Tested: 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Enters Another Dimension | Car and Driver

A thousand horsepower makes a particular sound. It's a compact tornado ripping across the plains, a 30-foot swell curling across a shore break, an airlock blowing out in deep space. It's the sound of a placid afternoon breeze that was minding its own business until the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 showed up, its twin ball-bearing turbos cramming up to 26.1 psi of boost into its LT7 5.5-liter V-8. The ZR1 is rated at a strangely specific 1064 horsepower at 7000 rpm, and you'd guess that GM aimed for an even thousand and overshot the mark. That's not the case. The horsepower goal was simply "as much as possible," and it turns out that the envelope of possibility extends to four-digit output, a 233-mph top speed, and a yet-undisclosed Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time that's likely to embarrass the $300,000-plus Mustang GTD more than a little. For a frame of reference, this year's Indy 500 qualifying average speed was 231 mph, and you can't buy Álex Palou's Dallara for a starting price of $178,195 at your local Chevy dealer.

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00:00 How do you even categorize the ZR1?
01:35 The numbers
02:01 Acceleration, braking, roadholding test results
02:55 The engine and other ZR1 upgrades, top speed
04:10 Power difference between previous Corvettes
04:55 Braking and handling
05:31 The sound and experience from outside
08:24 Practicality?
10:13 Fuel economy, or lack thereof
10:50 Wrap-up