The C8 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Just Smashed Five Lap Records

Shocker: the 1064bhp C8 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is not slow. This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise. The first factory turbo Corvette is quoted as hitting 60mph in just 2.3 seconds, will apparently do a 9.3-second quarter-mile, and has already managed to crack a hugely impressive 233mph on a German test track.

Turns out it’s not just straight lines that it can handle, though, because the ZR1’s also just nabbed five production car lap records at various circuits in the US.

Said circuits are some of the best road courses in North America – Watkins Glen (1:52.7), Road America (2:08.6), Road Atlanta (1:22.8), and both the full (1:47.7) and grand (2:32.3) layouts of Virginia International Raceway.

The crack team of helmsmiths that set the records (not all at once, obviously) were General Motors test drivers Bill Wise, Brian Wallace, Chris Barber and Aaron Link, who between them bring 65 years of experience in pedalling GM products at preposterous speeds.

Unlike the lower-drag standard car that hit that hypercar-bothering 233mph in Germany, the car that said these records came with the track-focused ZTK package. This brings a high-downforce rear wing, front diveplanes and a small Gurney flap on the bonnet, all helping push it down into the ground. It also features stiffer suspension than standard and a set of stickier Michelin PS Cup 2R tyres.

That’s all on top of the ZR1’s already potent mechanical package: a 5.5-litre twin-turbocharged flat-plane crank V8 churning out 1064bhp and 828lb ft of torque. All of this contributes to the crushing performance it’s demonstrated so far, all in a car which, in the States, starts at $174,995 (around £141,000) – around half the price of a Ferrari 296 GTB.

The most remarkable thing of all, though, is that this might not even be the fastest version of the C8, if those mysterious, possibly hybrid prototypes pounding the Nürburgring are anything to go by.