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Corvette Hypercar: ZR1X adds AWD to ZR1 formula for insane 1,250 horsepower
Posted by Talbot Payne on June 18, 2025
Austin, Texas — Corvette’s much-anticipated, 1,200-plus-horsepower, sub-two-second 0-60 mph, Ferrari-eating, all-wheel-drive Corvette hypercar is here.
All hail the ZR1X.
Long rumored as a new Corvette badge, Zora — in honor of Corvette’s influential 1960s engineer, Zora Argus-Duntov — the ZR1X instead will be a stablemate to the top-trim, 1,064-horsepower, track-focused ZR1 by adding all-wheel-drive grip and face-flattening electric torque. X as in X-treme.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News
“Driving this car will change your life,” said General Motor Co. president and certified race driver Mark Reuss after climbing out of the ZR1X at a test around the formidable 14.1-mile Nürburgring track in Germany’s Eifel Mountains.
It will certainly change minds about Corvette. Once the “affordable,” front-engine American supercar, the mid-engine Corvette C8 now competes head-to-head with the world’s elite performance manufacturers on and off track. GM credits much of the eighth,-generation car’s performance to its integration with GT3 racing where the Corvette fights toe-to-toe with Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin at places like last weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans (‘Vette placed third) then feeds those learnings to its engineers.
“From day one, we designed the mid-engine Corvette architecture with ZR1X in mind,” said GM senior vice president Ken Morris. “This is the most revolutionary platform in Corvette history, supporting the widest range of American sports cars.”
Henry Payne, The Detroit News
The Detroit News first reported in 2020 that Corvette was developing performance models after the standard Stingray, including the Z06, all-wheel-drive E-Ray, ZR1 and Zora.
Scheduled for release later this year as a 2026 model — just six months after the ZR1’s first deliveries, ZR1X boasts eye-popping numbers. Pairing the ZR1’s so-called LT7, 5.5-liter, twin-turbo V-8 engine with the E-Ray’s (the first Corvette with both AWD and hybrid-electric power) front electric motor, ZR1X makes 1,250 horsepower, more than any Ferrari on the planet, including the 1,184-horsepower Ferrari F80.
That’s more horsepower than other hypercars like 1,049-horsepower Marcedes AMG One, 1,001-horse Lamborghini Revuelto and 1,160-horse Aston Martin Valkyrie. Only rare animals like the 1,600-horse Bugatti go beyond. The hypercar segment defines itself as supercars using electric motors to take them to the next — “hyper”— level of power and grip.
But the most eye-popping number is ZR1X’s price, which will likely be under $200,000 when it is announced closer to the on-sale date late this year — a fraction of the cost of its exotic European peers, including the 1,184-horsepower, $3,925,000 Ferrari F80 and 1,258, $2,100,00 McLaren W1. The rear-wheel-drive ZR1, with which the ZR1X shares everything — including bodywork, tires and a 233-mph top speed — retails for between $174,995 and $195,995.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News
More numbers to wait for? The sub-zero 0-60 mph time to be released later this year by Chevy (and perhaps a Nürburgring lap time as well).
As the top model, the RWD ZR1 bookends the lineup $105,000 north of the $70k, entry-level Stingray. ZR1 more than doubles the entry-level Corvette’s price as well as its horsepower. The 2026 ZR1X will increase that by another 17%, making it the most powerful production Corvette ever made.
The so-called LT7 turbocharged engine is based on the same 5.5-liter, normally-aspirated V-8 found in the Corvette Z06 GT3 race car that competes in the North American Weathertech Sportscar Series and the international World Endurance Championship that sanctions Le Mans.
That engine resides in the track-focused, rear-wheel-drive, $103,000 production Z06, which makes a howling 760 horsepower — the most of any normally-aspirated engine in production — at 8,600 RPM. The Z06 is one of two arms in Corvette’s new, eighth-generation Y strategy — the other being the hybrid, $103,000 E-Ray — which expands Corvette’s bandwidth by offering parallel, track-focused and luxury variants.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News
The strategy appears to have worked, with Corvette on course for selling 40,000 vehicles a year, far more than any other mid-engine sports car.
Though ZR1X shares the E-Ray’s hybrid, all-wheel-drive format, it remains firmly on the performance side of GM’s Y strategy. Rather than wait two years between models — as Corvette did with the 2020 Stingray, 2022 Z06/E-Ray and 2025 ZR1 models to maximize demand — ZR1X is being introduced on top of ZR1 as a 2026 model.
“They were always meant to to be twins,” said Corvette Marketing Manager Megan Dalley. “We didn’t want to place the ZR1X in the dark when it was ready to go.”
Where E-Ray marries Stingray’s 495-horse, pushrod V-8 LT2 with an electric motor up front, ZR1X thrills by combining the twin-turbo V-8 LT7 and electric motor to attain its stratospheric performance numbers.
Combine the engine’s 828 pound-feet of torque driving the rear wheels and the electric motor’s 186 pound-feet driving the fronts and combined torque is a house-pulling 1,014 (however, Chevy does not list that as an official number since the two drive units are not connected by a driveshaft).
Henry Payne, The Detroit News
“It’s important to have the ultimate traction in order to be stable,” said ZR1X lead development engineer Keith Badgley, noting the driver will experience 1.3 forward g-loads under the ZR1X’s torrid acceleration. “This is the most capable, most intelligent Corvette ever made.”
In order to harness all its gas and electric energy, the ZR1X introduces new performance features:
– PUSH TO PASS unlocks all of the battery’s power for quick acceleration bursts in track — or in blowing past slower, two-lane traffic on-road.
– ENDURANCE MODE will apportion electric power so that it can be used throughout the course of, say, a track day.
– QUALIFYING MODE makes all of the battery available for a maximum lap.
With so much thrust on tap, ZR1X engineers also had to develop new brakes to slow it down. The ZR1 already had the biggest brakes developed by Corvette with 15.6-inch, six-piston, carbon ceramic front rotors. ZR1X moves those rotors to the rear of the hypercar and adds 16.5-inch, 10-piston, carbon ceramics rotors up front.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” smiled Badgley of the so-called J59 brake system.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Hard braking from 180-120 mph will generate 1.9 g-loads on the driver’s body. Dalley said the ZR1 will ultimately offer the same brake option as the ZR1X come the 2026 model year after a short 2025 model run. ZR1X is offered with the same options as the ZR1 including a hardtop convertible (the coupe gets the cool, rear split window) and ZTK downforce package.
ZR1 will also adopt ZL1X’s updated interior for the 2026 model year, including includes three screens, a central grab handle for terrified passengers and tidier console buttons. The twins share exterior body panels and interior options — including the return of Sebring Orange paint like the last-gen, 2019 C7 ZR1.
Henry Payne, The Detroit News
With its added hardware, the AWD ZR1X beefs up by about 250 pounds over the RWD ZR1’s 3,950-pound curb weight — pushing the Corvette north of 4,000 pounds.
“America’s supercar has arrived,” said Josh Holder, Corvette chief engineer. “This Corvette is more powerful than any Ferrari.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.