[VIDEOS] It’s Time for the 2025 Corvette ZR1 Reviews and Road Tests!

1. Good job Keith – hey, can just anybody become a YouTube Star and get invited to drive a new Corvette and then tell us what they think? What in the Hell does Emelia know about performance engineering, Corvette design and testing, and now maximum Chevrolet horsepower?
   I enjoy Jay Leno and Mr. Reuss talking about the ZR! while driving with the top off. And of course the magazine guys, Top Gear and the technical exploration from SavageGeese all do a great job in these videos. But can we learn anything new from these other folks?
   SO, today May 30, 2025 is Corvette ZR1 Day in America! Turn up the volume and hear the ponies.

2. I only watched Emelia’s video to see her in her short shorts and spaghetti strap tank top!

3. Good collection. I will bookmark this.

4. from Road & Track:
   https://www.roadandtrack.com/reviews/a64915545/2025-chevrolet-corvette-friendly-monster/

   The 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Is a Friendly Monster
   While 1064 horsepower should be terrifying, the reality is anything but.

   By Mike Austin Published: May 30, 2025

   The idea of a Corvette with over 1000 hp just hits different. In a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, that number seems appropriate, a natural facet of the exotic-performance sales pitch. Bugatti has been doing four-figure horsepower for 20 years. But in a Corvette, even a mid-engine one, 1064 hp seems kind of crazy. Before I departed for Austin, Texas, and the Circuit of the Americas to drive the ZR1 for the first time, my wife asked whether I was excited. I was, but also, in truth, a little nervous. “It’s a lot of car,” I said with a shrug and what I hoped came off as cool, professional nonchalance.

   The Corvette ZR1 is a lot of car, but it’s not crazy. At least not in the foolish sense of the word. It is, in fact, magnificent.

   Even after I drove it, the ZR1 is still a little beyond belief. This is a Corvette with a third more power than the Z06, yet it is still nearly as easy to drive as a base Stingray. A large part of that, and giving the people behind the Corvette their due, is because the entire lineup for the eighth-generation Corvette was planned at the start.

   Around 10 years ago, when the project kicked off, a twin-turbo V-8 version was part of the calculations. That means that the Corvette’s chassis, shared among all models unaltered, is slightly overbuilt for the Stingray. It also means that the ZR1 requires no extra bracing or hack-job packaging solutions.

   Which is not to say there were no surprises along the way. Early rumors pegged the ZR1’s output at around 800 hp when, in fact, the engine team overdelivered and took it well beyond that. This required a new, stronger construction for the Michelin tires and a redesign for the high-downforce aero package to account for the corresponding increased speed. You can read more about that in Road & Track’s ZR1 deep dive.

   The short version is that the LT7 engine is a twin to the LT6 in the Z06 in that they were engineered together, but in the words of Dustin Gardner, assistant propulsion chief engineer, “Everything that benefits from being different on the turbo engine is different.” So there’s an extra scavenge pump to feed the massive turbos, new pistons and connecting rods, both port and direct fuel injection, and plenty more.

   Keeping the engine cool means that the front of the ZR1 (as well as the sides) is sculpted around the needs of a cornucopia of heat exchangers, most notably the radiator and intercooler front and center in the flow-through hood. That race-inspired solution also does wonders for the car’s aerodynamics, at the expense of any front storage. The rear trunk remains intact, although stowing the coupe’s targa roof or any large baggage will be significantly more difficult with the big wing.

   In the pits at COTA, the ZR1’s nose job and giant wing distract from the mild inelegance of the C8’s angular contours. Perhaps in a decade or so, the ZR1 will be considered overwrought, like a late Countach. Here and now the impression is functional aggression. One of the garages has on display a nonwing ZR1, the actual car that set the official 233-mph top speed, but as this preview is limited to track driving, the available cars all have the Carbon Fiber Aero package.

   This is a stand-alone $8495 option that adds the big wing in the back plus dive planes and a larger rear spoiler in front. There is also the $1500 ZTK package, which requires the Aero package and brings stiffer springs, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R tires in place of the standard Pilot Sport 4S rubber, and unique calibration to electronics systems like the magnetorheological dampers and electronic differential.

   And so here I am, helmeted and HANS deviced, awaiting my tour around a 3.4-mile track designed for Formula 1 levels of speed, first in a lead-follow format and then unaccompanied.

   I’m not going in blind, having run familiarization laps in a Stingray the day before. But straight out of the pits and up COTA’s giant hill, it’s clear that the ZR1 is an entirely different machine. It sounds different, the flat-plane engine shouting in an alto rasp compared with the muted rumble of the Stingray. But mostly it’s just much, much faster. Even on the first round, with the Pilot Sport 4S underneath, there’s so much grip that I audibly grunt from the effort to keep my torso stable toward the end of the brief session (note to self: I really need more core exercises).

   COTA is an ideal place to showcase the ZR1, large enough to demonstrate the car’s power and with a variety of turns to test the balance and dynamics. The track itself is also huge, with plenty of space for course correction inside the curbs and even more paved runoff area if things go horribly wrong. I needed only some of the former and none of the latter, as it turns out my prior uneasiness was unwarranted.

   This much speed makes it easy to get greedy in places like the Turn 11 hairpin, where I attempt to brake late on one lap and then double down on this mistake with impatience, getting back on the throttle too early. The Performance Traction Management system, set in Sport (the highest setting with stability control still active) at the behest of Chevrolet, lightly tamps down on the throttle an instant before my own instinctual correction. PTM is welcome safety net with plenty of slack, but the ZR1 doesn’t show any signs of snap oversteer that would dissuade me from exploring the software’s more permissive modes.

   The ZR1 is a friendly kind of monster, approachable and predictable. The peak 828 lb-ft of torque comes at 6000 rpm, but the dyno curve is nearly a flat line above the 800 mark from just 3000 rpm. That, along with some extra tricks with the turbo wastegates when aggressive driving is detected, means that there’s virtually no lag or sudden power surge during track driving. The accelerator is more like turning a tap, if that tap flows like a fire hydrant. Over 100 mph, this Corvette will still pull half a g of longitudinal acceleration.

   Massive horsepower can mask a lot of things, including weight, but the ZR1 is relatively light considering the turbo hardware. At just over 3800 pounds, it’s about 165 pounds more than a track-optioned Z06. McLaren’s 750S is more than 600 pounds lighter. In the Lamborghini Revuelto, Road & Track’s 2025 Performance Car of the Year and an official member of the 1000-hp club, electric motors and a battery raise the curb weight to 4290 pounds. Coincidentally, both cars push 4.3 pounds for each horsepower. Each pony in the Corvette has to shove only 3.6 pounds.

   The ZR1 matches its predictable power delivery with a neutral cornering attitude that’s easily tuned with both gas and brakes, enabling sharper entry and midcorner corrections with a brush of either pedal, no steering input required. It’s a handling virtue inherent to the mid-engine configuration, but I didn’t expect the Corvette’s responses to be capable of this level of subtlety. The brakes, ceramic discs identical in size to the Z06’s but with new, long strands of carbon fiber with superior heat rejection, are equally competent.

   Around COTA’s corners, especially the endless right-hand combo of Turns 16, 17, and 18, the reassuring characteristics of the ZR1 do only half the job. The rest is up to convincing myself to keep pushing—that unless the tires are starting to slide, the car will go faster. Sitting in the pits, I take a quick look at my laps in the onboard performance data recorder to see that, sure enough, there is more speed available in the corners. It’s less about overcoming fear than about simply recalibrating what a road car can do.

   It’s also about seats. With the ZR1, Chevrolet has built a car that can deliver lateral loadings to defeat all its available buckets. Every member of the engineering team seems to be aware of the issue, which one can only hope is a sign that a more heavily bolstered option is on the way.

   A need for better lateral support in the cockpit is immediately obvious in my second session, in a ZTK car shod with the Cup 2R tires. The difference is palpable on Turn 2 of my out lap. This is the tire the ZR1 was made for, able to hold on closer to the limits of the chassis but losing none of the feel or predictability. Normally, I’m an advocate for less grip, as sliding around is its own kind of entertainment, and R-spec tires seem like track-focused cheats impractical for daily driving. Here, though, the ZR1 corners so easily that it feels like a shame to have anything except maximum grip available.

   Of course, we’ll come back to that estimation once we get a crack at the ZR1 on public roads, where the limits of safety and sanity come into play before the Michelins do. This 1064 hp might be easy to access, but it’s still unusably fast in nearly any scenario under a speed limit.

   Still, the base ZR1’s springs are softer than those in the Z06, which bodes well for daily-driving civility. And in general terms, the Corvette is easy to enjoy. The giant wing makes rearward visibility even more useless, but the rearview camera integrated into the mirror is placed in the decklid for an unobstructed view (nonwing cars view from the top of the rear glass, at an angle closer to the actual mirror).

   And for those who never loved the line of buttons on top of the border between driver and passenger, the 2026 model year will feature a new interior layout and wider infotainment screen. This, of course, also means, that some Corvette nerds will see the 2025 ZR1 as rarer and more unique.

   Me? I’d wait. Early demand and inevitable dealer markups will make the 2025 ZR1 hard to acquire anyway. And even with inflated stickers, the ZR1 continues the Corvette tradition as a giant killer. Consider that the base price of $178,195 is just $6145 higher than a Porsche 911 GTS, a car with half the horsepower and less standard spec.

   You can lather up a ZR1 with options, even the $13,995 carbon-fiber wheels, and it’s still priced comparable to a Porsche 911 GT3—while having more power than the Revuelto. Exotic supercars can cost multiples of the Corvette’s price without adding anything obvious beyond the value attached to their brands. Based on my first experience on track, it looks like the ZR1 can stand toe to toe with any of those alternatives, delivering its own version of world-class performance.

5. FROM GM NEWS:
   https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/topic/us/en/2025/may/0530-2025-Corvette-ZR1changed-understanding-speed.html

   How the 2025 Corvette ZR1 changed my understanding of speed
   By Bob Sorokanich, senior editor, GM News

   When Chevrolet announced the 2025 Corvette ZR1, all eyes were on that horsepower figure. The ZR1’s twin-turbo 5.5-liter engine is the most powerful V-8 ever produced by an American automaker – brawny enough to send the new ZR1 ripping from zero to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds, on its way to a track-verified top speed of 233 mph1. The ZR1 makes more than five times the horsepower of a typical family vehicle, like (for example) your author’s daily drive, a Chevy Equinox.

   It’s fun to tootle along on your commute and wonder what the drive would feel like with quintuple the thrust. But I didn’t truly grasp this king Corvette’s monumental power figure until I belted into the passenger seat of a Competition Yellow ZR1 and let Chris Barber, Corvette lead development engineer, show me around the Circuit of the Americas track in Austin, Texas.

   Barber and the Corvette crew were at COTA to demonstrate the ZR1’s prowess to journalists and influencers. The choice of venue conveyed a message: This is a serious machine, a true American supercar2, and only a world-class road course like COTA could provide a suitable setting to safely become acquainted with the true capabilities of this Corvette.

   All that made logical sense as Barber eased the bright yellow ZR1 out of pit lane and onto the track. Then he nailed the accelerator, and all the logic in my brain suddenly dismantled.

   The ZR1 accelerates like a wormhole. We zapped to COTA’s first corner, a nasty hairpin left, like we were teleporting. I’ve been lucky enough to ride in some very serious cars, including purpose-built racing machines. No vehicle ever pinned me to my seatback like this ZR1.

   Flinging into Turn 1, we were off and running. Our ZR1 featured the ZTK Performance Package, with an imposing rear wing and a collection of carbon-fiber aerodynamic features that work together to generate immense downforce. Add in ultra-high-performance tires and the largest standard-equipment carbon-ceramic brakes ever fitted to a Corvette, and the ZR1 becomes nothing less than a racetrack monster.

   At COTA, every fast, flowing segment is bookended by acute, low-speed corners. Most high-performance cars shine in one part of COTA and dawdle in the next. The ZR1 was unrelenting across every inch of this track. For every straightaway dispatched with rocket-like acceleration, there was an eye-popping braking zone. In corners, the Corvette generated g-forces like I’ve never experienced in a street-legal car. With Barber at the wheel, each lap was an uninterrupted thrill ride. I could barely catch my breath.

   Simply put, the ZR1 never runs out of steam. Past a certain speed, even the most high-performance sports cars start to run out of breath, the rush of acceleration dwindling to a trickle. Not so with the ZR1. On COTA’s back straightaway, more than half a mile long, I snatched a glance at the speedometer as it flashed past 170 mph. Then Barber hit the brakes, arced the car into another corner, and – in my mind, at least – broke about six different laws of physics at once.

   Barber, I should note, has lots of practice hauling ZR1s around tricky racetracks. As lead development engineer on this new machine, Barber has logged thousands of miles refining the latest Corvette into a masterpiece. Along the way, he set a new production-car lap record at Road Atlanta, one of five records that now belong to the ZR1. As I strapped on my helmet ahead of our ride, I had no doubt that Barber would show me the ZR1’s full capabilities without breaking a sweat.

   I, on the other hand, broke quite the sweat, despite the fact that the ZR1’s cabin was a refreshing 67 degrees throughout our three-lap run. This Corvette can pamper its occupants even on a 100-degree Austin day, providing ice-cold air conditioning and cooled seats even as it rockets around the track. Throwing me in the passenger seat of the ZR1 at COTA was like asking me to take a quick jog alongside an Olympic sprinter. My body isn’t conditioned for this kind of performance.

   Soon – sooner than I ever anticipated – my three high-speed laps with Barber were over. As we circled the track for a cool-down lap, my circuit chauffeur beamed at the vehicle he had helped to create. “It’s amazing how effortless it is,” he told me. “You don’t have to wrestle the car to get fast lap times. If you know your way around a racetrack, you can get up to speed in this thing more effortlessly than any other car I’ve driven.”

   I concurred, or at least I tried. Whatever I attempted to say came out as giggling jibberish. I entered the ZR1 thinking I knew what fast was. I got out in a state of perspiring disarray. Simply put, the 2025 Corvette ZR1 accelerates, brakes, and corners like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. If you want that kind of capability for yourself, the ZR1 is headed to dealerships now.

   1 On a closed course only. Based on initial vehicle movement.
   2 Assembled in Bowling Green, Kentucky, of U.S., and globally sourced parts.

6. FROM ARS TECHNICA:
   https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/05/2025-chevrolet-corvette-zr1-first-drive-engineered-for-insane-speed/

   2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 first drive: Engineered for insane speed
   Now that Chevrolet can fit turbos to the Corvette, it’s gone and done just that.

   Michael Teo Van Runkle – May 30, 2025 7:00 AM
   A grey Corvette ZR1 approaches turn 1 at COTA
   Chevrolet has given its latest Corvette variant a four-figure power output to go with a six-figure price tag. Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

   Chevrolet provided flights from Los Angeles to Austin and accommodation so Ars could drive the ZR1. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

   AUSTIN, Texas—By just my third lap in the top-spec 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, I glanced down at the speedometer toward the end of the Circuit of the Americas’ long back straight and spied 181 mph (291 km/h) displayed for a split second. Not bad for Chevy’s newest flagship sports car, especially given that the $174,995 ZR1’s twin-turbocharged V8 pumps all 1,064 horsepower to the rear wheels only.

   The US’s only purpose-built F1 track made for an excellent setting to taste Corvette’s latest; the ZR1 also commanded your attention while conquering the steep uphill toward the first corner, then winding through a series of challenging corners with plenty of elevation change. Luckily, the car itself is an engineering marvel, and Chevy brought along a team of engineers to explain exactly how the total package comes together to enable such a breathtaking pace, as well as how Chevy can responsibly sell such a powerful car to the general public at all.

   The entire point of switching the Corvette’s eighth generation to a mid-engine layout was to improve weight distribution and allow the Corvette to compete against much more exotic competition from European OEMs like Ferrari. The front-engined car’s engine bay also lacked the width to add a pair of turbos, due to the suspension and tire orientation, which dictated the use of a supercharger that kept peak power to “just” 755 hp (563 kW) in the last Corvette to wear the ZR1 badge.

   Corvette ZR1 engine bay cutaway
   It’s a tight fit in there. Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

   COTA reveals the ZR1’s excellent balance, especially when specced with the optional aero package, carbon fiber wheels, and Michelin’s Cup 2 R tires. The tires—in effect, grooved slicks—allow for improved lateral acceleration but also the ability to consistently put the four-figure horsepower down to the asphalt. Yet Chevy’s engineers readily admitted the original target for ZR1 was just 850 hp (634 kW), until 1,000 came into sight and required some serious creativity to reach reliably.

   Biggest turbos ever
   The ZR1’s engine, dubbed LT7, shares much with the 5.5 L naturally aspirated LT6 engine in the less-powerful, cheaper Z06. It’s still a flat-plane crank with dry-sump oiling, even if clever eyes inspecting an LT6 might have noticed that the dry-sump oil tank allowed for the placement of turbos all along.

   The dual 76-millimeter turbos, the largest ever fitted to a production car, required new intake routing, and computer control of the wastegate actuation maintains an anti-lag boost of 6 to 7 psi even under a closed throttle. Turbo speed sensors allow the turbines to spin closer to maximum speed before the vanes physically break apart—a mechanical system typically needs to maintain a 7 percent margin of error, but the ZR1’s is more like 2–3 percent.

   Corvette ZR1 turbocharger
   That’s a massive turbocharger, and there are two of them. Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle
   The eventual power output actually wound up breaking two of Chevrolet’s dynos during early testing, we’re told. So the C8’s eight-speed dual-clutch transmission also needed beefing up with physically wider gears that were shot-peened for additional strength, plus a revised lubrication system. The engine, meanwhile, creates enormous cooling demands when running at full throttle, which plays hand in hand with the downforce requirements of hitting such high speeds.

   Consequently, the ZR1 sacrifices its usable frunk in favor of a massive radiator, while the hood’s heat extractor also releases trapped air and feeds it over the roofline. This freed up more space for additional cooling via the front fascia, which further benefits from canard spat dive planes. On the sides, an additional inlet on the side strakes complements the enormously wide scoops that debuted on the Z06. Coupes then get a split rear window—which harks back to Corvettes of old, while releasing hot air from the engine bay—plus new shoulder NACA intakes that directly feed the air box with cooler oxygen that even creates a ram air effect akin to mild supercharging.

   Cooling for the ZR1 became an even higher priority, because the LT6 and LT7 employ extremely tight tolerances between the crankshaft and connecting rods, which mandates keeping the 5W-50 oil below 120° C (248° F) at all times. And the system simply works, as even on a hot and humid Texas day, I only noticed oil temperatures cresting above 104° C (220° F) occasionally.

   Corvette ZR1 interior
   The interior is better than any prior generation of Corvette, but it feels prosaic compared to the cockpits of its more exotic mid-engined rivals.Michael Teo Van Runkle

   Carbon fiber corvette wheel
   Corvette ZR1 air intake and wing
   Lightweight carbon-fiber wheels are mounted with the stickiest road-legal tires Chevy could fit. Michael Teo Van Runkle

   The ZR1 gets added cooling and more wings. Michael Teo Van Runkle
   The hardtop convertible ZR1 lacks the split-engine venting and shoulder intakes, while cutting into headroom so much that I skipped out while wearing a helmet. Other journalists noticed a drop-off in performance for the convertibles, and probably more so than the mild weight gains of just about 100 lbs (45 kg) might suggest. Instead, temperatures probably came into play, as the ECU drew back timing and instead allowed mild overboost of 24–25 psi to compensate for the Texas day. Even so, an engineer admitted he thought the engine was probably down 5–10 percent on power.

   The fact that I hit my highest-ever top speed despite the ZR1 potentially giving up somewhere between 53 to 106 hp (40–80 kW) only makes this Corvettes sound even more insane. But I essentially wound up driving the turbos, since the DCT’s gear ratios carry over from the Stingray and therefore drop out of peak power when shifting from second to third and third to fourth.

   I suspect nothing short of an F1 racecar feels this fast on a circuit of this size. A track designed for corner exit speeds double my pace in the ZR1 helps explain why Chevrolet declined to set us loose on public roads behind the wheel.

   A Corvette ZR1 parked by turn 1 at COTA.
   We drove it on track—will owners cope with this much power on the street? Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

   That’s a concern for potential buyers, though, and why the ZR1’s electronics undoubtedly ratchet back the insanity. Chevy still uses Bosch’s ninth-generation traction control, which debuted on C7 and operates on a 10-millisecond loop, even if the ABS runs at 5 milliseconds—while the ESC is at 20 milliseconds. I suspect this computerized nannying slowed me down a fair amount, in addition to the torque-by-gear restrictions in first and second that purposefully protect driveline components.

   We’ve probably reached peak internal-combustion Corvette, which is something of a hint about the all-too-real question of where Chevy can go from here. If so, this car reaches a new level of unfathomable American ingenuity, combined with a newfound level of refinement and traction management that attempts to belie the undeniable absurdity to a minimal, arguably necessary, extent.

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