America’s solution to nearly everything is to simply make it bigger and more obnoxious, as evident in their choice of president, and this remains true when examining the Corvette ZR1. 

The 2026 model, therefore, has the most powerful V8 ever fitted by an American automaker, boasting well over 1,000 horsepower with its twin-turbochargers. And with this absurdly powerful engine, it was able to set five lap records at different race tracks across the US.

The 2026 C8 ZR1 is the fifth instalment in the ZR1 line after the C3, C4, C6 and C7 models, and has been aptly named “the beast” by numerous journalists. Now this menacing nickname doesn’t trump the nickname given to the LT5 engine fitted to the 2019 C7 model, which was codenamed BAS, standing for Belt Alternator System or Big Ass Supercharger, depending on which engineer you ask.

The 2019 model was equipped with a supercharger that has a displacement of 2.65 litres of air, one of the largest stock superchargers ever fitted to a production car, just after the 3-litre supercharger fitted to the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. 

The original ZR1 wasn’t a standalone model like it is today; instead, it was a performance package offered for the C3 Corvette between 1970 and 1972. After a short break, the ZR1 returned between 1990 and 1995 as an independent model for the C4 Corvette, which, at the time, was one of the fastest production cars ever, boasting a top speed exceeding 180 mph.

Racing has always been at the heart of the ZR1. The original package was intended to provide a factory-built, track-ready car for road racing, specifically for the Sports Car Club of America B-Production racing. It was designed to maximise performance, including heavy-duty components, whilst sacrificing comfort features to reduce weight and the power load on the engine. 

The original ZR1, therefore, had no power windows, power steering, rear window defroster, radio or air conditioning, which, when you’re sitting behind a burning hot V8 capable of creating 24,000 controlled explosions per minute, you have no need for air conditioning.

Top speed	212 mph
0-60	2.85 seconds
How many units were sold	2,953
Cost when new	£94,650
How many people will tell you you should have bought a European supercar?	345,423

The Corvette ZR1 is therefore our car of the week, after I saw one of the most intense and heart-racing edits, showing how loud the car is when it backfires and how it can shoot flames from its exhaust. It looked like something straight out of hell, and for that, it’s our car of the week.

by [Michelle_Pitzel] via Pixabay

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dan, boland, dan boland, car of the week, cotw, corvette, c3, c4, c6, c7, c8, zr1, v8, explosion, america, trump, turbo, supercharger, supercar, horse power, sports car club of america, hell