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The ZR1X Is the Fastest Corvette Ever. Chevy Tells Us How It Happened
Corvette engineers first uttered the phrase "King of the Hill" internally in the mid-1980s. Their majesty was a 1990 ZR1—that's a 32-valve, 375-horsepower V-8 designed by the GM-owned Lotus Division and built in Oklahoma by Mercury Marine. It first drew Ferrari comparisons to a sports car that had pissed away much of the '70s and '80s, mired in bureaucratic muck and rattletrap complacency. That ZR1, with its ZF six-speed manual, dashed to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, and a 175-mph top speed.
The King of the Hill name stuck. Thirty-five years hence, it describes a turbocharged 2025 ZR1 with nearly three times the horsepower, at 1,064.
America's New Hypercar
'America's Hypercar:' The New Chevy Corvette ZR1X Aims to Take Down Ferrari
Still not enough. Say hello to the 2026 ZR1X, or the 'NotZora.' However you address it, the all-wheel-drive, electrified ZR1X may spark the latest War of the Roses among loyal Corvette subjects. You know, the folks who grab pitchforks over engine layouts, pushrods, or pop-up headlights.
The reductive take, sure to be favored by YouTubers, is that the ZR1X's 1,250 hybrid hp is better than 1,064. A sub-2-second acid trip to 60 mph is objectively faster than 2.2 seconds. Even the title Chevy bestowed on the ZR1X, "America's Hypercar," suggests the King ZR1 is demoted to mere supercar—the Marquis of Motown, perhaps.
But Keith Badgley, the ZR1X's lead development engineer, explains why these cars can comfortably share a throne—without sticking a knife in each other's sales.
"Yeah, we like using the term 'America's Hypercar' because that set the standard for what the ZR1X needed to be," Badgley says.
The ZR1s, he says, feel fundamentally different on street or track.
Photo by: Chevrolet
"All-wheel-drive versus rear-drive gives you two very different feels with the balance of the car, and how we're supporting you as you go into corner entry," he says. "The (driven) front axle is so quick, you can get right back onto throttle. We think the ZR1X is going to give greater confidence to the driver."
That does sound interesting and helpful, including for owners whose skills might frankly be overwhelmed by four-digit horsepower through rear wheels alone. But at the risk of looking a gift horsepower in the mouth, why now? Chevy will soon begin taking orders for the ZR1X.
Why not let the ZR1 enjoy its public acclaim and range-topping status for at least a year before adding a direct competitor for the wealthiest Corvette buyers or collectors? Those prospects now have a decision to make, unless they settle it with one of each.
Photo by: Chevrolet
'Yeah, we like using the term 'America's Hypercar' because that set the standard for what the ZR1X needed to be.'
Badgley says these siblings' closely aligned births became nearly inevitable from the moment of conception. The C8 was famously designed from the start to support electrified all-wheel-drive versions, including room for 1.9 kilowatt hours of pouch batteries in its coffin-shaped central tunnel. A ZR1X 'was always part of that plan' that began nearly a decade ago, Badgley affirms. The E-Ray went first, and it provided a technical basis for the hypercar.
"We saw the capability of the E-Ray and how we could take advantage of it," Badgeey says. "The design and structure of the ZR1s were always being designed to handle performance at the pinnacle."
Photo by: Chevrolet
Photo by: Chevrolet
Recognizing the Corvette's high-voltage battery pack as a critical heart of performance, GM created an in-house team for its power electronics.
"That was very rare," Badgley says. "We didn't do that with previous products, and we're not doing it with other products."
As Chevrolet developed the Z06's LT6 V-8, the twin-turbocharged Gemini LT7 was also proceeding to serve the ZR1s. That included the 'maniturbo' that combines a turbocharger and exhaust manifold, unique engine castings, pistons, and titanium connecting rods with a jaw-dropping lightness I feel for myself in a garage at Circuit of the Americas during a thrilling ZR1 drive.
Photo by: Chevrolet
'We saw the capability of the E-Ray and how we could take advantage of it. The design and structure of the ZR1s were always being designed to handle performance at the pinnacle.'
Rather than parallel and separate development tracks, think of Corvette engineering teams as more like DNA strands, their genetic data informing and cross-pollinating the whole.
For one, Chevrolet created a core development team exclusively for all-wheel drive. Using the E-Ray as a test bed, they applied those learnings to push every boundary of the ZR1X—enough to confidently take on seven-figure models like the Ferrari F80 and McLaren W1.
"We intentionally kept that core of intelligence together," Badgley says.
Photo by: Chevrolet
The ZR1X, Badgley says, helped validate key metrics for a ZR1 that went to showrooms first. That includes a shared aero program for design efficiencies and commonalities in manufacturing; The models can share an assembly line in Kentucky, allowing Chevrolet to instantly adjust production based on customer orders. Credit the ZR1X for a shared, optional carbon-fiber wheel whose performance bandwidth was assured by a 'higher-load program' for the heavier AWD car.
"Otherwise, we would have had to spend time validating the ZR1 loads and then validating again for the ZR1X," Badgley says. "So even though there's a ZR1 team and a ZR1X team, we're dealing with the same problems, helping each other to solve them and make these two great cars come together."
The ZR1 upsized the Z06's brakes, but deceleration requirements for the more-powerful ZR1X demanded a clean-sheet solution. The largest brakes in GM history feature 10-piston front calipers, ridiculous 16.5-inch rotors front and rear, and new continuously woven carbon-fiber brake discs.
During ZR1X development at the Nürburgring, engineers clocked a stunning 1.9 g's of deceleration at the Tiergarten corner, a wicked-technical right-hand sweeper near a lap's end that saw test drivers shed speed from 180 to 120 mph.
Photo by: Chevrolet
Badgley says the 'Vette's most-resilient brake discs in history survived 2,500 miles of brutal track testing—on four cars, more than 600 miles per car—without a brake change. The ZR1X will bequeath that standard "J59" brake package to the ZR1, which adopts it as an option for 2026.
ZR1X trickle-down will even benefit the entire family. Every 2026 Corvette gets the new PTM Pro traction manager, designed with ZR1X in mind. For daring types, it offers easy screen access to turn off traction and stability control, while maintaining launch control functions. For the ZR1X, PTM Pro also keeps brake-based torque vectoring active, actively managing inside-front braking for maximum traction while exiting corners.
The ZR1X is on schedule to arrive by Christmas, ideally wrapped in a Corvette-red bow for good boys and girls. Badgley says the teams are still tinkering, trying to unlock more speed. That includes a quarter-mile that the ZR1X dispatched in less than 9 seconds just a few weeks ago, on a prepped surface at US 131 Motorsports Park in Michigan. Corvette fans may argue about the line of succession. But in a straight line at least, the all-wheel-drive ZR1X will wear the undisputed Corvette crown.
"We're actually looking to see how much below nine seconds we can get, so we're excited for that," he says.
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