The Chevrolet Corvette Z06, ZR1 and ZR1X conquered the Nürburgring Nordschleife, which is almost 23 kilometres long.
The three cars set official lap records for vehicles manufactured by an American manufacturer.
Chevrolet Corvette: three Americans in Germany
Drew Cattell, at the wheel of the electrified all-wheel drive Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X, completed a lap in 6:49.275.
Brian Wallace, at the wheel of the 1,064 horsepower ZR1, recorded a time of 6:50.763 with the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.
The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with a 670-horsepower naturally aspirated V8 driven by Aaron Link recorded a lap time of 7:11.826.
Mark Reuss, president of GM, stated emphatically that “these are the best Corvettes in history, period”.
They were prototypes/pre-production models
The Corvettes that starred in the performance at the Nürburgring were all production cars manufactured in the United States, with the only modifications being to commit the safety equipment.
The circuit regulations, in fact, require roll bars, racing seats, fire extinguishers and six-point safety belts.
All of them set lap times for the Prototype/Pre-production category, as the ZR1 and ZR1X are not for sale in Europe and the Z06 was a North American variant.
The drivers of the Chevrolet Corvette
Link (800 laps), Wallace (425 laps) and Cattell (600 laps) have extensive experience on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Together, they have accumulated 31 appearances developing and testing GM vehicles.
The track
The circuit offers unique driving dynamics that test both drivers and vehicles, which is a key factor in fine-tuning the Corvettes and ensuring the performance that customers expect.
Since 2019, lap times have been recorded, homologated and officially published by the Nürburgring, with car manufacturers providing video evidence of their attempts.
To date, the fastest production car ever (Super Sport category) is the Mercedes-Benz AMG One with 6:29.090, followed by the Porsche 911 GT2 RS Manthey Performance Kit (Sport category) with a time of 6:43.300.
