Corvette ZR1X Is Officially America’s Quickest Production Car

In its continued push to highlight the Corvette brand’s capabilities in real-world environments, Chevrolet took the Corvette ZR1X to US 131 Motorsports Park for a little testing and validation. As you might imagine, the results were very impressive, with the quarter mile coming in just 8.675 seconds at 159 mph. Translated to street terms, that’s a 0-60 time of just 1.68 seconds, or less than 100 feet at 1.75 g’s of acceleration.

While those excellent numbers were achieved on a prepped surface, the ZR1X was equipped with standard aero, available carbon fiber wheels with standard-equipment Michelin PS4S tires, and 50-state legal engine calibration. In this configuration, the Corvette completed multiple back-to-back quarter-mile sprints under 8.8 seconds. What’s better: every run was completed on good ole pump gas!

“When we made the revolutionary shift to a mid-engine platform, this is the type of performance we knew was possible.” — Mark Reuss, General Motors President.

The record-setting ZR1X was driven by development engineer and test driver Stefan Frick, who made excellent use of Corvette’s standard Custom Launch Control feature. Custom Launch Control, available on everything from the base Stingray to the ZR1X, manages numerous parameters, including tire spin and clutch application rate to adjust launch RPM and optimize acceleration. “There are many different parts and subsystems on this car, with teams across the company responsible for them,” Frick noted. “We were all motivated by the mission to break into the eights – this is a powerful example of the in-house skill at GM, and the level of performance we developed into this car.”

For comparison’s sake, Chevy also brought a ZR1X that was equipped with the company’s top-tier ZTK Performance Package and ran it on an unprepped surface. The aero-heavy ZR1X ZTK scorched the quarter in just 8.99 seconds, generating a tidy 0-60 time of 1.89 seconds. Not too shabby for a course-focused street car that essentially pulled off the highway and straight onto the track.

As the top option for anyone seeking the latest and greatest version of America’s Sports Car, the all-wheel drive Corvette ZR1X supplements GM’s exceptional Gemini twin-turbo LT7 with an electronic front axle to generate an impressive 1,250 horsepower. With this record, the car becomes America’s quickest production car and, according to Chevy, the fastest way to get down a quarter-mile drag strip for under a million dollars.