2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1: Horsepower Obsession Has Led to This
We wish the tires good luck. When the 2025 Corvette ZR1 arrives in showrooms next year, its massive rear Michelins will be tasked with transferring 1064 horsepower to forward motion. Context is required: Most contemporary passenger cars and crossovers still have fewer than 300 horses. The original 1953 Corvette had just 150 horsepower and even in 1975, the base Vette eked out only 190 hp. Now we have four-figure power for America’s sports car. Incredible.
The new ZR1 is a step change, offering a 41 percent increase in horsepower over the 755-hp ZR1 from 2019. This new model is also tangible evidence that, despite the proliferation of incredibly powerful electric vehicles, combustion engines are still big players in the horsepower wars.
“It’s crazy, just crazy,” said Tadge Juechter, soon-to-be-retired Corvette executive chief engineer, in reference to the new ZR1’s power figure. Juechter started working on the Corvette in 1993 when the base model had only 300 horsepower.
Juechter, an engineer’s engineer who is famous in Detroit automotive circles for his professional discipline and his unerring focus on continually evolving the Corvette into a world-class sports car, shepherded the C8 (eighth-generation) Corvette platform that made today’s ZR1 possible. Its mid-engine layout positioned the motor behind the driver rather than in front, which not only introduced many traction advantages but also provided more room in the engine bay. GM’s engineers took advantage of the space with the all-new 5.5-liter LT6 V-8 that launched in the 2023 Corvette Z06.
The LT6 is a naturally aspirated, 670-hp firecracker with double-overhead-cam architecture, an obvious break from decades of overhead-valve V-8s. The DOHC layout creates a taller and wider engine but permits higher rpm and, crucially, increased airflow. Engine power is related to how much air moves in and out of the cylinders: more air equals more power because fuel burns oxygen. Corvette engineers leveraged the new hardware to make an 8600-rpm screamer, one of the best engines the General has ever produced.
The LT6 drawing board included a twin-turbocharged version, the LT7, the heart of the ZR1. Powered by exhaust gases, turbos are essentially air pumps that jam more air into engine cylinders. Repeat: more air equals more power. One measurement of the amount of air is pressure. Atmospheric air pressure—what we all experience just being on earth—is about 15 pounds per square inch (psi). The LT7 more than doubles that, adding an additional 20 psi. That boost necessitated additional hardware. Redesigned cylinder heads maximize the pressurized airflow, there are stronger connecting rods and pistons, and a pair of intercoolers (essentially, small radiators) chill the pressurized air.
Turbos spin over 100,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) and, like engines themselves, have a redline. The LT7’s sophisticated electronic sensors measure turbo speed and an electronically actuated wastegate bleeds off exhaust flow to run the turbos close to but not over the 135,000-rpm redline. The 1064-hp peak hits at 7000 rpm, 1000 revs short of redline, and at just 3000 rpm, the engine produces 800 pound-feet of torque, which it maintains through 6000 rpm. Juechter promises the LT7 is “docile around town and when you get on it, it’ll change your life.”
Corvette fans will immediately recognize the ZR1’s new sloping engine cover, which resembles the split-window rear of the 1963 edition. There are also blue accents sprinkled throughout and aerodynamic tweaks, such as a duct that channels cooling air to the rear brakes. The optional ZTK track package adds a comically large rear wing and other downforce enhancements. GM engineers say the ZR1 generates the most downforce in the model’s history. Naturally, engineers retuned the suspension and upgraded the brakes to cope with all the extra power.
The ZR1’s suite of electronic driver aids will be key to keeping the Michelins, some 14 inches wide, from going up in smoke. Official performance figures have not yet been released, but during a media preview, engineers allowed that the ZR1 will run the quarter-mile in under 10 seconds at about 150 mph. Furthermore, they claimed that the ZR1 will accelerate from 80 to 200 mph and then brake back to 80 mph in just 25 seconds.
We don’t yet know what the 1064-hp Corvette will cost, but the Z06 starts at about $110,000, so figure roughly $150,000 for the ZR1. Options will likely drive the price over $200,000, another new frontier for the Corvette. That’s a heady figure, but the ZR1 will maintain the Corvette’s performance value—there’s no car with nearly the same power for less money—and it’s a helluva sendoff for chief engineer Juechter, who is retiring after 47 years of service to the General.
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Awesome but not sure I could afford the insurance! Kyle does Hagerty underwrite policies for these? An engineering feat, but not a fan of that color.
Top down on the x way my Morgan 4/4 from 63 is rather more exciting.
60 year old design, technology, and materials will do that
Impressive powertrain let down by disappointing and overwrought boy racer styling. Someone call up Larry Shinoda or Chip Foose and get the looks of this car straightened out.
1064 HP sounds great till my insurance agent quotes me $5 per Horsepower per month to drive the car !
Outrageous! Completely irresponsible!
What’s the Mega Millions jackpot up to?
Here’s why the C8 in all forms matter: World class car – from an American production line automobile company. Not Ferrari, not Aston, not Porsche. Good ‘ole USA. It breaks you take to the Chevy service department. Wow. Now that prices for used C8’s are getting reasonable, I will be selling one or two of my BMW’s to buy one and I am really excited to do so!
What really is the point of this much HP in a street car? I would never turn down a nice handling car with adequate HP to weight ratio and a stick shift. These are built simply to be a rich man’s toy — a status symbol.
I’m also in the “enough” camp. As a wannabe engineer and driver, I am in awe of the accomplidhments. As a real-life ER and Trauma Doc, I’m waiting for the “Hey, y’all, watch this!” moment.
My older, lighter cars with about 10-12 lbs per HP seem like a good compromise for a street car.
YIMV(Your Injuries May Vary).
Haters are going to hate I guess. There’s a few here I guess. Not once at my days at a drag strip or an autocross track have I ever heard anyone say they have enough horsepower and don’t want anymore. I think this car is amazing. I don’t get on Miata forums and talk about how slow Miata’s are in a drag race compared to my 455 Firebird.
Do you NEED 1064 horsepower? No. However we don’t NEED classic cars or performance cars, or sports cars. We could all be driving around in a commuter appliance with no soul! Thank the good Lord that we have enough freedom to manufacture what we want, drive what we want and have a choice to love or hate engineering brilliance. God Bless America!
Thank you for saying that!
Well said!!
Yes, very well said,
You left out that everyone of these will sell at top dollar for several years till demand is met or the 1100 hp version comes.
This is a case where they are building what people want and not what they have to settle for.
Too often regulations today have forced us into vehicles we have to adapt to not really want.
How often do you hear someone say gee I really want to get me one of them 3 cylinder turbo cars.
The sad part is they will be limited to what they can sell because of regulations.
OK, my mind IS changed…
somewhat.
I first came to this article, thinking that the weird euro-styling is straight out of the 1980s Matchbox Car design group, and (as others have mentioned already) that excess power is so impractical. Add the enormous price tag and it’s a complete out-of-this-world concept.
But after reading 1st gen Fbird’s comments, I had to reverse part of my thinking… the part that has to do with ‘Government Motors’ building an outrageous vehicle that some people actually WANT to buy! There is:
No mandate by the feds to make people buy these…
No tax-payer-funded subsidy to ‘help’ buyers purchase one…
No inkling of climate-themed nonsense…
It’s only about an American manufacturer marketing something, without interference from bureaucrats’ directives!
Thanks for the alternative perspective!
Couldn’t agree more. I got a chuckle from Juechter’s comment – “docile around town and when you get on it, it’ll change your life.” I felt that way about my C6 ZR1! No one NEEDS a car like this, but this kind of American engineering brilliance, to borrow your phrase, is more important than most realize. I’d bet that at least some this engineering tech is going to show up elsewhere in the GM lineup and that’s a good thing.
Yep. Buncha old ladies in the comments. Too much power? Don’t buy one.
I’ll leave the discussion of the merits of this car to most of you, but thanks for the hints to identify one when I pass it in traffic, lane splitting on my 17 year old Piaggio scooter that I bought for $1,000 5 years ago. I’ve passed Ferraris, McClarens, Vipers, hundreds of Porsches and Corvettes and all sorts of muscle cars on my way here and there.
Hee hee just one open door away from the ever after.
Wow, does this mean the ZO6 will be at least selling at MSRP soon? I have a ‘10 ZR1, love C6 styling, and it is a slug at 638 and 604!!
Gee, all that money and gas and it still won’t keep up with a Tesla Model S Plaid.
We will waive as we drive by the charger you are sitting at.
So many sour grapes here we could open a winery (whinery?). No one needs a 400 Watt guitar amplifier either but I’m glad they’re made. I for one hope to hear about one of these things embarrassing a particular Italian dictator, hopefully piloted by someone with a Southern drawl.
I’m amazed at those here that bemoan the ability of this Corvette as too much. Yet these same people will get in an airliner with only a lap belt, and allow someone they don’t know to fly them somewhere at 450 knots at 30,000 feet.
The person flying the airliner has thousands of hours training and experience. They also re-train regularly and have regular medical checks. Flying is the safest way to travel.
For all that horsepower, I gotta say it’s kinda ugly, shiny and plastic looking. Every time I look at it, I keep expecting it to unfold, stand up and start talking?