[VIDEO] 2024 Corvette E-Ray Hits VIR for Lightning Lap 17

Car and Driver’s premiere event, Lightning Lap, or as we like to call it, “proof that anyone spending more than Corvette money on a performance car is just flushing their cash down the toilet,” is back for its 17th incarnation! America’s Favorite Sports Car has been a fixture of LL since the beginning, with new Corvettes on hand for all but three of the annual mega track tests (and in years without a new addition to the Corvette lineup, there’s always been a Camaro there to carry the Chevrolet Performance flag). Last year, the C8 Z06 set multiple records in its debut on the 4.1-mile Grand Course at Virginia International Raceway. This time around, it’s the hybrid AWD Corvette E-Ray’s turn to prove its worth, and we’ve never been more interested to see how a ‘Vette handles itself in a performance gantlet!

Perspective E-Ray buyers can all breathe a collective sigh of relief; with a 31st-place (out of 327 historical competitors) lap time of 2:45.9, the newest branch on the family tree is a stout one! Other cars in the 2:45s include the Lamborghini Huracan EVO, the monster Camaro ZL1 1LE, the Ferrari 488 GTB, the half-million-dollar Ford GT, and the McLaren 650S Spyder, while the cars immediately behind the E-Ray are a trio of sharp-edged Porsche 911s (2017 Turbo S, 2018 GT3, and 2016 GT3 RS) and the McLaren 570S. That’s some serious company!

As far as the Crossed Flags are concerned, the E-Ray is the newly-crowned fourth fastest Corvette in Lightning Lap history behind only the 2023 Z06, 2019 ZR1, and 2015 Z06 at 2:38.6, 2:39.5, and 2:44.6, respectively. The E-Ray’s 2:45.9 slots nicely between the previously mentioned Z06 and the 2:49.0 of the 2020 Stingray Z51 while also besting its de facto predecessor – the C7 Grand Sport Z07 and its 2:47.1 lap – by more than a second.

What the Testers Said:

The E-Ray was competing in the $75,000-$139,999 “LL3” class with a starting price of $122,085 (as tested was $147,815, but C&D doesn’t include non-go-fast options in its calculations). The most unique corner of the C8 portfolio brings combined totals of 655 HP, 592 lb-ft, and 3,947 lbs. to the party, where, per its individual breakdown article, “The Corvette E-Ray is a big bruiser that can dance — and thrill — on track.”

The overwhelmingly positive review did point out a few shortcomings, however. These were most notably aimed in the direction of the electrified portion of the powertrain as highlighted by this (emphasis added) excerpt:

“The E-Ray’s small 1.1-kWh battery lacks enough capacity to provide full boost for the entire 4.1-mile lap, and the power supplied by the 160-hp electric motor driving the front wheels tails off beyond 120 mph. That requires the driver to parse out the electrical energy by strategically utilizing the car’s Charge+ mode, which allows the battery to deploy some of its juice while holding some in reserve.”

The limitations of the ‘Vette’s first hybrid power unit and the earlier ‘big bruiser’ line come further into focus when C&D’s Rich Ceppos continues, “Pushed to its limits, the nearly two-ton E-Ray felt slightly larger and less precise than the 282-pound-lighter Stingray, but it’s still well balanced, with virtually no high-speed understeer. It muscled through the slow Turn 1 at 1.12 g’s, and the traction afforded by its all-wheel-drive system yanked it out of that corner going 0.6 mph faster than the track-animal Z06. The E-Ray’s carbon-ceramic stoppers felt like they could arrest a runaway train, but the propulsion system’s limitations showed on the Front Straight, where the car topped out at 147.3 mph compared to the less powerful Stingray at 149.7 (the Z06 touches 159.5 mph there).”

We wouldn’t get too hung up on these minor slights, though. The Corvette Team has strived to provide a different Corvette for every kind of buyer. The E-Ray was conceived as an all-arounder, not a track weapon, to rival its Z06 stablemate. The fact that it still turned in such an impressive time is just the cherry on top of a professionally baked cake.

Elsewhere in the Test

The menacing Black on Red E-Ray was just one of fourteen cars – along with one Superbike and a human runner – that tackled VIR this year. Arguably the coolest member of the field also hails from the Bow Tie brand; C&D secured the Le Mans/NASCAR Garage 56 Camaro as a fitting sendoff for the ‘Vette’s big little brother. How fast can a NASCAR that’s set up to turn left AND RIGHT tackle America’s Nürburgring? Try 2:26.7, or 8.2 clicks ahead of the fastest street car ever timed at LL (the McLaren Senna). Somehow, that wasn’t even the quickest time of the day, either. Subaru Motorsports sent over an 862-horse “Airslayer” and a Formula One-tested pilot to Lightning Lap 2024, and the result was a new overall highwater mark of 2:25.6.

Road legal times ranged from the 2:37.2 of the new hyper-aero Porsche 911 GT3 RS that narrowly clipped the Z06’s time from last year to become the third-fastest production car ever run to the 23 minutes and 46 seconds flat achieved by Associate Editor Jack Fitzgerald, who averaged 10.3 MPH on foot. Between those extremes was the 2:29.8 of a Manthey-modified 911 GT3 and the Superbike (a $40,000 205-horse BMW M1000 RR), which turned in a 2:42.7 with a former factory rider on top.

Photo Credit: Car and Driver / Instagram

Amongst the other notable competitors is a $250,000 American-made electric luxury sedan that lapped within .1 second of a Dodge Viper ACR-E at 2:44.3 (we’ve talked about the Lucid Air in these pages before, but for further info on the insane new Sapphire trim, check out its comparison with the Model S Plaid that posted yesterday, if only to be bowled over by the acceleration figures!). There’s also the S650 Mustang Dark Horse that put a .2 second gap on the old Mach 1 peak of the 5.0 hill with a 2:51.2, and a triad of four-wheeled BMWs in the M3 CS that flew to a 2:50-flat (in the same ballpark as the Ferrari 458 Italia and LT4 Camaro ZL1), the M2 that registered a 2:56.9 (that’s third-gen CTS-V speed), and the X5 M Competition that notched a 2:58.1 which puts it .1 ahead of the 2007 Corvette Z06 that was the fastest car in LL history and the first sub-3-minute performer, circa 2007. Along with providing the perfect context of the march of progress, this time makes the top-dog X5 the third-fastest SUV in the contest’s 18-year existence (LL missed a year because of COVID) behind exotic lifted wagons from Porsche and Lamborghini.

And with that, we shift our gaze to 2025, when we’ll hopefully see the twin-turbo C8 ZR1 challenge the Lightning Lap hierarchy. The Senna is a lofty target, but this year’s GT3 RS and the reigning silver medalist 2021 Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series (2:37.0) – see all historic times and place your bets here – are squarely in the next Blue Devil’s crosshairs!

Source:
Car and Driver

Related:
The C8 Corvette Z06 Blitzed Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap and It’s Even Faster than We’d Hoped
[VIDEO] The Fastest Corvettes (and other GM vehicles) at Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap
[VIDEO] 2021 Corvette Stingray Z51 Runs 2:49.0 at Car and Driver’s 2021 Lightning Lap

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