With 1,250 horsepower from a hybridized V-8, the new ZR1X is the pinnacle of the C8 Corvette—the culmination of all things possible. At least, so we thought.
Even as the fastest, quickest, and most powerful performance car the company has ever produced, Chevrolet seemingly isn’t satisfied. In a recent interview with Top Gear, chief engineer Tony Roma hinted at the possibility of an even more ridiculous Corvette down the line.
“The ZR1X is not the end of the story,” he says, “it’s just the latest chapter.”
2026 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X
Photo by: Chevrolet
While not an outright confirmation that Chevy is working on a more potent ZR1 or ZR1X, Roma’s quotes do indicate that the company is at least exploring ways to extract even more out of the C8 platform.
One thing that Roma does say, though, is that he and his team want to make sure that the ZR1X is even faster than the standard ZR1, which hit 233 miles per hour at the ATP Automotive Testing facility in Papenburg, Germany, earlier this year. He said:
‘I think we are going to continue to make the car faster for those bragging rights, because our customers appreciate that. It’s the same with any performance car manufacturer—we push each other with Nürburgring lap times for that reason.’
As of yet, Chevrolet hasn’t topped out the ZR1X. But the company is confident it should exceed the ZR1’s 233-mph speed.
As for the Nurburgring, Ford currently holds the fastest lap time for an American car, with the Mustang GTD lapping the Green Hell in 6 minutes, 52.072 seconds. Chevrolet has that record in its sights with the ZR1X.
“We’ve done some testing, and all I can say is… stay tuned,” Roma tells Top Gear. “We want to be the fastest American car—that’s an accolade we’d love to have. Again, it comes down to theory. None of our customers will go and run a sub-seven-minute lap time, but they want to know if they could.”
We’ll definitely stay tuned, indeed.
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