The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 carries the honor of being the most powerful Corvette ever… at least until the ZR1X hits production later this year. Customers are finally starting to receive their cars, so it was only a matter of time before a ZR1 showed up at a dyno for a run. The results are even more impressive than we expected.
Paragon Performance in Waukee, Iowa, managed to secure a totally stock ZR1 for a run on its floor-mounted dyno to see exactly how much power the supercar-killing ‘Vette throws to the wheels. As a reminder, the twin-turbo 5.5-liter V-8 is officially quoted at 1,064 horsepower and 828 pound-feet of torque at the crank.
If you know how cars work, you’ll know there’s inevitably some power loss as torque travels from the crank, through the transmission, through the differential, and to the wheels. In theory, we should expect a noticeable loss in power in the dyno readings. Except that doesn’t happen. In the last dyno run, the ZR1 puts up a reading of 1,028 hp and 839 lb-ft of torque to the wheels.
If you factor in drivetrain losses of around 10 percent, this means the ZR1 is actually making closer to 1,180 hp and 920 lb-ft of torque at the crank. That means Chevy is heavily underrating the twin-turbo V-8’s real performance. In all likelihood, the factory rating applies to the engine in the most grueling scenarios, like driving through Death Valley or being pushed to its limits on a race track.
That means at worst, the engine will at least make 1,064 hp, no matter what. But if you’re in a nice, cool dyno room with lots of clean air and no load, you’ll make closer to 1,200 horsepower. We can only imagine how the ZR1X will perform on a dyno.
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