GM President Mark Reuss Brings 2025 Corvette ZR1 by Jay Leno’s Garage
Reuss gives us even more interesting factoids about the 2025 Corvette ZR1 – including the fact that it could be modified – but won’t talk pricing yet.
By now, we know pretty much everything there is to know about the all-new 2025 Corvette ZR1, a machine that has been the subject of countless rumors and speculation over the past several years. Somewhat impressively, GM managed to keep many of the details revolving around the C8 ZR1 secret for that entire time, however, including the car’s incredibly high output that exceeded everyone’s expectations. However, GM President Mark Reuss recently paid Jay Leno’s Garage a visit, and revealed some more interesting tidbits about the hypercar killer.
Parked next to his father’s big block 1967 Corvette, the yellow 2025 Corvette ZR1 we see here appears to be the same one that was present at the unveiling and is equipped with the optional ZTK Performance Package, giving it all of the aero bits needed to generate copious amounts of downforce. As Leno points out, he believes it’s more fun to drive a car around the track at speeds of 40-120 mph than at the absolute limit, and in that regard, having all this aero is sure to aid that mission.
While the C8 ZR1’s 5.5-liter LT7 “Gemini” V8 is undoubtedly a fascinating piece of tech on its own accord, it’s also the first turbocharged powerplant to ever be fitted to a factory-built Corvette of any kind. However, as Reuss points out in the video, that wasn’t necessarily intentional. Rather, it seems as if the front-engine models of the past simply didn’t give GM enough space to work with, which is why they purposely designed the C8 to give them more flexibility in terms of packaging and flexibility – in fact, it was designed from the start to exist in multiple variants.
However, GM didn’t just slap a pair of turbos on the Z06’s LT6 powerplant and call it a day, as the automaker has explained in great detail thus far. As Reuss notes here, the car’s turbochargers pump out upwards of 20-24 psi – far more than many applications that only provide around 6-7 pounds of boost – and that boost is also deployed strategically, with the intentions of helping the car maintain a flat torque curve throughout the rev range. As far as modifying the LT7 and extracting more power from it, well, Reuss essentially admits that the engine itself is already pretty much maxed out – though he does admit that “if you were to do something to the coolant piece of this to improve it or make it more consistent – the inlet density of gas and air – it would always help a charged engine.”
Essentially the only thing we don’t know about the 2025 Corvette ZR1 is what kind of price tag it will sport at launch, with most estimating it to land in the $180k-$200k. Leno – a big time car buy himself – tries to get Reuss to give us some sort of idea how much the 2025 Corvette ZR1 will cost, but the executive won’t budge – only saying that it’s “going to be true to Corvette tradition – aspirational, but attainable,” giving customers the “most amount of horsepower per buck available.” That’s certainly good news for those looking to buy one – if they can find one at MSRP, that is.
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