Chevrolet has continued the slow rollout of even higher-performing versions of the eighth-generation Corvette, which will apparently peak with the upcoming arrival of the Corvette ZR1.

In anticipation of the ZR1’s debut, a Chevrolet engineering team traveled to the high-speed parabolic oval track at Automotive Testing Papenburg in Germany, where General Motors president Mark Reuss piloted one of the cars to an official two-way average speed of 233 mph. He achieved this speed while carrying an engineer along in the passenger seat to monitor the car’s data.

This marks a 19-mph increase in top speed over the previous-generation ZR1 and tops all other production cars for a world record for any cars other than hand-built million-dollar-plus specialty cars from companies like Bugatti and Koenigsegg.

“This is a real production car,” emphasized lead development engineer Chris Barber in Chevrolet’s YouTube post documenting the speed record run. “We’re going to make a lot of these, you’re going to see them on the road and it can achieve a speed that’s well beyond most exotics out there.”

As a reminder, the ZR1 will feature a twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter double-overhead-cam V8 rated at 1,064 horsepower and 828 lb.-ft. That makes it the most powerful V8 ever from an American carmaker.

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Just as importantly, the ZR1 incorporates an aerodynamic package that creates 1,200 lbs. of downforce at top speed. The aero parts on the record car are the standard rear wing with its small Gurney flap and carbon fiber ground effects.

These details can be easy to overlook. The Chevy team also did top-speed runs in the sixth- and seventh-generation ZR1s at the smooth, flat Papenburg track. But during the media launch drive at Virginia International Raceway, which has rolling hills along its long back straight, I found that the C6 Corvette ZR1 produced so much lift that the car’s traction control system was activating over the crests, preventing it from reaching top speed.

Fortunately, the company corrected that in the C7, so my test drive of that car at Road Atlanta was more successful and less worrisome. With the switch to a mid-engine configuration for the C8, aerodynamics got even better.

The knowledge that the ZR1 was stuck to the track with an additional 1,200 lbs. of force gave the drivers the confidence to hold the pedal to the floor. Additionally, the high-speed oval is a far better location for top speed runs than the lonely narrow country two-lane highway in Idaho where I piloted the McLaren Artura to 200 mph in 2023.

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Papenburg has good atmospheric conditions for high-speed driving too, with ideal temperature and air density for high-speed testing. During the test, both ZR1 development cars topped 230 mph in the hands of all five engineers.

One of those engineers was Reuss (BS ME, Vanderbilt), who set a personal lifetime speed record at the wheel of the ZR1. He told GM employees in a company-wide message: “My moment behind the wheel, at that speed, felt like an exhilarating, personal triumph for me, while at the same time filling me with immense pride in General Motors, and in America, which rushed through me the moment I put the car in park and stepped out to enjoy it with the team – and something only Corvette can do.”