Corvette ZR1 Could Smash AMG ONE Nürburgring Record, Claims Engineer

Miami Herald

2 days ago

The Nürburgring's Nordschleife is still the golden standard by which performance cars are often judged. Setting a time below 7 minutes is a feat reserved only for the most focused of performance cars, and according to ex-Corvette engineer Jim Mero, the new ZR1 could blast well past that barrier. In fact, he believes the 1,064-horsepower C8 can beat the lap time set by the Mercedes-AMG One, a record for production cars that was reset on September 23, 2024, with the watch stopping at 6:29.09. According to Mero, using some very sketchy car enthusiast math, the ZR1 could probably do a 6:23 lap.
Speaking on the HorsePower Obsessed podcast, Mero suggested that, if the gaps between C8 Corvettes are roughly similar to the gaps between C7 Grand Sport, Z06, and ZR1 variants, which he helped develop, then that scale should mean that the C8 Z06's time of 7:10.52 (set by Auto Motor und Sport's Christian Gebhardt, it must be noted) would translate to a ZR1 lap time of 6:23. "If I put the C8 Z06 at seven minutes and use a scale factor, I get a 6:23," he said on the show. He added that he's probably going to "get into a lot of trouble for that, but it's speculation with some background."
Interestingly, he believes that the AWD, hybridized ZR1X might not set a faster time around the track, citing concerns over how long the electric motor's 186 horsepower would be available during the lap, as well as the question of how any extra weight may impact handling when the battery is depleted. Again, this is pure speculation from somebody who has no hands-on access to the car, and underestimating what the Corvette team has achieved there may be to one's chagrin.
According to CorvetteBlogger, the team behind the ZR1 is preparing to set a lap time very soon, but until it's close to achieving its goals, we doubt we'll hear anything about their own official estimates and expectations. The publication says that the Corvette team has booked a session at the track for some time this month, and if that's true, we can expect YouTubers and trackside photographers to have news for us before the official word is out, just as was the case with the Mustang GTD's sessions at the Nordschleife. Ford's 850-hp GTD set a time of 6:52.072, and you can be absolutely positive that the Corvette team will be aiming to smash that by a long distance with its 1,064 ponies and mid-engine layout, among other tricks. As Ford and Multimatic engineers can attest, the toughest foe to overcome at the Green Hell is typically the weather. Thus, any theoretical lap times may still be impossible to achieve without perfect timing, maximum commitment, and a dash of luck. Hopefully, we'll know the truth within a week, but if the ZR1 does beat (or even come close to) the time set by the $3 million AMG One, it won't matter when we find out - it'll still mean something epic for American performance.
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