Homegrown Speed | Corvette | Chevrolet
The Nürburgring is the ultimate proving ground. It’s the world stage. It’s the most intense track. There’s nothing like it. We’re definitely looking
to break some records. Three Corvettes, three different drivers driving for fast laps. It’s been 14 years since we’ve set a fast lap there. It’s time to go back. Let’s see what happens. This idea came about roughly 20 months ago. We called it project seven. There’s only a small handful of vehicles
in the world that are able to achieve a sub seven minute lap, and we want to
make sure Corvette is on that list. Anything sub seven is more elite, right? It’s another level of fast. But the way we’re doing
it, it’s very unusual. Everybody always does this
with a professional driver. Our goal really is to show
what the capability of our cars are. But we want to do it with our own team,
with our own people. I’ve known Aaron, Brian
and Drew for at least 20 years. They’re not professional drivers. They’re engineers. But the fact they’re capable enough to come out and do this
on the Nürburgring, I think it’s a challenge. It’s been a while since we’ve set
a lap time at the Nürburgring. I think it’s been 14 years,
and it’s something we’ve been asking for for a while. And now you fast forward to Corvette Z06, ZR1, and ZR1X. This is world class performance, and we can put that up against anybody. Early on we made the decision, let’s just continue
this mantra to go prove to the world we don’t need a
professional driver to do this. Bringing these Corvettes
to the Nürburgring. It’s all about reestablishing Corvette
on the world stage of lap times. It started last year with the ZR1,
where we ran North American lap records
and established those for the car, and at some point we all said,
all right, can we do the Nürburgring now? We get the question about
why do we come here to the Nürburgring quite a bit and really, this place is
truly unique around the world. If your car can be good
here, it can be good anywhere. You know, in the
months leading up to our trip to Germany. There was a lot of background work
that we did at Milford to figure out what’s the best way to get an extremely fast lap time
that we’re all going to be proud of. We use the simulator to help us fine tune things and prepare for our trip
coming up. The track map is like millimeter perfect
to the actual track. They do a laser scan. It’s such a long lap, so many little
tricks and unique things you do there. It kind of helps you keep it
fresh in your mind and get your timing and cueing kind of sharp
for for going there. Yeah. All right. Ready to go. Aside from just getting ready to drive,
you know, as we prepare for this trip,
a lot of the logistics fall upon our team. There’s a lot of moving pieces
that are coming overseas. We have to make sure that we have
all the equipment that we need here to make sure that all
the cars are on track, and we’re able to get all the laps in that we’re able to. It’s a huge logistical circus at times. And it kind of is a circus. Doing it with one car is hard enough. And Zac was the ringleader
for all of this. You know, it’s crazy
how much goes into these trips with our shipping department,
with customs. It’s just nonstop. Frankfurt departure. Lets start this fantastic journey. There’s our bird. Ladies and gentlemen,
this is your captain speaking. We are making our initial descent
into Frankfurt. We want to thank you for
flying with us today. Beautiful day in Frankfurt. Winding roads. Unlimited speed. Just let her rip. Our team went to Germany
for the Nürburgring industry pool. We had a down week
in between that and the fast laps. But to do it the right way to rent the track, to bring the equipment,
to bring the people. This was it. When we developed the Z06, we were completely amazed how
well that car did on its first lap. That set a really good foundation
and gave us all the confidence we needed that we could strap
on another 400 horsepower to the car and put some more aero on the
car, and it would take it. Finally,
being here with all the cars in the team, now it’s time to get behind the wheel
and get a couple laps under our belt and just sort of
get comfortable with the track. We came out here with one goal, and that’s to be the fastest American
supercar that’s ever lapped Nürburgring This track, it’s 12.9
miles of enormous challenge for a vehicle. This is the most difficult track
you can possibly attempt this type of thing on. Every corner, every section is different. And so to keep your focus up and maximize at each
one of the corners, it’s a challenge. We had three cars
and we had three teams of three. Each car before it
leaves has to have hot tires put on it. So we had eight tire ovens available. So the challenge is
the tires need two hours to be able to heat up to temperature before
we can actually put them on the car. It’s an orchestrated effort
of when cars go out, when tires go in the ovens,
and having some forethought to what cars are going to need to run
because there’s a very short window for when we’re able to make fast laps
based on the track temperature and from the very start of industry pool,
like right away, we’re checking fuel levels down to the exact liter
decimal percentage. Try to figure out
exactly where fuel trims need to be. Every single lap
is essentially a practice hot lap so that we’re locked in
for when it really mattered. Each driver will have a different approach
into how they feel comfortable entering corners, exiting corners, and
so they’ll look at the data on each lap. And a lot of times we’re just
spending time looking at vehicle speed. And our approach and throttle application
and brake application to help define small chunks where we were better one
run versus another, and we can sit there and dissect from lap to lap
where we can make improvements. Because you can break all the way through there. break all the way, yeah… So I think there’s some opportunity here. This is a difficult place to set a lap time. You have to put a lot into it. You got to plan ahead
and hope that your weather’s good, your situation is good. There you go. Right there. What’s it say? Nürburg rain, expected to start in the next few hours. The last time I looked at
it kind of started to dissipate. Yeah, we obviously got really good at this
because we finished prepping all the cars, prepping all the cars. So now we’re standing around
worrying about the weather. So. So we’re still going to do the scouting
at seven and all that good stuff. We’re going to proceed until until
the rain shuts us down. Yeah okay. You know, we’re kind of gutted. Mother nature didn’t do us any favors. And we’ve had other fast lap attempts from
GM drivers that got caught out in the rain, right? So yeah, you never know what
the weather system is going to be there. All we can do is kind of plan at what point
do you still try to go for a lap? But, you just got to go ahead
and make the best of it, you know? Yeah, I think it’s clearing up
is a blessing in disguise. To be a driver here
is kind of every kid’s dream come true, really. These are the cars on the track
with our best people and best capability. So many things have to come together
and go right to achieve the type of lap times
that we’re aiming for. For me, pre-race ritual. You know, I say a little prayer
because it’s dangerous, right? We know that. And when we’re fully sending it here, it’s it’s a different environment
than development driving. One of the things I do
when I settle down into the car, I get ready to run a fast lap. I definitely try to do my best
to visualize the lap. When I’m sitting there, I’m
just thinking about just being precise and hitting on my marks
and driving the lap extremely clean with no mistakes is what I’m focusing on. Getting a good result is really a big deal. You know, this team is so awesome. Everyone is such an all star and has done such a great job
in their respective position. And you know, you kind of
just don’t want to let them down. We’d already achieved
some amazing track times back in the fall. But you know, the big question was
what about the Nürburgring? And now we’re going to finally answer it. There’s a lot of pressure on our shoulders
to make sure we perform with what our customer base
wants to see, and they’ve been asking for. We take them pretty seriously,
and there’s a lot of pride in us being able to represent the Chevy
Corvette ZR1 in such a manner that we do it safely, and we do it
really fast, and we beat the competition. We knew that anything under a seven minute
lap was going to be very impressive. In my head at this track, with the ZR1X, it’s hard to really think about much
when you’re driving a lap around here. The way this car accelerates
is like being shot out of a cannon. It’s really special and awesome,
and it’s so much fun. So I was able to run the lap
a couple times, and every lap our time was getting better and better. As the cars come in, you’re trying to pull data quickly,
send it back home, make sure everything’s okay again,
letting them focus on just driving the best lap that they possibly could. While you’re out there, there’s no communication with the team. It’s just you in the car doing your lap. Any mistake when you’re going that fast could be really bad. I think for me, I remember feeling like, all right, now I’m understanding
where this car will let me challenge it. The Nürburgring is the pinnacle, right? Everybody brings their best there. That’s what’s special about it. The level of downforce in this car
just makes you super comfortable. And I knew one of the biggest hurdles
was going to be how fast this car was going
to be coming into corners and how fast I was able to go through those corners where your minimum speed is like 148mph,
and you’re coming in at 184mph. When the car comes in, we got a very short amount of time
to turn that around, to go back out. So the car had to go up on jack stands, tires removed. There had to be a safety check to make sure that nothing’s cracked
and nothing’s broken, so that the car
can actually make another lap. And then we had to get fans
on the radiators to make sure
the engine can get cooled back down. So we’re not robbing
power due to temperature. So all that had to happen
in a very quick fashion so that we can then get tires back on the car, drop it,
and then roll as quickly as we could. Everybody’s working hard, going for the best times,
doing everything we can. 25, 30 years ago, If I would have envisioned myself here
talking about hey, I just was able to represent
our company and our team and our product on the most difficult track in the world, and we accomplished what we wanted. It doesn’t get any better than that. So I think that’s what makes Corvette
unique too, is having these capable drivers,
plus an engineering talent to really dial in a car that anybody could
take to a track and have fun with it. But knowing it’s all done in-house by these drivers
and by these engineers is pretty special. You know, we’re not just engineering
something we don’t care about. Like, this is our passion. This is what we do for a career,
for work, for a hobby. And I think it benefits the customer
greatly. I don’t think there’s anyone else
who does this within a single model in a single plant,
and certainly not in America. And that’s
what Corvette’s always been about. Is this offering
for accessible performance. And now we’ve just turn the dial to 11. Well, Mark, we had a good week. We had a good finish here. I was in the Z06 and achieved a 7:11.8
lap time. The ZR1 finished with a 6:50.76. ZR1X ran a 6:49.2. There you go. Yeah. That’s right. So that puts us fifth and seventh
on the all time list here. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. That’s right. Oh, man, this is great. We just made some history. So how could this be any better? I’ve come here for 20 years
doing development laps. I’m wiped out. That’s one of the most intense things
that I’ve ever done. We became the fastest
American rear-drive car. So that’s amazing. Our grandkids are going
to be talking about this. I’m really proud, of the whole team,
the super happy to get the result, to get to experience that with everyone,
share that with everyone. And then also having my wife there on
Friday. So yeah, super happy. So what’s next for us? It could be more trips over there
for development. I think this one, we want to let
this one sink in for a long time though. Yeah I think historically Corvette’s
always got something else coming, right? We don’t stop. It feels like mission accomplished, being the fastest American car
around the Nürburgring. Actually, the two fastest American cars
around the Nürburgring now, right?
Three drivers. Three Corvettes. One mission: reinforce Corvette as a dominant force in American performance. Join our homegrown engineering team—and the Z06, ZR1 and ZR1X—as they journey to the Nürburgring to conquer the unthinkable.
