7 Things You Need to Know about the New ZR1

Corvette aficionados know how big of a deal this car is. Each successive generation of ZR1 has managed to dramatically reset the bar for the brand, and the first mid-engined ZR1 follows suit, debuting a pair of turbochargers straight from the factory and posting a monster horsepower figure.

Outfits outside Chevrolet have added turbos under the Plastic Fantastic’s hood, and to great success—you probably know about Callaway, the Connecticut shop that worked so closely with Chevrolet that GM extended an RPO code (B2K) and a factory warranty to fourth-gen Corvettes that Calloway had modified with its twin-turbo kit. Nearly 40 years on, Chevy has embraced the tech in-house, this time supported by everything it has learned during the development of the eighth-generation Corvette.

In 2020, we met the first mid-engine Corvette. About a year later, we met the track-honed Z06, and in early 2023, the hybrid E-Ray. Now, we meet the new King of the Hill: The first mid-engined ZR1, and the first Corvette with a horsepower figure that reaches into four digits.

Besides the car’s outrageous power figures—1064 horsepower and 828 lb-ft of torque, on pump gas, no less!—here are the other facts and figures you need to know about the new ZR1.

Gemini: Fraternal Twins, Not Identical Ones

The press release takes pains to point out that Chevrolet’s engineers didn’t bolt two turbos onto the flat-plane-crank engine from the Z06 and call it a day; eight years ago, when they began to develop this flat-plane-crank V-8, they planned for a naturally aspirated variant as well as for a turbocharged one. To emphasize the close yet distinct relationship of these engines, their codes differ by just one number: LT6 and LT7.

In fact, the program umbrella for the two engines is known internally as the Small Block Gemini architecture, referencing the Latin name of a pair of twins from Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux. If you’ve ever gotten up close and personal with the engine of the new Z06, you’ll quickly understand the reference to twos—the double overhead camshafts and the pair of intake plenums. If you looked even closer, you might have spotted little rocket insignias, a nod to the Gemini NASA spaceflight program from the 1960s, and to astronauts’ love for early Corvettes.

Distinct features of the LT7 include head castings with different port architecture and larger combustion chambers, plus valvetrain, pistons, and connecting rods optimized for the added heat and power delivery associated with turbocharging. Anti-lag calibration is incorporated into the engine’s tuning to keep the engine in boost as needed. Backing up the LT7, the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission has been beefed up with shot-peened gears, higher clutch clamping load, input shaft, and oiling improvements, and a revised final drive ratio.

If you want to know more about what makes the LT7 so special, check out this article from our editor-in-chief, Larry Webster, where he dives into the juicy technical details.

LT7 Is the Most Powerful V-8 America Has Built for a Car

When the Z06 debuted two years ago, its 670-hp output made it the most powerful naturally aspirated V-8 ever built. Back then, a cross-town rival, the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, made 90 more power thanks to a 2.65-liter Eaton supercharger. Last year, Dodge squeezed 1025 hp out of its supercharged Hemi for the Demon 170. Now, GM has the upper hand—the 5.5-liter, twin-turbocharged, DOHC V-8 in the new ZR1 makes one thousand and sixty four horsepower, and you don’t even have to feed it E85, an ethanol blend that enables more power.

When you’re bench racing with your friends, know that the “America” qualification is necessary: The wonderfully crazy Swedes over at Koenigsegg have already squeezed 1280 hp out of their 5.1-liter, twin-turbo V-8. For the sake of fair comparison, that’s the output on pump gas; on E85, it makes 1603 hp.

The Hood Works Hard

For several generations, one of the easiest ways to tell a ZR1 from a Z06, or any other Vette, is by the hood. On the 2025 car, the hood has neither a peek-through panel nor a giant bulge, but a cutout. Air flows into the front grille, through the heat exchanger, and back out through three passages. Not only does the “flow-through” hood design lower charge air temperatures, but it also increases downforce on the front of the car.

The Split Window Is Back … Sorta

When Bill Mitchell decided to split the back window of the 1963 Corvette with a spine connecting the hood and the rear deck, customers (as well as none other than Zora Arkus-Duntov) yowled about the compromised rear visibility. Over 60 years later, those Split Window coupes are some of the most valuable examples of the Corvette breed. (Collector markets can be funny that way.) For 2025, Chevy has brought back the split window—and this time, it’s functional. As on the Corvette race car, the Z06 GT3.R, the spine is actually a stack of carbon-fiber vents, which helps pull heat from the engine.

Yes, we’re going to pick nits here: While the serrated outlets look totally cool, and have earned their place as functional elements, they aren’t really a direct successor to Mitchell’s original design cue. His was just that—a non-functional bit of flair. (Some people even cut it out of their cars!) This is a hard-working piece of kit that, yes, will block the view out of the (already small) rear window. But since all 2024-up Corvettes now come standard with a rear-facing camera that projects its feed onto the rearview “mirror,” consider this problem solved. The engine is happier, and your field of view is wider than ever before.

The New ZR1 Draws Heavily from the Z06 Catalog

The Corvette team has already invested years of time into developing and sourcing wheel, tire, and brake packages for the other high performance models in the lineup, and the ZR1 benefits from that work. While there will be some unique wheel designs, the diameters are the same as on the Z06: 20 and 21 inches, front and rear. The section width of the tires is the same, too—275 front, 345 rear. Like the Z06, the ZR1 is delivered on a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires (the summer rubber option on the E-Ray), unless you upgrade to the track-oriented performance package. On the ZR1, that package is a holistic set of aero, tire, and suspension changes dubbed ZTK. It adds a far more aggressive Michelin, the Cup 2 R.

Chevy says that the brake system on the ZR1 is new, and includes “the largest front rotors ever equipped on Corvette,” but the carbon-ceramic rotors on the ZR1 are identical in diameter to the optional carbon-ceramics on the Z06 (these also come standard on the E-Ray). The numbers: 15.7 inches in front, 15.4 in rear. We’ve reached out to Chevy to clarify the differences between the systems.

Regardless, Chevy has clearly done its homework when it comes to appropriate stopping power: In just 24.5 seconds, reads the release, the new ZR1 can accelerate from 80 to 200 mph and brake down to 80. That’s 22 percent quicker than the C7 ZR1, and 53 percent quicker than the C6 ZR1.

It Makes a Lot of Downforce

The performance-oriented ZTK package makes a real and significant difference in how the car will behave on track. Let’s unpack what it includes: Aero elements include a fixed rear wing on the back deck, front dive planes, “a tall hood Gurney lip,” and underbody strakes. Those of you who have been reading our spy-shot stories will recognize this kit immediately. All of those bits are made of woven carbon fiber, and they are complemented by the rest of the ZTK package, which adds stiffer springs, retunes the standard Magneride dampers, and swaps the PS4S tires for Cup 2 Rs. (You can also add just the aero kit via the Carbon Aero package.) Total downforce generated by this concert of aerodynamic upgrades is a whopping 1200 pounds. Pity the tires!

It’s a 200-MPH Car, Easy

After putting together the immense power of the drivetrain, the stability of the aero kit, and the huge brakes, it’s no surprise that the ZR1 can hit 200 mph, and with ease. All four test drivers hit 200 on the Nürburgring—on their very first laps, says Chevy. There isn’t a whole lot of pure straight on the ‘Ring, but there is a 2 km (1.2 mile) stretch that is very nearly turn-less. If the ZR1 were turned free on, say, a certain runway in Florida or stretch of highway in Texas, who knows how much faster it might go? We bet Chevy does—but the press release merely states a top speed of “over” 215 mph.

Blue Is Back

We’d be remiss if we overlooked the aesthetic changes that make the ZR1 feel special from the very first glance. There is a host of available parts and paint colors that are shared across the existing lineup, like a carbon-fiber roof and Sebring Orange paint, but Chevy made sure that the ZR1 got some bling all its own. Blue has been the ZR1 accent color ever since the sixth generation of the Corvette, when Chevy first added a supercharger to create the “Blue Devil—” the nickname for the C6 ZR1 and the first production Vette to clear 200 mph. The LT7’s intake is finished in Edge Blue, and you can order your C8 ZR1 with blue interior stitching, blue wheels, even blue brake calipers, an option that won’t be available on any other C8.