[VIDEO] MotorTrend Celebrates America with a Mount Rushmore of American Performance Cars

Jun 30, 2026

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[VIDEO] MotorTrend Celebrates America with a Mount Rushmore of American Performance Cars

The best part of the United States hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been the reactions pouring out of fans as they get their first taste of America. As Bill Maher put it in his excellent pre-4th of July monologue, “these people are doing us a great service by reminding Americans that this place is kind of awesome.”

Around here, we count ourselves among those who didn’t need any such reminder because we spend our days knee-deep in one of America’s… awesome-est traits: its cars. A lot of countries can and should be proud of the high-end fruits of their automotive manufacturing – Great Britain has Aston Martin and McLaren, Italy has Ferrari and Lamborghini, and Germany has Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes, to name a few – but the US stands alone in its ability to consistently produce vehicles that offer world-class performance while also being attainable to working-class citizens.

[VIDEO] MotorTrend Celebrates America with the Mount Rushmore of its Current Automobiles Including the ZR1X

In Europe, the 95+% of the population that can’t swing a 911 (which now starts at $135,500 for a base 388-horse six-cylinder Carrera) or M3 ($80k for 473 HP and six cylinders) is forced to feign contentment with FWD four-banger “hot hatches” or well-used versions of their desired model, neither of which pose any threat to or receive even a second thought from the aristocracy and their unobtainable exotics. The feudalism of that continent’s medieval past never fully released its grip, but here in the New World, badges like Corvette, Camaro, Mustang, Blackwing, and Challenger ensure that hardworking people always have access to similar, and often greater automotive performance than our nation’s world-leading number of billionaires (and, as Maher said it, we also hold the world record for “most trillionaire.”), regardless of personal background.

While the ultimate illustrations of our national “speed for all” mantra are best represented by realistic wares like the Corvette Stingray (535 midengined V8 HP for $71,000), Mustang Dark Horse ($58,630 for a 500 HP V8 and an available manual transmission), and for the tech and eco nerds out there, the Tesla Model 3 Performance (510 electric ponies for just over $56 g’s), MotorTrend decided to celebrate the 250th birthday of the only country to put boots on the moon with a quartet of her current four-wheeled offerings that prove the Stars and Stripes are also plenty comfortable playing in the pricing stratosphere typically reserved for the pretentious marques based across the Atlantic.

MT’s classic-form article and accompanying half-hour film have been dubbed The State of American Performance, with the writeup earning a Hollywood (another American original) sequel-worthy subtitle: Shaking Down the USA’s Top Guns. Over the course of one demanding work week, this project took MT editors and former Corvette factory driver and 24 Hours of Daytona overall winner Andy Pilgrim to California’s Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, the surrounding roads, and a nearby US Air Force (the world’s mightiest airpower (anytime, anywhere)) runway to explore the cutting edge of what this country is capable of delivering in a consumer product.

The headliner of the bunch (for us, and anyone else who cares about all of that “American Dream” talk above) hails from the opposite end of the Corvette hierarchy from the Stingray. It employs the largest production flat-plane V8 ever assembled with the biggest-ever road car turbos force-feeding it so much air that when running at a full 24 psi, the exhaust generates 37 pounds of thrust! The mill’s 1,064 horsepower are augmented by an electrified front axle that boosts total system output to a staggering 1,250 HP. We’re of course talking about the Corvette ZR1X, that despite producing some of the best numbers ever seen in automotive mags, checks in with the lowest price tag of the bunch – $2,000,000 performance for just $255,960 as tested!

Next they had a Czinger21C VMax, an actual $2,000,000 car built to a surprisingly similar blueprint to the ZR1X. The Los Angeles-born hypercar will only see a production run of 80 units and is notable for its central driving position and unique design and manufacturing techniques that incorporate both AI (boo!) and 3D Printing. Its take on the 180-degree twin-turbo V8 displaces just 2.9L and falls well shy of the ‘Vette’s ICE powertrain with 750 horses (and only 396 lb-ft of torque vs. the LT7’s 828), but it makes up for those apparent shortcomings with a Kawasaki-like 11,000 RPM redline and three electric motors that team up to make the exact same 1,250 HP as the ‘Vette in a 400-pound lighter package – serious stuff for a serious amount of cash!

The other two faces on this Mount Rushmore of patriotic performance should be familiar ones to our regular readers as they’ve been the primary foils to the C8 ZR1 and ZR1X for the past two years. First is the Ford Mustang GTD, a high-dollar road legal track special that has redefined what a Pony Car can be. For a confounding $438,000 as tested, it brings 815 supercharged HP to the table and leaves the fancy boy hybrid tech at home, but it isn’t really about the 5.2L cross-plane V8. This car is an aero and suspension marvel finished by the F1 gurus at Multimatic in Ontario, Canada. It famously makes more downforce at 150 mph than a 911 GT3 RS, and its trick inboard suspension setup is visible through a window where most ‘Stangs keep their vestigial back seats.

Finally, they have the definitive spin on the Model 3 formula in the Lucid Air Sapphire, a $259k, 5,354-pound, all-electric luxury sedan from California that accelerates like almost nothing else on Earth with three e-motors combining for 1,234 HP and far-and-away the most torque in the test at 1,430 instantaneous lb-ft.

While enjoying the long weekend ahead, both the writeup and video are bound to have you saying “God bless America!” Have a safe and happy 4th, Corvette Nation!