Chevy’s 2025 Corvette ZR1 Shatters Records with 1,064-HP Pure Gasoline V8

For decades, the supercar club was an exclusive European affair. If you wanted 1,000 horsepower and a high-revving engine, you wrote a seven-figure check to a boutique Italian or German brand, joined a waiting list, and prayed nothing broke. American muscle, meanwhile, delivered brute straight-line force but struggled to match the finesse of a flat-plane-crank Ferrari or McLaren on a winding track.

That old rulebook is now officially obsolete. Chevrolet just unveiled the 2025 Corvette ZR1, the first American production car to crack the 1,000-horsepower barrier using nothing but gasoline. No hybrid assist, no special fuel blends. Just raw, naturally aspirated engineering.

The numbers are staggering. 5-liter twin-turbocharged flat-plane V8—dubbed the LT7—that churns out 1,064 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 828 lb-ft of torque. All that power goes to the rear wheels through an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission. 6 seconds at 150 mph. And it does it without a single electric motor or heavy battery pack.

The starting price? $174,995. That undercuts many European supercars while outperforming legends like the McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari.

But the ZR1 isn’t just a drag-strip monster. Chevrolet equipped it with an optional ZTK performance package that adds a massive carbon-fiber wing, front dive planes, and a hood exit duct. At top speed, the car generates 1,200 pounds of downforce. 763 seconds—beating the Ford Mustang GTD by more than a second.

The ZR1 represents a high-water mark for American internal combustion. Alongside the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 and Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing, it forms a trio of pure-gas performance cars before hybridization takes over. But the ZR1 stands alone as the ultimate statement: a street-legal, track-destroying hypercar killer built in Detroit, priced like a supercar, and powered entirely by gasoline.

It is the last, loudest roar of an era.