C6 Corvette ZR1s Pack a Punch—and Tempting Value

Back in 2007, rumors swirled about the “Blue Devil,” an even hairier and more capable Corvette than the C6 Z06 introduced a year earlier. With a name like that had and an already potent 505-hp Z06 to beat, expectations were high. But when Chevrolet turned the first C6 ZR1s loose, those expectations were met. The ZR1 badge was familiar from uber-Corvettes of old, but this was a new, massive leap forward for America’s sports car, and it wasn’t just the supercharged LS9 popping through the window in the hood that made it. The draw of the 2009-13 ZR1 has pulled in a surprising subset of enthusiasts. And while it’s never been cheap, it’s still one of the lowest-priced ways to buy into extreme performance.

By 2009, the sixth generation (C6) Corvette was in its fifth model year and selling well like the C5 before it. The taillights were still rounded—like a proper Corvette—but the chassis and powertrain had reached true world-class levels and was going to have trouble topping itself. The Z06 trim that arrived in 2006 was the lightest of all the sixth-gen cars and brought supercar performance on a budget, but despite the monumental improvements to the Corvette over the previous decade and a half, the C6 platform still had room for more power, and better handling thanks to downforce.

Internally named “Blue Devil” (an homage to GM CEO Rick Wagoner’s alma mater, Duke) the ZR1’s new engine was a supercharged 6.2-liter V8. The target was 100 horsepower-per-liter, but it left the factory with 638 hp and 595 lb-ft. The car could hit 60 in just over 3 seconds and top 200 mph. A front splitter helped keep the ZR1 stuck to the ground, while carbon fiber was utilized for the roof, hood, fenders and rocker moldings to keep weight down.

The power flows through a six-speed Tremec TR6060 manual transmission, which features the familiar and mildly annoying skip-shift solenoid, drivers to skip second and third gear when at light throttle and low RPM so the car could dance around the gas guzzler tax. This is easily fixed by either revving out a few hundred more RPM or installing an aftermarket skip shift eliminator that gives the driver the control over the transmission they paid for.

C6 ZR1s were incrementally improved over their production run, which wrapped with the 2013 model year. The 2012-13 cars, like this 2013 example, available on Hagerty Marketplace, sport improved seats, a new steering wheel design, other interior amenities, and slightly different gearing. Performance Traction Management, GM’s excellent stability control system, arrived in 2010.

With a base car as good as the C6, it’s not at all surprising that the ZR1 was a favorite of many drivers even if it was a slightly scary, even intimidating experience. The massive horsepower and torque numbers also lent to making the car sound far scarier than the driving experience tended to be in reality. The clutch take up is only fractionally heavier than a Z06, which combines with a long throttle pedal travel to make sure if you are only unleashing all 638 horsepower when you really want to.

The rest of the interior has a more premium feel and has aged a lot more gracefully than it’s predecessors, but that’s a low bar to beat. Overall, the ZR1 has a very similar cockpit to the lower C6 trims, with the exception of a manifold pressure gauge residing where the voltage meter sits in lower trims. It’s mainly the driving experience that will tell the driver they are behind the wheel of the top dog C6 rather than bits of flair on the dash.

And that experience, along with the raw numbers, has kept the car relevant and desirable even after a decade and a half. It’s arguably even more relevant now, at least to car enthusiasts. In just the last three years Hagerty’s insurance quote activity for the C6 ZR1 has risen 44%. Gen X and Millennials are the top buyers by generation, which goes against the stereotype of Corvettes being the bread and butter of Baby Boomers.

Our data also shows that overall values for the C6—the penultimate front-mid engine, rear-drive, true manual Corvette—have stayed relatively flat for several years, which suggests they are done depreciating. As for ZR1s, of which Chevrolet sold 4695 examples over five years, high-quality cars have seen notable appreciation while more used driver-condition examples have been fairly steady. Some perfect cars have sold for over $100K, and the original MSRP was in the low-$100K range, but currently the model’s condition #2 (“excellent”) value in the Hagerty Price Guide is $86,800. Not cheap, then, but its supercar speed combined with the ability to take to a Chevrolet dealer for service is hard to ignore. Performance per dollar has always been a big Corvette selling point. The C6 ZR1 simply pushed the performance envelope further than any Corvette before it. That, its relative rarity, and its status as the halo model for an entire generation of America’s sports car mean it never really left the Corvette conversation, and it likely never will.

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