2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 inadvertently sets lap record at VIR
The beastliest Corvette ever is so fast that it set a lap record at America's toughest track with an engineer at the wheel.
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When Roadshow boss Tim Stevens got to ride around Southern California's legendarily fast Big Willow circuit in Chevrolet's new ZR1, he confirmed all of our suspicions that the apex-predator Corvette was a stupid-fast car. Now, we have more than Tim's butt-dyno to go on because Chevrolet engineers managed to set a lap record of 2 minutes 37.25 seconds during validation testing at Virginia International Raceway.
Keep in mind that this was a stock ZR1 equipped with an eight-speed automatic transmission and ZTK performance package. The only modifications were racing seats, racing harness and a harness bar on which to anchor them. For those of you who were sleeping during our coverage of the ZR1 during the LA Auto Show , it slots in above the already bonkers Z06 and features a new supercharged pushrod V8, dubbed LT5, that produces 755 horsepower and 715 pound-feet of torque.
In case you don't know, validation testing ensures that the finished product for a car lives up to the design specifications and engineering expectations. The Corvette ZR1's validation testing included 24 hours of at-the-limit-of-performance-and-likely-sanity track testing at VIR, aka the Nurburgring of America. This kind of testing is good considering all the trouble that Chevrolet had with the less-powerful Corvette Z06's cooling system when subjected to racetrack conditions.
The 2019 Corvette ZR1 is expected to retail for around $120,000 before inevitable and insane dealer markups and will hit showrooms this spring.