60 VETTE 19.11ur title is a loaded ques-
tion. How do you quan-
tify “Greatest Corvette
Ever”? After all, we have
66 years of Corvettes
to measure from. Since the Corvette is
America’s performance car, let’s go with
performance as a benchmark. And how
do we quantify performance? Peppered
throughout Corvette history there are shin-
ing examples of outstanding performance.
For example, in 1988, Reeves Callaway
took Sledgehammer, an 898-horsepower
twin-turbo L98 1988 Corvette with a Paul
Deutschman body kit to the Transportation
Research Center in Ohio. There, John
Lingenfelter drove the car to a 254.76-mph
speed record, and then drove the car back
to Callaway’s shop in Connecticut. That’s
performance, but would the car have
been able to perform as such over and
over? Doubtful.
Today, performance is measured on the
track, bringing home championships. Since
the Corvette Racing Team started in 2000,
the team has racked up 13 championships
in 20 seasons of racing. That’s extraordi-
nary. Today, performance is based on what
happens on the racetrack. The Corvette
Racing Team is part 1 of the fulfillment ofBY SCOTT TEETERS (^) I IMAGES & GRAPHICS BY THE AUTHOR
THE ILLUSTRATED CORVETTE
Designer Series No. 269
Duntov’s dream of a Corvette Racing Team,
equipped to battle Europe’s best. Part 2 of
Duntov’s vision, the production mid-engine
Corvette, will already have debuted by the
time you read this.
It wasn’t long after the Corvette Racing
Team started that work began on the C6
Corvette. Chief engineer Dave Hill worked
with Pratt & Miller to make the C6 a better
Corvette and to make the C6 Z06 a stun-
ning street/track Corvette. The Corvette
Racing Team quickly became Corvette
engineering’s “racing division” and custom-
ers were the beneficiaries. This relationship
continued and impacted the design of the
C7, the C7 Z06, Grand Sport, ZR1, and the
C8. The Pratt & Miller C8.R was seen in
testing at Sebring in 2018, so by the time
the first race of the 2020 season goes
off, the mid-engine C8.R will be ready for
competition.
It’s a big deal when a Corvette genera-
tion ends and a new generation begins.
The C6 ended with the 427 convertible, an
outstanding Corvette packed with LS7 Z06
power and the Z06 widebody. The C5 ended
with the 2004 Commemorative Edition that
included a Z06 with a carbon-fiber hood.
The C4 closed out with two special editions:
the Collector Edition and the Grand Sport,
powered by the 330-horsepower LT4. The
C3 ended with the Collector Edition that
offered a very nice array of options, but no
performance advantage. The end of C2 and
C1 Corvette generations went uncelebrated.
The 2019 C7 ZR1 throws down the gauntlet
and says to the C8, “Best this!” So let’s look
at the C7 ZR1 to see what the C8 has to com-
pete against.
C6 and C7 Corvettes took the car into
the realm of “track car” thanks to the suc-
cess of the Corvette Racing Team. Track
performance is the new measure of supe-
riority. The C6 Z06 had more race car built
into it than any other previous Corvette.
The C7, C7 Z51 and the C7 Z06 were even
more so. The C7 ZR1 begins where the C7
Z06 ended. Chief engineer Tadge Juechter
explained that when his engineers com-
pleted the C7 Z06 they felt that they’d done
everything they could to the platform. A
year or so later, they came back saying,
“We have a few more ideas.” The C7 ZR1
is the result of those few more ideas. The
final execution of the ZR1 wasn’t that com-
plicated. Let’s have a look-see.
The best way to understand the C7 ZR1
is, “Z06 Plus.” But the ZR1 isn’t just a Z06
with an extra 105 horsepower; it is a GT car
with serious track potential. The LT5 engine
C7 Corvette ZR1:
The Greatest Corvette Ever?