Chevy Teases 2025 Corvette ZR1, the Turbocharged American Supercar
If you thought the 670-hp C8 Z06 was badass, just wait for the 900-hp+ twin-turbo ZR1.
Alex Kierstein Writer Manufacturer Photographer Jun 03, 2024
It’s not secret that plenty is not good enough when it comes to the all-conquering mid-engine Chevy Corvette. The base coupe is a performance bargain, a 490-hp rocket that is already knock-knock-knocking on supercars’ doors. Order a Z06, and with an extra heaping of horsepower, better aero, and a harder edge, and you have a half-priced supercar with one of the greatest-sounding V-8s to ever exist. The Z06 pumps out a full 670 hp, and it was a shoe-in for MotorTrend’s 2023 Performance Car of the Year award—a Corvette absolutely swimming in “the kind of special sauce that makes the car seem worth it regardless of price, a sense of total desirability, the feeling that nothing was left on the table.
Well, what was left on the table was a pair of turbochargers. That’s what the ZR1, which Chevrolet just teased on social media, is bringing to the party. “No #Corvette has ever moved quite like this,” the copy reads. “The #ZR1 is coming this summer.”
Update, June 3: Chevy has again teased the noise of the new Corvette ZR1 in a fresh, longer video clip online, with a muted exhaust note and hints of a prominent whooshing noise that sure sounds like the distinctive whistle of turbocharging to us.
So while the news is expected, it’s also (of course) welcome. Here’s a refresher on what we expect from the (probably) ultimate C8 Corvette. First of all, the power: 900 or so ponies, courtesy of a pair of turbochargers bolted onto the already fantastic 5.5-liter flat-plane-crank DOHC V-8. And that’s not all, the hackneyed game show host voice in our head says. Because we’ve got a source that’s claimed that the front axle will gain an electric motor for even more performance, pushing the ZR1 to (or over) the 900-hp mark.
It's more than magic. It's real.
We presume a torque-tuned gas engine making better than 700 hp, and if you add one or two of the E-Ray’s 166-hp electric motors to the front axle, you’ve got a 900-hp or more package without breaking a sweat. There are a few ways Chevy could arrange the power-making hardware to get to that sort of figure, and they’re all awesome.
We don’t know exactly how the ZR1 will differ from the Z06 (and its optional Z07 track package) in terms of handling, but presume it’ll be no boulevardier. If it is basically a Z06/Z07 with much, much more power and nothing else, that seems amply sufficient. Expect a meatier brake package and perhaps some additional brake cooling to help bleed off that extra speed.
We’ll know more this summer, of course, because Chevy’s made a promise it can’t afford to break: sun’s out, ZR1’s out.