Chevy's Mightiest Corvettes Snatch American Nürburgring Lap Record from Ford
The Mustang GTD's lap record among American automakers falls to the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.
As Happy Gilmore would say, "somebody's closer." Rather than talking about a tee shot, though, we're referring to Chevrolet's latest Nürburgring lap time, which is closer to zero than Ford's most recent Nürburgring lap time set by the Mustang GTD. This, of course, is impressive stuff for both performance vehicles. The Mustang GTD, Ford's $350,000-plus super-’Stang that's basically a race car clothed in Mustang bodywork, became the first American production car to break the seven-minute mark on its record-setting lap. Now, just a short while later, Chevrolet has run its new 1,064-hp ZR1 and hybridized, 1,250-hp ZR1X models around the ’Ring and, well, beaten Ford's achievement.
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The beefiest ’Vettes are separated by, essentially, their aero packages and the X's extra horsepower thanks to a pair of electric motors on its front axle. In other words, the X is simply more track-focused of the two ZR1s, and, predictably, it set the fastest lap time of the two, a bilstering 6:49.275 effort with development engineer Drew Cattell at the wheel. He now becomes the fastest non-pro-driver ever at the ’Ring, while the ZR1X is the quickest vehicle from an American manufacturer to circle the Green Hell.
Surprisingly, the regular ZR1 isn't far behind. With another GM development engineer, Brian Wallace, at the helm, the Corvette ZR1 set a 6:50.763 time—still well under the magic seven-minute mark and about two seconds ahead of the Mustang GTD's 6:52.072 best. Chevrolet also brought along its newest Corvette Z06, which has been out for a few years, just to see what it could do, and with about half the power (670 hp) as the ZR1X, it still posts a respectable 7:11.826 with vehicle performance manager Aaron Link at the wheel.
Although the internal development guys aren't pro hot shoes in the sense they're paid to race cars, they're very, very good drivers with tons of track and Nürburgring experience amounting to hundreds of laps between them. As GM humble-brags in its press release about the Corvette's feats, it clearly has driving talent on staff helping develop these mighty cars—and it's a kind of wry poke at other manufacturers that rely on racing drivers to set their lap times. If you're curious how these guys work, you can watch them in the video of the record lap attempt below:
A lifelong car enthusiast, I stumbled into this line of work essentially by accident after discovering a job posting for an intern position at Car and Driver while at college. My start may have been a compelling alternative to working in a University of Michigan dining hall, but a decade and a half later, here I am reviewing cars; judging our Car, Truck, and Performance Vehicle of the Year contests; and shaping MotorTrend’s daily coverage of the automotive industry.
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