[VIDEO] The C8 Corvette Z06 has Conquered All, but Its Best Match Might Be a 1,025 HP Electric Truck

Going into its fifth year on the market, It seems like Corvette Nation’s favorite C8 variant (by a surprisingly wide margin), the uniquely exotic proposition that is the Z06 and its flat-plane V8, has been battling the world’s best sports cars on road, track, and strip forever at this point.

Whether it’s showing its taillights to the 911 GT3 at VIR, showing the Shelby GT500 how to U-drag, or squaring off with its corporate siblings at a Christmas tree, the high-revving 670-horsepower Corvette has been the biggest guy in the prison yard for years; a measuring stick that all the new guys want to take a swing at to earn respect and test their metal.

Just when we thought Z06 had paid its debt to society as no fewer than five newer Corvettes hit the scene – three with even more power (!) – to give it a reprieve from the constant fighting, Carwow pulls it back in.

The unlikely antagonist coming at the 3,646-lb. Z with its lunch tray this time is an electric truck from California by way of Florida. We aren’t talking about a Cyber Truck or Hummer EV, here, it’s a Rivian with the firm’s new quad-motor setup. For around $125,000 the R1T “Max Pack” truck puts an independent permanent-magnet synchronous AC motor good for 256 HP and 257 lb-ft on each wheel, for a total output of 1,025 horses and 1,198 lb-ft of twist.

Like all EVs, the four-motor Rivian pickup butchers the famous Spider-Man saying; with impressive power comes massive curb weight; barely sneaking under the 7,000 lb. threshold. Still, the bulky off-roading maven with the nicely appointed interior and tall, boxy proportions is able to leverage the instant-on nature of its powerplants to respective 60, 100, and quarter mile times of 2.6 seconds, 6.0 seconds flat, and 10.6 Seconds at a supercar-like 128 MPH.

Even though it seems to hit a wall shortly after arriving at triple-digit speeds, this truck is no joke, luckily for team Internal Combustion, neither is the Z06 or its professional driver: Jesse Iwuji, who starts the festivities by unleashing the aftermarket exhaust on his Z to remind everyone that the results don’t really matter; this is a battle of soul vs. the artificial.

The actual events of today’s quadrathlon include a half-mile roll race from 30 mph, a no-brainer of a brake test, a quarter roll from 10 mph, and the main event: straight-up drag racing from a standstill that starts as a best of three series but is stretched to three out of five because Jesse is a very charitable guy. As always, the Carwow guy is an entertaining host, Iwuji’s positivity is contagious, and the Z06 delivers auditory pleasure in spades. Enjoy this one, ‘Vette fans, and remember, unless you have a ZR1X, aka the world’s quickest car, you can’t judge any books by their cover at a stop light these days; that weird-looking 3.17-ton truck in the other lane just might have the cajónes to humble your American dream machine. What a time to be alive!

Source:
Carwow / YouTube

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