Watch The ZR1 Hit 214 MPH Making It The Fastest Corvette Of All Time

It seems like the C7 ZR1 is just never going to stop impressing us with its capabilities, especially after it went 10.12 at 135 mph on just a tire last week. But the impressive list of accomplishments just keep on rolling in. This time, it’s a video of the newest ZR1 hitting an insane top speed of 214.88 mph. That’s supercar territory.

Corvette dropped the stunning video just nine hours ago and it’s already making its way through social media faster than… well, faster than a ZR1. The video shows the Corvette team at Automotive Testing Papenburg, an automotive testing facility in—you guessed it—Papenburg, Germany, which offers an unmolested 12.3-kilometer oval ribbon of tarmac allowing almost any vehicle to reach its top speed. The banks of the oval sit at an angle of up to 49.7 degrees enabling the Corvette to stay wide open, even through the banked turns. 

The footage of the vehicle picks up with the Corvette already at well over 100 mph but just cruising along in Eighth gear. After the driver gives the co-pilot the thumbs up, however, the ZR1 is off to the races. The 8L90 quickly sheds four gears to allow the 755 horsepower LT5 to bring the car up to speed as quickly as possible.

If you’re anything like us, you kept waiting for the pilot to lift in the long, sloped bank of the test track at Papenburg, be he keeps it buried, eventually cresting 200 mph while the car shifts into Seventh gear before the car even straightens out. To put that in perspective, Seventh gear in the eight-speed automatic transmission is a 0.85:1 gear ratio, meaning it is an overdrive gear. Knowing that, listen to how hard the LT5 is still pulling, even with the drastically reduced gear ratio pulling it on toward 210 mph.

As the Corvette blasts down the back straight of the infamous oval, the ZR1 hits 214.88 mph. Impressive, especially when you take into consideration the ZR1’s considerable compliment of grip-enhancing bits of aero. The ZR1 in the video appears to have the smaller rear wing, though it’s hard to say as the only exterior glimpse you get of the car is of it flashing by in a white blur.

Naturally, as all top-speed tests go, the car has to be run back in the opposite direction in order to establish the car’s “top speed.” On the return trip, against the wind, the car manages to go 210.20 mph. The two runs average together to give the car a top speed of 212.54 mph. Almost needless to say, that number makes it the fastest Corvette of all time, besting the C6 ZR1 by more than 12 mph.

They say that no one likes an overachiever, but at this point, we can’t help but grin ear to ear as America’s beloved sports car continues to topple giants. At roughly $130,000, the C7 ZR1 is possibly the best bang-for-the-buck sports car of all time. Eat your heart out Ford GT.

About the author

Chase Christensen

Chase Christensen hails from Salt Lake City, and grew up around high-performance GM vehicles. He took possession of his very first F-body— an ’86 Trans Am— at the age of 13 and has been wrenching ever since.
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