Chevy Corvette ZR1: GM's Ferrari

Who says America can't build a supercar? You wouldn't if you drove this insanely great Vette

by Thane Peterson

Editor's Rating:

The Good: Incredible power and speed, decent handling in daily driving

The Bad: Price premium, sold-out '09 model

The Bottom Line: Wow!

Reader Reviews

• View Slide Show

Up Front

The new Corvette ZR1 is already the stuff of legend. Developed as an ad hoc skunkworks project, the new Vette was born of a remark by General Motors (GM) CEO Rick Wagoner, who wondered aloud what the Corvette design team could come up with if it had a mandate to develop a $100,000 car. Code-named Blue Devil, after Wagoner's alma mater, Duke University, the ZR1 is the fastest and most powerful production car ever made by an American manufacturer. It has a 638-horsepower V8 engine and can accelerate from zero to 60 in 3.4 seconds—in first gear.

At this point, you might be wondering why financially challenged GM is pouring time and money into a limited-edition product (only 1,800 ZR1s are expected to be made in the first year) that almost certainly won't make money. The rationale is that sexy niche products like the ZR1 generate excitement about the brand. But Corvette sales are off 16.4%, at 16,824 in the first seven months of this year, and fell 21.3%, to 1,870 in July. Not to be a buzz-kill, but it seems to me that GM is in far greater need of a decent subcompact than a supercar designed to compete with Ferrari and Porsche (") at a lower price.

That said, the ZR1 is a great car for the money. It's far more than simply an upgraded version of the brutal Z06 (BusinessWeek.com, 8/4/08), until now the fastest Vette ever made. The obvious difference is that the ZR1 has 133 more horses under its hood, but the new Vette is also packed with design and technology enhancements that make it more of a genuine competitor for exotic European supercars than the Z06. Among other things, the ZR1's engine is assembled by hand: Each car comes with a tag telling you the name of the person who worked on your engine.

The ZR1 carries a substantial premium over the Z06, which starts at about $73,000. The base ZR1 (if you can call it that) costs $105,000, including a gas-guzzler tax. The upscale version of the car goes for $117,000 and adds chrome wheels ($2,000), and a cabin upgrade ($10,000) that includes power-adjustable, heated and leather-trimmed seats, side airbags, navigation and Bose audio systems, a power telescoping steering column, and a leather-wrapped interior available in four colors. The option package, by the way, adds only 26 lbs to the car's weight, GM says.

The trouble is, you probably can't get a ZR1 this year for anything like that price. Only the top 10% of Chevy dealers were allocated ZR1s to sell, and the ones the dealers had are all spoken for. Some dealers posted the cars on eBay last spring at a $50,000-or-more premium.

Behind the Wheel

The ZR1's huge engine delivers 604 lb.-ft. of torque, which is an incredible amount of raw power to propel a car that only weighs 3,324 lbs. There's a little window in the hood so you don't forget the engine is there (as if anyone would). GM says the ZR1 has a better power-to-weight ratio than a Porsche 911 GT2, a Ferrari 599, and a Lamborghini LP640.

Some quick stats: The ZRI does a quarter-mile in 11.3 seconds, reaching a speed of 131 mph. With a top speed of 205 mph, it's the first production Corvette capable of topping 200 mph. But sheer speed is only one measure of its performance. It also does zero to 60 and then slams back to a dead stop again in a mere 11 seconds.