General Motors might be looking to make history, or, it’s just wrapping up development on the C8 Chevrolet Corvette Zora. Maybe both?
A team of General Motors engineers descended upon the Nürburgring this week. With them came variants of the C8 Corvette, and none of the cars are camouflaged. Locals might not have thought much of the yellow C8 bearing a Z06 badge or purple C8 sporting a ZR1 badge, both cars are already on sale. But keen-eyed enthusiasts will smell what’s up.
The purple C8 sporting the Z06 badge has ZR1 air intakes and design elements. That’s where the intrigue starts, not ends.
Both cars have a yellow sticker placed at the top left of the rear glass above the engine compartment. The yellow sticker indicates a hybrid system onboard. Neither the ZR1 nor the Z06 have a hybrid powertrain.
The radiators in the front air intakes of the purple prototype can clearly be seen, and the positioning of these intakes are slightly different from other C8s. The reason for this change is the vertical radiators are for cooling the front electric drive unit while the horizontal radiators cool the V8.
The Drive heard GM’s crew will be in Europe for a total of three weeks (presumably some might get the opportunity to spend the weekend at Le Mans watching Cadillac continue to make history), which is quite a bit of time at the ‘Ring. With a gaggle of C8 Corvette variants on hand and a generous amount of time at the ‘Ring, it’s conceivable this is more than buttoning up the Zora: GM might try and take the record for the fastest American production car around the Nürburgring.
With various C8 Corvette models on hand, it’s possible Chevy makes the attempt with the Zora or the ZR1.
The Drive reached out to Chevrolet with questions, but hadn’t heard back at the time of publishing.
Ford currently holds that record. In December, the Blue Oval announced the Ford Mustang GTD took the record from the Dodge Viper ACR with a lap of 6:57.685. Notably, that meant the Mustang GTD was quicker around the ‘Ring than the Porsche 911 GT3. Unsatisfied with the win Ford went back to the ‘Ring for another attempt, and beat itself. In May, Ford said the Mustang GTD beat its own lap record by 5.5 seconds for a ‘Ring time of 6:52.072. The new lap time means the Mustang GTD is also quicker around the ‘Ring than the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series.
In 2020, the C8 Chevy Corvette Stingray set a ‘Ring time of 7:28.30. That car was equipped with the Z51 Performance Package.
As a historical reference point, the C7 Chevy Corvette ZR1 never set an official ‘Ring lap time. The car was said to have lapped the ‘Ring in an unofficial and disappointing 7:04. The underwhelming lap time was blamed on cold tires, and GM never confirmed the time.
The new Corvette Zora will pair the Corvette E-Ray’s electric front motor to the Corvette ZR1’s twin-turbo flat-plane crank V-8. Output is expected to check in at over 1,200 horsepower.
The Ford Mustang GTD weighs in at 4,343 pounds with 815 horsepower. Chevy hasn’t revealed the Corvette Zora yet, if that’s even its official name, but the ZR1 weighs 3,670 pounds, and the E-Ray weighs 3,774 pounds. There’s almost no world the Zora weighs anything close to the Mustang GTD, and is expected to have nearly 32% more power on tap.
We might see a new American king of the Nürburgring in short order if GM goes for it.
www.thedrive.com
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