence later this month, Chevrolet has toured racetracks across the good ol’ USA to put a pre-production ZR1 through its paces and set records along the way.
Car and Driver shows us how they went about it:
- Watkins Glen—lead performance engineer Bill Wise set a new track record on the Long Course with a time of 1:52.7.
- Road America—lead vehicle dynamics engineer Brian Wallace broke the production record with a brisk 2:08.6.
- Road Atlanta—lead development engineer Chris Barber ran 1:22.8, another production record.
- Virginia International Raceway—Aaron Link, global vehicle performance manager, set a production-car course record on both the Full Course (1:47.7) and the Grand Course (2:32.3), the latter beating C&D’s 2:34.9 in a 2019 McLaren Senna.
The Challenger SRT Demon 170 is old hat. The Mustang GTD is much more expensive and, let’s be honest, it ain’t a Vette. While the ZR1’s price puts it out of reach for the great unwashed, it is still a bargain for those who champion American exceptionalism in the face of exotica that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more.
Will the 2025 ZR1 be the darling of Nürburgring and your local Cars and Coffee? Stay tuned!
