The C7 ZR1 is the most powerful front-engined Corvette Chevrolet will ever produce

[MUSIC] [SOUND] Ever since 1953, when Myron Scott, Chevrolet's, then Assistant Director for public relations suggested that their new sports car should be named after the smallest most maneuverable class of warship, the Corvette has always been front engine. Now though, the new eighth generation car Is mid engine for the first time in Corvette. The driver sits in front of the vehicle. [SOUND] So we thought we'd have a final thing. What we now know is going to be the most powerful front engine Corvette ever project. Changed the C7Z01. [SOUND] The first Z01 came along in 1970. There's a $1,221 option package on the C3 Corvette. The car had a solid lifter, small rock engine, new suspension, heavy duty four, speed transmission, no power steering, no air con, no electric windows and no radio. They only ever built 53 of those weather was actually instead our two pack as well. Next up was the C fours that are one which gained a hyphen and arrived in 1989. It was developed with Lotus which was owned by GM at the time. It was also a world record holder averaging a staggering 175.8 miles an hour for 24 hours at Fort Stockton in Texas. Initially, its 4-cam V8 put at 375 brake horsepower, but that increased to 405 brake horsepower in 1993. The engine was known as an LT5, and it was built by Mercury Marine in Oklahoma, who kept two engines for their own use. One of those engines ended up in a steamboat, which was wonderfully named The Wet Vette. It's also so much ironic given the origins of the Corvette C9. The C6 generation was the next one to get a Z01 variant. The new supercharged 6.2 liter LS nine engine being unveiled at the end of 2007. punching out 638 brake horsepower and 604 pounds of torque and with a clean top speed of 205 miles an hour. It looked fantastic on paper, but to drive, it really wasn't that good Nonetheless the Zetas one badge is certainly one to be revered and perhaps a little feared, all of which leads us to the fourth iteration. [BLANK_AUDIO] [MUSIC] So what makes the latest [UNKNOWN] 1 so special well the answer is right in front of you when you drive it. Our [INAUDIBLE] is right there. BMW talks about power domes, but that's rather like comparing a tent in the garden compared to the O2 arena. That is enormous. I mean actually sort of struggle to see around it. It's because this new LT5 engine Replacing the LT four that's in the 06 is 150 percent bigger. It's got a huge 2.65 litre Eaton supercharger on it that's up from about 1.7 litres for the one on 06 you put signs 755 brake horsepower About six and a half thousand RPM 715 pounds for two turbos, 600 pounds of torque all the way from 2000 RPM to the red Line. An app that six and a half thousand rpm redline supercharger actually requires 110 brake horsepower to run. Conversely, however, the blower electronically decouples when necessary and only uses one brake horsepower to spin when cruising on the motorway, something that it does surprisingly well. It's never going to be considered a Green Machine though. Not when the 6.2 liter engine has been given both port and direct injection just so that it can feed enough fuel into the cylinders to create its huge power. What's the fair like? It's an absolute monster. [NOISE] You can trick around with it, around town, on the motorway, doesn't feel any more wild than any other corvette really. But as soon as you start extending our throttle pedals. [SOUND] Woo! [BLANK_AUDIO] It's an animal. Naught to 60 miles an hour, [INAUDIBLE] in 2.8 seconds. And if it doesn't do that, it's certainly nothing to do with the engine. It rocks the whole car when you rev it. At a standstill. [NOISE] And the noise from very supporting source is your blood and thunder. [NOISE] They spit flames well believe it. [SOUND] The ZR1 is a car of extremes. And after the engine which surely must be the most extreme thing on this car, you might be wondering well what What's next in the pecking order? Is it the downforce package, the high downforce package in the case of this car, which gives you 60% more downforce than a 06 with that extreme 07 package on it. But now, despite the huge ruling, it's not that neither, is it the very vibrant sebring orange paint. Neither is it the halo hood which doesn't really translate quite as well into British English because But no Halo hood so probably tops your bonnet. Anyway. Neither is it the carbon ceramic brakes despite being 15 and a half inches in diameter, which is 390 ish just over millimeters in modern money. Nor is it the fact it's got 13 radiators under this mostly carbon fiber skin. Now the most extreme thing about this car after the engine Is the tyres. You see with the track package, you get Michelin Pilot Sport cup twos. So what you might think, we've seen those an awful lot of cars even things like well, I suppose a sort of doves and the most recent Porsche Cayman gt4. But these are a bit different. You see they have the letters Zed p on them and you can only buy them for a Corvette. They run flats, which is pretty amazing for a start. And they also appear to have absolutely no tread on at least half the tire. I'm going to get this, This looks like it's done. Well, several days Nurburgring probably. But this is pretty much a new tire and I've only been on the road with it. The tread depth on the side. Just extraordinary. So when they say for some use only in this instance, they really, really do mean it. [UNKNOWN] complaining with no other. [SOUND] So what those tyres mean for the athlete Well, you can tell him this is a car definitely designed for the tribe. We've got a monitoring sport and track. Sport is definitely the one for the road. It take a while to dial into this at R1. In terms of grips, there's not a huge amounts of filtering staring at times you think it's probably Misunderstood, wait for fail, but once those come to that pizza temperature today like today is extraordinary. The Gs you can pull through corners. [SOUND] And actually, [SOUND] It's got phenomenal traction. [SOUND] Fine [UNKNOWN] It always breaks through madness as well. They've got really good pedal feel, which is just as well because you lean on them an awful lot. [SOUND] As you can probably hear just the worst thing about this car. One of the worst things I've ever felt in a car is this cable. Folks, thankfully you can have a manual transmission on this, although you're gonna be very busy and it's probably gonna be pretty scary trying to take down off the wheel to change gear at times. Don't write three instead of two pedals. I would much rather have it because the shifts are just way too ponderous or never turn up at all. With this also boxes eight speed auto burning Chevrolet say you should just leave it and also let it do its own thing but on a road like this, you need it in mind. [UNKNOWN] the noiseless car, so it doesn't change off at the wrong moment. does still feel like quite a heavy car It weighs over 1600 kilos. Which is not why, whichever way you got it, and you do feel like you always Trying to get this big front end into the corners. Having said that with the Zed TK, trying to actually get the spring rates have gone up by 30% of the front and 13% of the rear And given that this road is very bumpy, I'm amazed by how well it copes. You get new settings for the magna ride suspension. It does [UNKNOWN] And then surprisingly well. So, European sensibilities, this is not a delicate car. [SOUND] It tackles eroding in a Tawny, different ways all, monster pace and big physical grip. It feels like a car that's designed almost by the military. Everything went a bit Mad Max. This is the sports car you'd want to be in as much as you wouldn't want to be in bolotus or something. This is the one that's gonna see you through. [MUSIC] It is a hell of a ride because no one is not nuanced in its feedback. In fact, it needs to work really hard to make sense dynamically. And that in turn requires a deep breath and the brave pillow to if you're the one behind the wheel, it is flawed. And yet there is something about this brash front engine brute that is definitely appealing. I first remember really falling in love with him listening to him. Outlaw that sound in the middle of the night you didn't need to know which car was coming by sight. You could just hear the Corvettes rumbling on. [SOUND] Both on the track and on the road, the front engined Chevrolet Corvette is an automotive icon. Whether manufactured in Michigan, Missouri or Bowling Green, Kentucky, it has been a significant touchstone of the sports car spectrum. [MUSIC] Not just in the USA, but around the world. [MUSIC] And now after selling for 1.6 million since 1953. [MUSIC] Engine Corvette has reached the end of the road. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]