Cleetus Proves The ZR1 Is Officially A Laptop Away From Chaos

The latest Corvette ZR1 is proving to be an incredible machine. The car has set official track records at five different American courses, and it recently dominated Car and Driver’s 2026 Lightning Lap competition. In short, there are fast cars, and then there’s the C8 ZR1.

But apparently, Chevy’s factory 1,064 horsepower wasn’t quite enough for Cleetus McFarland. After getting the green light from HP Tuners, who recently unlocked the C8 ZR1’s ECU, Cleetus handed the keys and laptop to tuner Matt Sanford and let him do what tuners do best: turn up the party. 

The add-ons were fairly simple: a calibration tweak, a set of downpipes, and a steady diet of MS109 race fuel. The result? How about an easy 1,180 horsepower and 1,094 lb-ft of torque, at the wheels!

Let that sink in for a second. This is a car you can order from Chevrolet with a warranty, drive off the showroom floor, and with minimal bolt-ons and tuning support, push well into four-digit territory without even cracking the engine open. That, friends, is the glorious modern performance world we’re living in.

The twin-turbo LT7 in the new ZR1 is already an awesome engineering flex from the true believers at GM. But as Cleetus’s dyno session proves, there’s still room left in the calibration and exhaust flow. Downpipes help free up the turbine side, reducing backpressure and letting the turbos do their thing more efficiently. Add race fuel like MS109, and now you can lean on timing and boost safely.

The bigger headline here might actually be HP Tuners. With official unlock support now available for the C8 ZR1, the tuning floodgates are open. That means shops across the country can start safely recalibrating these cars instead of waiting on workarounds or locked ECUs.

In reality, the C8 ZR1 isn’t just a halo car that continues to command serious respect at tracks and competitions around the world. It’s a monster waiting for a laptop. A car that performs far beyond anything Chevrolet or GM has ever created, and a car that produces numbers far beyond the imagination of most everyday enthusiasts. What a time to be alive!