Lately, the new ZR1 Corvette has been stomping out records left and right. In October, it claimed the record for the fastest American production car with a top speed of 233 miles per hour. Then in December, it claimed the record as the quickest GM production ever at 9.6 seconds in the quarter-mile and 2.3 seconds to sixty miles per hour. As production is gearing up and dealers have started to see their allocation schedule, we’ve all been waiting to see if it can grab one last record before hitting the streets, the fastest American car at the infamously dangerous and difficult Nurburgring in Germany. Chevrolet decided to instead keep things stateside as the ZR1 sets the lap record at five US racetracks!

Chevrolet took four of their employees, Bill Wise, Brian Wallace, Chris Barber, and Aaron Link, to Watkins Glen in New York, Road America in Wisconsin, Road Atlanta in Georgia, and Virginia International Raceway to break not one or two, but five production car lap records at these world-class tracks in the US. All four team members have experience in four-wheeled competition before joining the company. They are certified by GM as Level 6 drivers, which is the highest possible level internally, and each has Nürburgring Industry Pool certification. But these four are not professional racing drivers, they are career engineers.

Road Atlanta

Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta is about an hour outside of downtown Atlanta and features a 2.54-mile long course with 12 turns covering the tree-lined Georgia rolling hills. In 2018, the then-new C7 ZR1 set a production-car lap record of 1:26.45 with Randy Pobst behind the wheel. But a year later, Porsche took the record back with a 1:24.88 lap time in their 911 GT2 RS 991. Chris Barber is the Vehicle Performance Engineer for Chevrolet on the Corvette team and piloted the 1,064-horsepower ZR1 to a production car lap record of 1:22.85. That’s within five seconds of the Z06 GT3.R race car’s qualifying time at Petit Le man in October in a street legal production car.

We purposely selected these world-class, very high-profile, very fast tracks. We didn’t want to make this easy. We wanted to make it impressive, and we knew we had the firepower to beat whatever was out there.— Chris Barber

Road Atlanta is 2.54 miles long a features 12 turns through the hills outside of Atlanta, Georgia. The C8 ZR1 lapped this track in 1:22.8.

The Glen

Bill Wise is a chassis controls technical lead performance engineer for Chevrolet performance cars. This means a common day at the office for Bill is testing pre-production performance cars around test tracks for evaluation and data logging. But this time his focus was on one thing and one thing only, to set a blistering lap time at Watkins Glen International. He managed to dominate the 11-turn course over 3.38 miles with a 1:52.73 lap time to claim the production car record. Of the five courses the ZR1 tackled, it saw its highest lateral G at The Glen, which according to the Chevrolet’s onboard footage peaked at 2.6 G.

The first time out, I was gobsmacked. The thing [ZR1] is just relentless. It’s not just the acceleration, it’s the way it gains speed above 150 mph. — Bill Wise

The Watkins Glen International Long Course in New York is 3.38 miles long and has a total of 11 turns. The C8 ZR1 lapped “The Glen” in 1:52.7.

Virginia International Raceway

Virginia International Raceway is a world-famous and world-class racetrack, featuring two tracks in one, the full course and the grand course. To claim a production car lap record at both VIR courses would be quite an achievement, so Aaron Link, Global Vehicle Performance Manager, stepped up to the plate.

On our last development trip there, I was the fastest. This track suits my driving style. — Aaron Link

The Virginia International Raceway Full Course is shorter than the Grand Course at 3.27 miles long. The C8 ZR1 lapped the VIR Full Course at 1:47.7.

On the shorter VIR Full Course, Aaron managed a 1:47.74 around the 3.27-mile long track. This beats the previous production car record set by Chevrolet’s own C7 ZR1 in 2019 by 3.5 seconds. The VIR Grand Course is much more challenging at 4.20 miles long featuring 28 turns in total. Aaron smashed the previous production car lap record with a 2:32.30 lap time, 2.6 seconds faster than the previous record set by the one-million-plus-dollar McLaren Senna at Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap event in 2019.

The Virginia International Raceway Grand Course is longer than the Full Course at 4.20 miles long. The C8 ZR1 lapped the VIR Grand Course at 2:32.3.

Road America

In July of 2023, Porsche set a production car lap record at Road America in Wisconsin in their Porsche 911 GT3 RS 992 with a 2:13.81 lap. Brian Wallace, Lead Vehicle Dynamics Engineer, was able to manhandle the almost two-ton ZR1 supercar more than five seconds faster than that, with a record-setting lap time of 2:08.56. It was here at Road America, on the front straight, that the ZR1 hit its top speed of all the tracks at 188 miles per hour.

I hadn’t driven the car at Road America before, but I knew the track well. I knew where I wanted to place the car in every corner on the track. The challenge was dialing into the extra speed I had going into the corners compared to my previous trips to Road America. I had to back up my brake markers everywhere. In the ZR1, they come up on you so damn fast. — Brian Wallace

Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin is 4.048 miles long with a total of 14 turns. The C8 ZR1’s record lap clocks in at 2:08.6.

Chevrolet’s “King Of The Hill” retains its title. At less than $200,000 you can have the quickest, fastest, and record-breaking American production car of all time. The 1,064-horsepower ZR1 didn’t set out to break just one record, it set out to dominate five ZR1 lap records.