- Chevy’s Corvette ZR1X flagship is the fastest American car at the Nurburgring.
- A 6:49.275 time makes the AWD hybrid 2.8 seconds faster than a Mustang GTD.
- The AMG GT Black, Porsche 911 GT2, and AMG One are all faster than the Vette.
It’s official: Chevrolet’s insane Corvette ZR1X is now the fastest American car around the Nurburgring. But also official now is that even the flagship hybrid Vette is still slower than a five-year-old Mercedes and a old Porsche 911 with half as much muscle.
GM vehicle dynamics engineer Drew Cattell hustled the 1,250 hp (1,267 PS) ZR1X around the 12.9-mile (20.8 km) track in 6:49.275, throwing 2.8 seconds’ worth of shade on the Ford Mustang GTD (6:52.072 ) in the process.
But it threw zero shade on the now-obsolete AMG GT Black, which recorded 6:48.047 in 2020, or the 690 hp (700 PS) Manthey-kitted Porsche 911 GT2 RS, which lapped in 6:43.3 a year later. Far ahead of all of them is the AMG One hypercar, whose 6:29.09 time set in 2023 looks unlikely to be broken for a while yet.
Related: ZR1X Might Not Be The Flagship After All And That Should Scare Everyone
And if you’re surprised that the ZR1X failed to beat two older, far less powerful cars, here’s another fact that might leave you scratching your head. The regular ZR1, which does without the X’s electric front axle and only makes 1,064 (1,079 PS), was tested at the same time, and circulated in 6:50.763, less than 1.5 seconds slower.
This also means, by the way, that the Mustang GTD is slower than both ZR1 Corvettes, a pretty impressive result for Chevy considering the Ford costs nearly twice as much at $328,000 versus $173,300 before delivery. The Chevy team also lapped the 670 hp naturally aspirated Z06, which turned in a respectable 7:11.826.
While the ZR1 and ZR1X didn’t outperform track-ready equivalents from Porsche and Mercedes, both are still incredibly rapid in absolute terms, and their feats are all the more impressive for having been achieved by engineer drivers, rather than pro race drivers, like every other automaker chooses for their Ring record attempts. That could mean there’s more speed on the table for a future attempt.
The three cars were all US-spec production Corvettes fitted with optional carbon wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R summer tires.
“No auto manufacturer has done a Nürburgring lap attempt like this before,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “From development through production, and now at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the Green Hell, we have clearly shown there is no limit to what our GM engineers and vehicles can accomplish. These are the best Corvettes in history, period.”