Oliver Gavin Honors Tadge Juechter and the C8 ZR1 in Recent Social Media Post

Former Corvette Racing driver Oliver Gavin developed some deep ties and close friendships with the Corvette engineering team during his nearly 20 years racing career with Corvettes and Chevrolet. Now the five-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner is speaking out about the most powerful Corvette ever produced, the 2025 ZR1.

Ollie shared this photo of him and former Executive Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter taken last year at GM’s “secret lair” in Germany when the 2025 Corvette ZR1 prototypes were undergoing testing at the Nürburgring in October ’24. Oliver had a chance to drive the 1,064-hp Corvette supercar on the track during that testing session, and at the time we correctly deduced from spy photos as Oliver was driving with Tadge was riding shotgun in the new American Supercar. Now that the 2025 Corvette ZR1 has been in the hands of the automotive reviewers and the first orders are now shipping to dealers, Oliver wrote the following on his Facebook page:

Now the Corvette ZR1 is out in the hands of the media, thought I’d reshare this picture of Tadge and I from the GM engineering facility at the Nurburgring. This was taken during the testing of the ZR1, I even got to take Tadge for a lap of the Nordschliefe in this 1064bhp machine. Nearly all my driving was done with what is now offered as the ZTK package.

I’ve been fortunate enough to drive, compete, and race in many generations and iterations of Corvette, but this one… genuinely left me stunned by its performance. Fastest I’ve ever been in a road car…

There’s an endless depth to the power but with a delivery that is always progressive and controllable.

With a couple of rotations on the drive mode, the powerful magnetic ride damper system, as well as a number of other systems, elevates the chassis and platform of the car to handle the world’s most challenging pieces of tarmac.

The braking capacity is immense, Brembo carbon ceramic J58 brakes, and you marry that all together with the Michelin Cup 2R… As a driver, you have this extraordinary capacity for performance, in every single way.

Amazing work Tadge and the whole engineering team at Corvette, you have built one mind blowing vehicle!

Photo Credit: Oliver Gavin / Instagram

Oliver had also previously testing the prototype C8 Corvette Stingray and the Z06 when the Corvette engineering teams were testing at the Nürburgring, and we think he would be a great “ringer” if GM ever decides to get off their claims that they are not there to set a fast lap. With the Mustang GTD now as the only American car to lap the Green Hell in under 7-minutes (TWICE!), it’s high time that Mark Reuss and Tony Roma start investing some capital and political will to show the world what the C8 Corvette ZR1 is capable of!

Here is the original post from Oliver Gavin this week:

Source:
Oliver Gavin / Facebook

Related:
[SPIED] 2025 Corvette ZR1 On the Nurburgring with a Couple of Special Guests?
[VIDEO] C8 Corvette’s Nurburgring Lap Time Revealed in ‘Revolution’ Trailer
The 2020 Corvette Stingray Set a Nurburgring Time with Oliver Gavin Doing the Driving

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