Chevy Aims to Outshine Ford (and Conquer the Nurburgring) with the Corvette

      Stefan Baldauf / SB-Medien

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      Chevrolet aims to claim the title of the fastest American car, with the Nürburgring as their target location.

      Tony Roma, the Chief Engineer for the Corvette, told Top Gear, “we’ve conducted some testing, and all I can say is … stay tuned. We aspire to be the fastest American car – that’s a distinction we would love to reclaim.” Roma was referring to the goal of achieving a record lap time at the Nürburgring.

      Roma was being somewhat cryptic. A new record may have already been established.

      The Corvette team spent three weeks in Europe during June, renting out the Nürburgring. Various Corvette models, such as the ZR1 and ZR1X, were seen racing around the track.

      On June 28, the Corvette Instagram account shared a short video of a yellow C8 Corvette speeding through a section of the Nürburgring. It's uncertain whether the model featured is a ZR1 or ZR1X, but it was definitely moving quickly. The caption read: “Fast as green hell. #Corvette #Nurburgring.”

      It would be unusual for a global automaker to invest time or resources in showcasing its high-performance supercar on the ‘Ring unless it already had an impressive lap time under its belt—potentially a record-setting one.

      This record would be a lap under seven minutes. Roma even acknowledged this goal, stating, “None of our customers will go and run a sub-seven-minute lap time, but they want to know if they could.” At least the head engineer recognizes that this is primarily about bragging rights at Cars & Coffee.

      Currently, Ford holds the record for the fastest American production car around the Nürburgring. The Blue Oval announced that the Ford Mustang GTD surpassed the Dodge Viper ACR (which was discontinued eight years ago, RIP) with a lap time of 6:57.685, outpacing the Porsche 911 GT3. Unsatisfied, Ford returned to the ‘Ring and improved its time by 5.5 seconds, achieving a new lap of 6:52.072 as announced in May.

      The C7 ZR1 did not record an official lap time, while the C8 Chevy Corvette Stingray completed the ‘Ring in 7:28.30 with a Z51 Performance Package in 2019.

      It is evident that the competition to see who can achieve the fastest lap in the shortest amount of time is very much alive. It sounds like we may soon have a new American champion to beat the world records.

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