America's Quickest Sports Car Is Outpaced At The Nurburgring By A Porsche 911 That Has Almost Half The Power | Carscoops

      The 1,250 hp hybrid Corvette recorded a time of 6:49.275, placing it ahead of the Mustang GTD but securing only fifth place on the overall Nurburgring leaderboard.

      Chevrolet’s Corvette ZR1X is now recognized as the fastest American car on the Nurburgring. Achieving a time of 6:49.275, the all-wheel-drive hybrid outpaced the Mustang GTD by 2.8 seconds. However, it trails behind the AMG GT Black, Porsche 911 GT2, and AMG One, which are all quicker than the Corvette.

      It’s official: Chevrolet's remarkable Corvette ZR1X has claimed the title of the fastest American car on the Nurburgring. Yet, it is also confirmed that this top hybrid model is slower than a five-year-old Mercedes and an older Porsche 911 with significantly less power.

      GM vehicle dynamics engineer Drew Cattell drove the 1,250 hp (1,267 PS) ZR1X around the 12.9-mile (20.8 km) track in 6:49.275, leaving the Ford Mustang GTD (6:52.072) in its wake by 2.8 seconds.

      However, the ZR1X could not surpass the now-outdated AMG GT Black, which recorded a time of 6:48.047 in 2020, nor the 690 hp (700 PS) Manthey-modified Porsche 911 GT2 RS, which achieved a lap time of 6:43.3 the following year. The AMG One hypercar holds the lead far ahead with a time of 6:29.09 set in 2023, a record unlikely to be broken anytime soon.

      Additionally, if you're surprised that the ZR1X did not outperform older, less powerful cars, consider this: the standard ZR1, without the X's electric front axle and delivering only 1,064 hp (1,079 PS), was tested concurrently and completed a lap in 6:50.763, which is less than 1.5 seconds slower.

      This highlights that the Mustang GTD is slower than both ZR1 models, a noteworthy achievement for Chevy given that the Ford has nearly double the price at $328,000 compared to $173,300 before delivery. The Chevy team also achieved a commendable lap time of 7:11.826 with the 670 hp naturally aspirated Z06.

      While neither ZR1 nor ZR1X outperformed track-focused versions from Porsche and Mercedes, both are still impressively fast in absolute terms, and their achievements are especially significant as they were accomplished by engineer drivers instead of professional race drivers, which is the common practice among other manufacturers for Nurburgring records. This suggests potential for even greater speed in future attempts.

      All three cars were U.S. production Corvettes equipped with optional carbon wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R summer tires.

      GM President Mark Reuss stated, “No auto manufacturer has conducted a Nürburgring lap attempt like this before. From development to production, and now at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the Green Hell, we have demonstrated there are no limits to what our GM engineers and vehicles can achieve. These are the best Corvettes in history, period.”