The Corvette team hadn’t run laps at Germany’s Nürburgring in 14 years. But when you’re developing the most powerful and expensive Corvettes in history—the ZR1 and ZR1X—buyers want to know exactly what giants they’ll be capable of slaying.
With that, Project 7 was born. A virtual D-Day campaign—the “D” for “Detroit,” perhaps—to break the seven-minute mark at the world’s most intense, mentally and physically demanding circuit. Twelve-point-nine miles, 73 fiendish corners, and 1,000 feet of elevation change through the dense forest of the Eifel region, dubbed the “Green Hell” by legendary racer Jackie Stewart.
Supercar makers know that a headline-grabbing ‘Ring lap can help convince prospects to cut a six-figure check. That typically means hiring a professional race driver. But Chevrolet was determined to set benchmark times with the same engineers who spend long days in Michigan tuning steering, brakes, electronic diffs, and other components. Great drivers, yes, but not pro racers.
“When you get to ZR1 and ZR1X levels of capability, we want to document for everyone to see just how proud we are of our product and our development process,” says Ken Morris, GM senior VP of product programs and motorsports. “This is not only a statement for Chevrolet, it’s a statement for the engineers and their commitment to excellence and making these cars as good as they can possibly be.”
In late June, engineers Drew Cattell, Brian Wallace, and Aaron Link got to show the world the fruits of those labors. Cattell stormed around the ‘Ring in 6:49.275 in the 1,250-horsepower ZR1X hybrid. It was history’s fastest lap for an American production car, and the fastest in any car for a non-professional driver. Wallace was hot on his heels at 6:50.763 in the 1,064-horsepower ZR1. Link guided a 670-hp Z06 to a swift 7:11.826 time.
Chevy took six cars to Germany, two of each variant, backed by a small army of employees. Wallace had previously logged roughly 425 ‘Ring laps, versus 600 for Cattell and about 800 for Link. The engineers did simulator work beforehand, but that was more about testing wheel alignments, aero settings, and other variables without wasting time on track. Still, Wallace tells Corvette, digital laps are always a confidence-booster.
“There’s obviously a lot of corners that require an enormous amount of courage to take at the limit of the track,” Wallace says. “So simulations are kind of nice to ‘level set’ yourself for those seven or eight key corners that turn into big chunks of lap time if you throw away a lot of speed [there].”
Gut-check sections include the infamous Schwedenkreuz, or “Swedish Cross,” where top cars can gain several seconds on slower rivals—but only if a driver commits to this blind left turn at roughly 150 mph.
Prior to two days of timed runs, the team had about three and a half days of industry-pool sessions, shared with other automakers. But it was impossible to get a clean lap.
“The Corvettes are all so fast that you end up catching cars from other OEMs,” Cattell says. “It’s a good problem to have, but those three and a half days got picked apart quickly by having wasted laps in traffic.”
For engineers used to working behind the scenes, the spotlight felt odd, yet exhilarating.
“It was very surreal, being on pit lane and seeing the monstrosity of the team we had prepping our cars,” Wallace says. “The cars were ready to go up on jack stands, waiting for us to go set a time. The fact that the three of us were given the opportunity to do it was unbelievable.”
Versus their day jobs, obsessing over hundreds of engineering variables, the track-suited trio could focus on a single critical task.
“Development driving is nothing like this,” Wallace says. “Most days we’re driving 90 or 95 percent, though we’re all capable of turning fast laps. But being turned into drivers, where that’s all we’re supposed to do, is something that Drew and I and Aaron are not used to at all.”
Cattell thought of the hundreds of people who’d gotten the cars to this point. He ran through a checklist all the things he’d need to nail to ensure he didn’t let the team down. The pressure was on.
“Most of the time we’re driving secret cars that we can’t tell anyone about,” Cattell says. “So it’s exciting that you get to go out and put it all on the line.”
A tight test window was further narrowed by June’s big swings in ambient and track temperatures, with only an hour or two of optimal conditions each day. This being the Nürburgring, it naturally began to rain on Day One.
“Before the track opens in the morning, it’ll be beautiful, perfect. Then the track opens, and six minutes later it’s raining,” Cattell says of the notoriously unpredictable climate. “It’s the ultimate tease of optimal conditions and rain, and that’s exactly what happened.”
On this sprawling track, some sections didn’t dry out until roughly 2:30 p.m. Debris had spread over other areas. Any remaining on-track rubber was long gone. But the course finally went green. The American pilots attacked, their Chevrolet V-8s howling through the Eifel woods. Both drivers logged their fastest times on their fifth lap that afternoon. Despite posting consistent times, neither managed to top those marks over eight total laps and two days.
Cattell ran his ZR1X in its Plus (or Endurance Mode) setting, ensuring its battery would contribute thrust over the full circuit. Helpfully, versus an E-Ray, the ZR1X squeezes 26 percent more energy from its 1.9-kilowatt hour power pack. Data exchanges with team members back home helped create a strategy for when to use the push-to-pass button, for “boost out of certain corners where we’d get the most lap time for your state-of-charge buck,” Cattell says.
Wallace reminds me of expert advice he gave in June after I chased him around Circuit of the Americas in Texas in a pair of ZR1s: Leave the dual-clutch gearbox in automatic. Sure, we’d all love a manual Corvette with 1,000-plus horsepower. But Chevy’s multi-talented pilots never touched a paddle shifter, a testament to the brainy shift logic aboard. Both the ZR1 and ZR1X used the Race setting of GM’s Performance Traction Management, and a Performance Traction mode. Including tires, the cars ran in a form any showroom customer can mimic, with simple alignment tweaks taken straight from the owner’s manual.
I ask a question on many Corvette fans’ minds, about the surprisingly tight, 1.5-second margin between ZR1 and ZR1X lap times. On paper one might expect the ZR1X, with four-wheel traction and 186 additional horses, to create a more decisive gap. Especially considering the $24,000 price difference, at $207,395 for a ZR1X coupe, versus $183,400 for a ZR1. (For just 10 grand more, Chevrolet will build you a 233-mph ZR1X convertible, so you can dream of lapping the Nordschleife top-down on a Touristenfahrten session while inhaling that piney Green Hell aroma.)
But these proud papas aren’t about to name a favorite child, even if Wallace focused on ZR1 handling development, while the ZR1X was more Cattell’s baby.
“Look, you can bet we switched cars on a regular basis” during development, Wallace says. “And I really love the ZR1X exiting corners. It is so confidence inspiring to have four wheels putting traction to the ground instead of two, and the car’s balancing.
“I wouldn’t call the ZR1 a handful, but it just doesn’t put power down as well as the ZR1X. And that’s really nice for a customer who wants that feature.”
Wallace and Cattell agree the ZR1 presses its dynamic advantages in quick steering transitions, or other situations that highlight its lighter curb weight. On this track at least, the ZR1X’s advantages in horsepower and corner-exit traction were largely offset by its extra pounds.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t figured out how to hybridize a car at zero kilograms [of added mass],” Cattell says of a ZR1X that tops 4,100 pounds.
At a stoplight or drag strip in the States, that ZR1X will beat its rear-drive sibling, perhaps even sneaking below 2.0 seconds from 0-60 mph. Still, both cars remain C8s at heart, just with more of everything. The ultimate C8s reached near-identical top speeds of 199 to 200 mph on the Döttinger Höhe, a 1.75-mile straightaway near the lap’s end.
“Jumping back and forth between the cars, it’s funny how similar they feel,” he says. “It wouldn’t take me three laps to get used to the other car.”
Of course, almost no one who buys a Corvette will ever slice up the Nordschleife. But automakers still make the pilgrimage.
“There’s 73 corners, 1,000 feet of elevation change, unique curb surfaces we don’t see anywhere else,” Wallace says. “The car will have all four wheels come off the ground, and long durations of maximum power down these long straightaways.
“It’s really the ultimate program for us. If a car is capable at the ‘Ring, it will be capable at every track in North America.”
Records aside, these engineers made memories that will warm every winter morning at Michigan’s Milford Proving Ground when it’s time to bundle up and get to work. Their mission, as it’s been since 1953, is to make the next generation of Corvettes go even faster, without sacrificing the comfort and versatility buyers demand. That may be less glamorous than setting lap records, but it means everything to customers.
Strapped into their ZR1s, the weight of Project 7 resting on their shoulders—along with bragging rights and marketing goals for Chevrolet—the drivers still enjoyed the experience.
“Neither of us complained about not having fun on that trip,” Cattell says. “We’d get laughed out of the room otherwise.”
“I gave Drew a big hug on Day 2, and said ‘This is amazing,’” Wallace says. “We work so hard together, and I couldn’t imagine doing this with anybody else. So I had to give the kid a hug.”
ZR1 and ZR1X buyers would offer hugs of their own.
