The 233 MPH Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Makes Exotic Cars Look Slow

General Motors’s president, Mark Reuss, has a need for speed that was just satisfied in a big way.The GM lifer rose through the ranks as an engineer and earned a certification as a test driver along the way. Mr. Reuss often still gets behind the wheels of the company’s new sports cars while they’re being worked on, including the upcoming 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.The model was introduced in July with the most powerful V8 engine ever offered by one of the Big Three automakers. Its turbocharged V8 is rated at 1,064 hp and promises impressive performance in the mid-engine two-seater.One of the steps in its years-long development process was a trip to a high-speed test track at Papenberg, Germany. The 7.6-mile-long oval features two long straights connected by curves banked at 49.7 degrees, which allows for cars to be driven around them at triple-digit speeds with barely any steering required.The Corvette ZR1’s lead development engineer, Chris Barber, told me that they expected the car to break the 230 mph mark, which would make it the fastest production car ever built by a major American automaker. With that in mind, they had the idea to invite Mr. Reuss to join them at the facility and he didn’t waste much time saying yes.“That spoke quite a bit to how important and how historic this was,” he said.The Corvette ZR1 reached 233 mph on a test track in Germany. Courtesy ChevroletMr. Barber and other test drivers put in some warm-up laps that reached that speed before Mr. Reuss arrived. It was faster than any of them had driven before, but he said it wasn’t nearly as frightening as one might expect.The technique used was to enter the curve at around 185 mph, which was the most intense part, and then accelerate through it so that the car exits onto the straight at well over 200 mph at full throttle.“When you’re on the straight, the car is just so stable that it’s really not that much of an event,” he said. “It doesn’t take a pro driver. You just hold the wheel and it continues to go.”Nevertheless, putting the boss of a $55 billion company comes with a lot of risk that goes beyond their own well-being. Mr. Barber said the thought of it was intimidating, but that he felt confident that they had done a good job preparing the car.“At the end of the day, the work that the team did to get ready for it, we had all the confidence in the world that the car would do it and that it would be safe and that anyone could drive it, so we weren’t terribly worried about who the driver was.”With helmet and firesuit donned, Mr. Reuss drove the car to 233 mph on his first try, which was 2 MPH faster than the engineers had been able to achieve. Then he turned it around and reached the same speed in the opposite direction around the track, as is required to set an official speed.The development team was joined by GM’s president, Mark Reuss, at far right. Courtesy ChevroletThat makes it 21 mph faster than the previous fastest Chevrolet, which was the 212 mph 2019 Corvette ZR1. As far as crosstown rivals are concerned, the discontinued Ford GT and Dodge Viper could reach 216 mph and 206 mph, respectively.Mr. Barber and Chevrolet are even more proud of the fact that it is currently the fastest car in the world that costs less than $1 million, including Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Exactly how much less is yet to be known.Chevrolet hasn’t announced pricing yet, but the most expensive Corvette you can order today is around $160,000, so it likely won’t be much more than that. Of course, Chevrolet already has something else in the works.It has been spotted testing a secret new Corvette prototype that appears to combine elements from the Corvette ZR1 and the hybrid Corvette E-Ray, which adds an electric motor driving the front wheels that could boost the total power to over 1,200 hp.Perhaps Mr. Reuss should keep his bags packed. He might need to head back to Germany soon.

The 233 MPH Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Makes Exotic Cars Look Slow

The 233 MPH Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Makes Exotic Cars Look Slow

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