By now, we’ve read all the specs on the insane 1,250-horsepower Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X, and they’re all hypercar stuff. Zero-to-60 mph in less than two seconds, a top speed of 233 mph, a quarter-mile elapsed time in the eights, 1.9G of braking from 180 mph to 120 mph, and the fourth-quickest Nürburgring time of any production car. The only question mark left surrounded pricing, and now that GM has told everyone how much this top-dog Corvette costs, it seems like the bargain of the century.
If your local Chevrolet dealer has an allocation and you want the cheapest ZR1X available, you’ll be looking at a sticker price of $207,395, including freight for the base 1LZ coupe trim. Now, $207,395 is a lot of money, but not compared to what this thing can credibly compete with. If you want an electrified two-seater with performance metrics in this sort of ballpark, you’re looking at genuine hypercars with seven-figure price tags. A Porsche 918 Spyder is now worth more than $2 million, a Bugatti Chiron is at least a $2.8 million car, and a LaFerrari is now worth more than $3.5 million.


Even if we zoom in on cars that can run from zero-to-60 mph in less than two seconds, the ZR1X is still a solid deal. For cars in that ballpark, you have the $250,500 Lucid Air Sapphire, the $241,750 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, and the $2 million Rimac Nevera. While those electric sedans seem like screaming deals compared to the Rimac, not only is the ZR1X tens of thousands of dollars cheaper still, it’s also more capable once you actually take it to a track to find out what it can do.

Oh, and if the silent glide of a battery electric vehicle doesn’t float your boat, here’s a stat to wrap your head around: The Ferrari F80 is slower both zero-to-60 mph and in top speed than the ZR1X, with Maranello’s new flagship clocking respective stats of 2.1 seconds and 217 mph. However, you know how many Corvette ZR1X examples you could buy for the price of a Ferrari F80? Eighteen.

Now, let’s talk Nürburgring times. Given the insane news cycle, just about everyone now knows that the Corvette ZR1X is nearly 2.8 seconds quicker around the Nordschleife than a Mustang GTD. Thanks to this pricing announcement, we now know that the ZR1X is also $120,565 less expensive than the $327,960 Mustang GTD. Yep, you could buy an entire Lotus Emira for that price delta. Now, the asterisk is that the ZR1X needs a performance package to achieve that lap time, but so does the GTD, and the package on the Ford goes for $40,000 according to a window sticker posted online. While pricing for the ZR1X’s performance package hasn’t been announced yet, the same package for the regular ZR1 will run you $10,000, so expect pricing to run along those lines, given the extensive similarities between the ZR1’s ZTK package and the ZR1X’s ZTK package.

In a similar vein, the Corvette ZR1X is also quicker around the Nürburgring than the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, a machine that starts at $253,695 including freight and requires a $34,730 Weissach package to set a time of 6:49.328. That package also comes bundled with a $4,910 interior in America, so we’re looking at a price gap big enough to slide a sweet daily driver into.

So yeah, even though the Corvette ZR1X is a $207,395 car, it’s still a sort-of democratization of speed. The sort of stuff that was once the domain of the top 0.1 percent is now available to anyone with well-specced non-GT Porsche money to blow, and it can be serviced in the same dealerships that work on Silverados and Chevrolet Express vans. Imagine if some automaker sold a car that could post up base Corvette numbers but only cost about as much as a used Suzuki Kizashi. That’s the sort of speed-to-dollars ratio we’re looking at here, and it’s astonishing to take a step back and consider that humans did that.
Top graphic image: Chevrolet
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Thermal issues were common on 800hp supercharged gm cars. I frankly don’t believe 1,200hp from gm.
I wasn’t aware there were any supercharged 800 hp engines from GM, much less ones with “thermal issues”. Also this engine makes 1,064 horsepower, the electric motor adds the rest.
But if you’re referring to the C7 Z06, which did have documented overheating issues due to insufficient cooling, do you think GM is not capable of learning from their mistakes?
Even though it’s a Chevrolet, I’m sure Carroll Shelby is up in Horsepower Heaven elbowing Enzo Ferrari in the ribs and pointing down here and cackling. “Hey, man, how come it costs another comma and another zero for somebody to lose to a Corvette in a car with your name on it?”
This will be hell of a great platform for building 1:1 vehicles or kit cars with better looks.
One is going to get driven, the other will go into a sealed vault with the hope that its value increases faster than inflation. There’s nothing to discuss here. The corvette is a car to be driven, the ferrari is a priceless vase.
This is a very impressive piece of kit and no doubt will easily outperform most of the traditional record holders at the Nordschleife. I have driven plenty of high performance cars at the Ring and the limiting factor is myself, not the car.
Therefore in practical terms I am not likely to be able to access the limits of this car, not even close. As it is I have cars that would require more talent than I have to reach their limits.
Thus for me this car, doubtless a great achievement ,is in the realm of the theoretical ,like maximum speed in a Lockheed SR71. I am not a major fan of the styling but this is obviously very subjective.
Great achieve though and the Ferrari/Porsche development teams need to take notice.
Helluva lot of car for a less-unreasonable amount of dough than some; come find me in 15 years to discuss used base C8 prices :).
Dodge was already making 800+ hp Challengers so it was a matter of time until Chevy made something more specialized.
This would have made for an excellent Viper vs Corvette moment.
Anyone willing to place bets how long it takes for the first one to be written off during the pre-delivery inspection process by the employees of said dealership after hooning it around the parking lot before the owner shows up to take delivery? Certainly the odds are higher than for the same fate to befall a new F80, right?
Yeah, but at least the Ferrari isn’t ugl … eh, never mind.
But as my Ferrari-owning friend always says “there is no feeling like being able to say *that’s MY Ferrari*”. Speed isn’t everything.
Though personally, I’d infinitely rather have an old 308GTB with a gated manual than either of these bits of modern nonsense, and a nice one of those is cheaper still.
400i is my choice with a swap to a modern engine and its auto but your choice is nice.
Yes, but one has to have some interest in cars to know what a ZR something alphabet soup is, versus your average person who just sees a Ferrari badge versus a bow tie on a V.
lol. I can’t buy either, but I’m 17/18 closer to not buying a Corvette than I am not buying an F80.
My questions are, how many are they going to build and how much will they actually cost out the door?
I’m not a corvette person, but I do appreciate how often over the model’s history that team’s managed to put together a car that embarrasses the Italians for domestic money. I feel like there’s an essential American-ness to it: sure, if you want a Ferrari, get a Ferrari, but we can build it at least as fast for a third the cost.
The C8 is a truly remarkable vehicle and we’re lucky as enthusiasts to be living through its reign. It’s a car we’ll tell our kids and grandkids about and I assume it’s already on countless posters adorning the wall of budding enthusiasts.
With that out of the way, despite being the comrade that I am I actually think the “democratizing speed” take is valid. Yeah, the ZR1 and ZR1X are nucking futs, cost $173,000+, and will mostly wind up being mothballed by rich Boomers. They’re as unobtanium for us plebs as a GT3 or McLaren is.
But that’s not the whole story here, at least to me. I think the real story is how incredible of a platform GM put together. When it’s taken to its absolute limit it underpins some of the fastest cars of all time, but it also underpins the base Stingray, which you can get for around $65,000 if you go light on the options. With the average cost of a new car being about $50,000 these days that’s not that big of a leap to make.
You can keep the ZR1 as your dream car but still conceivably get a base Stingray eventually…and even the base car still has a nearly 500 horsepower mid mounted V8, a DCT from the same manufacturer, the same sleek looks, etc. It’ll even hit 60 in under 3 seconds and top out in the mid 180s.
I think that’s what’s so cool. It’s still not that far fetched to think that any of us could find our way to a C8, and while the Z models are cool as hell/would certainly be under consideration for me if I were to suddenly had $200,000 burning a hole in my pocket…you’re still getting most of the experience out of the base car.
Anyway I’m gonna go look at C8 listings now, carry on!
Considering how the used market values previous generation automatic Corvettes, I foresee a time in the near future that a c8 Z06 could be had for ~$50k. That’s a hell of a car for the money.
“Yeah, the ZR1 and ZR1X are nucking futs, cost $173,000+, and will mostly wind up being mothballed by rich Boomers.”
You’re probably not entirely wrong, but just from my 35 years’ experience doing track days, you are WAY more likely to see a ZR1X getting the piss beat out of it at the track than you are pretty much any Ferrari. Corvettes of all stripes are represented in a track day paddock a disproportionate share, I’d say.
Like someone said below, Corvettes are built to be driven hard, and there’s a segment of their market who are happy to oblige.
Most $20 digital watches will keep time more consistently than a Rolex, but you don’t buy a Rolex just for time keeping.
I mean, if thats a flex then call me a Ford.
And the Vette is more attractive than the F80. Admittedly, it’s a very low bar, but still.
Counterpoint: I could just take that Ferrari money, buy an old truck, a house on some land, and build a garage to work on project cars, and be 18 times happier than if I were a pretentious Ferrari owner
You make a very, very good point
I was just at an Italian concours this weekend and it was infested with new Ferraris and Lamborghinis (the reason I hadn’t gone in maybe 20 years). It used to be that I found those cars uninteresting and unattractive, but the owners of these cars were outright repellant. Most of them seemed like cryptocoin bros, flexing and revving like they just stole a Hellcat. Thankfully, the other lawn had real people and some interesting stuff, like a Vignale Alfa I had never seen before. Even the Datsun Z-based GTO replica was cooler than the new plastic junk.
I think this is a lot of it for me. There are some older Ferraris that I think are beautiful, and I think they’re impressive pieces of engineering. But I just don’t seem them as cars nearly as much as I see them as status symbols. I worked in the country club industry for years and met a lot of people that owned Ferraris. I just wouldn’t want to hang out with any of them.
If you tell me you just bought a new Ferrari, I know you care more about being someone that owns a new Ferrari than you do about cars themselves. Tell me you just bought an old two stroke Saab? We’re probably going to go have a few beers and talk about it
Same, I’d walk by lines of whatever the new low-end mid-engine Ferrari is even called (I can’t believe how little I even care anymore that I don’t know the name) and Huracans with goofy safari kits to get to a scruffy Lancia Scorpion with the ugly bumpers. I sort of did that except there was a Maserati Khamsin, some Dinos (one in poison tree frog green), the fake GTO, and old Alfas in between.
These are rich guy cars, and rich guys buy Ferrari’s. That said, I want one of these more than a Ferrari, 100x more.
How many corvettes can you buy for the price of a Ferrari 250 GTO?
I don’t think the point is which is quicker
who cares
How many Corvettes could a Ferrari 250 GTO chuck if a Ferrari could chuck Corvettes?
337 and a half.
What is the point? Exclusivity? Looks? The manufacturer?
For the price of a Ferrari, I can buy many more Nissan Murano Cross-Cabriolets…. technologically superior, especially in the transmission design, and good looks to match. Everyone’s heads turn when you drive the Nissan Murano Cross Cabriolet.
It isn’t NOT the point though, if ferrari really didn’t care the car wouldn’t have a 0-60 of barely over 2 seconds. These are still supposed to be performance cars (even if they’re ultimately made for rich dickheads to stick in a vault) so it’s kind of funny that a bunch of guys from Detroit on a platform underpinning cars that cost as much as a Ferrari maintenance bill have thrashed its numbers this hard
I am glad cars like these exist. I will never see any of them as they are all destined for private collections. I also wonder if they are worth it given a regular Corvette is sufficient for any legal speeds on legal roads.
signed a poor pleb.
While the Corvette is undoubtedly better performance for money, I’m pretty sure that telling your rich friends that you have 18 of them will not gain you the same status as having one of those Ferraris.
Also, 18 identical corvettes sounds like a spec racing series in the making.
Shit that actually sounds fun if you had that much money buy 18 zr1x’s and start your own race.
You could get 10 Corvette GTD cars and you’d basically be race ready.
You could be Longfellow Deeds!
But saying “I’m the CEO of a supercar racing series” would be even more impressive than the Ferrari to those snobby rich friends.
I’d much rather be friends with the guy who runs an 18 car Corvette spec racing series than the guy with the one Ferrari mouldering in his climate-controlled garage.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Ferrari’s are meant to be looked at. Corvettes are meant to be driven, and driven hard.
I think a lot of Ferrari dudes have more than one of them.
The second Ferrari covers the tires and brakes for the 18 Corvettes. 😉
Given the median household income for the US is 66,622; I don’t see how a car that costs 3.11 times that democratizes anything?
Actually, Census.gov says the median household income in the US in 2023 was just over $80K, but I agree with your point. I guess it democratizes speed for the 1% instead of the 0.1%
My number was based on a 3 second Google search, so yeah YMMV, either way I’ll be interested when something is in reach of an actual average car buyer.
It democratizes it for the rest of us in 25 years when they can be had for less than a base corolla or civic. Just look at C5 Z06s for example.
MMMM Cheese
BUT with the Corvette, you’d be driving the same marque as Billy-Bob in his Silverado and Sandy Suburbmom in her Equinox. And that simply will not do.
That about covers it.
For some people that’s a feature not a bug. Not all, but some take brand loyalty to the extreme in the pursuit away from snobbiness.
Oh yeah they do. Why is it that a 1970 Chevelle SS 396 is worth far more in the collector market than the same-body, bigger-engined, more-equipped Olds 442 or Buick GS?
Reverse snobby.
Honestly, seriously weighing the economics of a $200k car having more performance around a track I will never drive on compared to a $2.5M car I’ll likely never see in my life is pretty hard to wrap my head around.
I know this article is very tongue in cheek, but I would love to be a fly on the wall for someone in the market for a Rimac, then reading this article and thinking “but I could also get 18 Corvettes… Hmmm…”