The Chevrolet Corvette has become the fastest vehicle from an American manufacturer in recent history to take on Germany’s famed 12.9-mile (21-km) Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit.
The Corvette ZR1X set a record lap time of less than 7 minutes, besting a recent run by Ford, says General Motors’ bowtie brand.
“Corvette ZR1X vehicle dynamics engineer Drew Cattell completed a 6:49.275 lap in the electrified all-wheel-drive ZR1X and now has the fastest lap time of any non-professional racecar driver at the Nürburgring in the list of official record laps,” Chevrolet says in a statement.
Cattell was driving a 1,250-hp ZR1X with the ZTK Performance Package. The car is powered by a 5.5L twin-turbocharged flat-plane-crank V-8 and fitted with a front-axle electric motor, a nominee for a 2025 Wards 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems award.
Cattell’s ZR1X also had carbon fiber wheels with Michelin Cup 2R summer-only tires and 10-piston front and 6-piston rear carbon ceramic brakes.
The ZR1X tops the record set earlier this year by another American performance car, the Ford Mustang GTD, by roughly three seconds.
GM also took the Corvette ZR1 and Z06 to the track, with Brian Wallace, vehicle dynamics engineer for the ZR1, clocking a time of 6:50.763 in the 1,064-hp car. The ZR1 has the same engine as the ZR1X, but lacks an electric motor. Wallace’s car also had the ZTK Performance Package, including the carbon fiber wheels, Michelin Cup 2R tires and the 10-piston front/6-piston rear ceramic brakes.
The ZR1X and the ZR1 are the respective fifth and seventh-fastest cars since 2019 to take on the Nürburgring, with Germany’s own Mercedes- Benz taking first with the Mercedes AMG One thanks to a time of 6:29:090.
Vehicle Performance Manager Aaron Link, piloting the Corvette Z06, set a lap time of 7:11:826. Unlike the ZR1X and ZR1, the Z06’s 5.5L V-8 lacks turbocharging, but is, per Chevy, “the most powerful naturally aspirated V-8 ever put in a production car,” churning out 670 hp. Link’s Z06 had the Z07 Performance Package with carbon fiber wheels with the Michelin Cup 2R summer-only tires, and 6-piston front, 4-piston rear ceramic brakes.
“From development through production, and now at the Nürburgring Nordschleife…we have clearly shown there is no limit to what our GM engineers and vehicles can accomplish. These are the best Corvettes in history, period,” says GM President Mark Reuss of the Corvette engineers’ and manager’s speed records at the track, known by the nickname “the Green Hell” for its length, elevation changes and tricky corners. All three GM employees, despite being non-profession racecar drivers, have hundreds of hours of seat time at the track, GM says.
While all the Corvettes driven were all U.S. production-spec vehicles, the Corvette’s ZR1 and ZR1X variants aren’t sold in Europe and the Z06 driven by Link was a North American variant, so the lap times set by the trio were recorded in the prototype/pre-production category.
The automaker says the only modifications made to the cars were track-recommended safety equipment including a roll hoop, fire extinguisher, six-point safety harness and full containment race seat.
To commemorate the accomplishment, Chevy has released a new 17-minute documentary on its official YouTube channel dubbed, “Homegrown Speed: A Corvette Story.” The behind-the-scenes look shows the journey taken by the three cars from GM’s Milford Proving Ground in suburban Detroit to Germany, “illustrating the intensity and precision of pursuing three lap times with three separate Corvette variants and three different drivers,” Chevy says.
The 2025 Corvette Z06 starts at $112,000 in the U.S and has a 0-60-mph (0-97 km/h) time of 2.6 seconds.
The 2025 Corvette ZR1 begins at roughly $175,000 and reaches over $220,000, depending on trim level and packages. Top speed is 233 mph and 0-60-mph time is a stated 2.3 seconds, with peak torque of 828 lb.-ft. (1,123 Nm) at 6,000 rpm.
The 2026 Corvette ZR1X was announced in June and is set to go on sale later this year in the U.S. The partially electrified Vette is seen by industry watchers as a competitor to prestige hypercars by Ferrari and McLaren, with a top speed of 233 mph like the ZR1, but a shorter 0-60 mph time of under two seconds. Pricing for the ZR1X has not been announced by GM, but estimates range from $200,000-$260,000.
