C7 Corvette ZR1 Speed Test Proves It’s Still King of the Hill
Impressively, the ZR1 is even faster than its stated top speed.
Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds is one of our favorite YouTube channels at the moment. They get straight to the point without excessive intros, skipping straight to the action, with a minimum of delay.
That’s good, because the content they release is simply fantastic. The Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds are used to test the top speed of countless vehicles in the real world. The facility itself is something special, too.
This three mile long strip of asphalt isn’t your average runway. It was specially designed by NASA to be perfectly flat for the entire stretch, and engineers had to account for the curvature of the Earth to make sure they got it just right. According to the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds website, there is only about a quarter inch difference from one end to the other.
Putting Up Numbers
In this video, they’re testing the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. While the mid-engine 2020 C8 Corvette may be the talk of the town, the 2019 ZR1 is still the fastest production Corvette ever built.
Just how fast? Well, apparently, it’s faster than GM thought. Chevrolet quotes a 212 mile per hour top speed for the 2019 Corvette ZR1. In the video, though, the ZR1 musters an incredible 213.649 miles per hour at the 2.7 mile mark.
This ZR1 is totally stock, and it managed to blow right past the stated top speed. Admittedly, it’s not by much, but when you’re talking speeds over 200 miles per hour in a production car, every mile per hour counts.
In fact, many magazine testers have trouble reproducing the stated top speed of new cars when they review them. So is the 2019 Corvette ZR1 underrated? We aren’t saying it is, but if it was, it wouldn’t be the first time GM underrated the Corvette.
Some experts think that Chevrolet underrated the Corvette’s horsepower in 1957. Specifically, some believe that the carbureted engines were rated lower to help sales of the new fuel injected model. In 1967, the L88 engine option was also intentionally underrated to prevent casual drivers from buying the high-performance race engine for street use.
In the age of the Internet, we don’t miss a trick. The 2019 Corvette ZR1 is still the fastest, most capable Corvette ever. However, we can’t wait for the inevitable high-performance C8 model to topple it from its fiberglass throne.
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