[PICS] C8 Corvette ZR1 Spits Blue Flames, Exceeds Sound Limits at the Nurburgring

It’s been a couple of days now that the Corvette engineers have been at the Nurburgring for the October industry pool testing session with the all-new King of the Hill 2025 Corvette ZR1. By now we hope you have seen the spy photos (SB-Medien/Spiedbilde) and have taken a listen to the LT7 V8 as the ZR1 was captured on video earlier on Wednesday.

In that video, we saw the Corvette ZR1 prototypes wearing exhaust extensions designed to push the sound of the car away from the sound devices that line the track and the word on the street is that the new American sportscar has been exceeding noise limits just like its predecessor.

We got a great update late this afternoon from Stefan Baldauf of SB-Medien who provided us with the latest and best update from the Nurburgring including a few new photos. Here’s his report:

Wow, it was amazing to see the Chevy test cars today. A huge team arrived and they have at least four prototypes, two with the new wing and two with the already known wing. In their technical center I could also see a yellow Corvette Z06. But they haven’t driven the Z06 today.

After some problems yesterday and this morning with the noise regulation on the Nürburgring, they changed the exhausts on all ZR1 prototypes. The noise limit for driven cars on the Nürburgring is 130 db and all these ZR1 prototypes were louder than 130 db. I still had the feeling today that they were too loud when doing a faster lap under full throttle. The power of the car and the acceleration is amazing. Sometimes I had the feeling that they can’t steer as fast as they were driving. There was already a light blue flame coming out of the exhausts when they were driving under full throttle in todays weather conditions which were sunny, dry and about 20 degrees celsius. The temperature will drop next week and then we can expect even bigger flames. Unfortunately none of them could do a lap without any other car on the track. There was the opportunity tonight in the performance slot, but they didn’t booked for that. It might be the case that this was too early tonight, because they have just started to develop the car on the Nürburgring yesterday and their timetable is delayed, because of the noise problems and their work when they had to change all exhausts.

The track was closed this afternoon for more than 60 minutes, because of a crash from another manufacturer. During that time they couldn’t drive. I’m pretty sure that the rear spoiler can’t move. He is fixed on the car and I have never seen any movement there.

We zoomed in on one of his photos to get a better look at the exhaust extensions. We can see that they point downwards which is different than the ones they had on the 2019 Corvette ZR1 which pointed the exhaust notes to the outside of the track, away from the sound monitors. These are much shorter and they appear to be made from titanium based on the coloring. Stefan had said they lost some development time today because of the exhaust so let’s hope they get it sorted!

As for performing a timed hot lap on the ‘Ring, that’s not looking good according to Stefan. “The timetable and the bookings of the Nürburgring Nordschleife is full. I don’t see a gap where they can book their time to set a official time. Maybe, if they stay three weeks, there will be a possibility, but then it is a risk with the weather.”

Of course, no timed lap is par for the course with the Corvette at the Nurburgring and its disappointing to say the least. Thanks again Stefan for the on-the-ground update from the Nurburgring! He’s working on a video from the testing this week and he tells us he should be back again on Monday when they are expected to be driving again. Stay tuned to CorvetteBlogger for the latest updates as the ZR1s continue their testing from the Nurburgring!

Source:
Photos by Stefan Baldauf / SB-Medien

Related:
[VIDEO] First Sounds from the 2025 Corvette ZR1 on the Nurburgring
How Fast Can the C8 Corvette ZR1 Blitz the Nürburgring?
[SPIED] C8 Corvette ZR1 Sheds Its Camouflage and It’s Even Better Than We Thought!

Subscribe Now: