US Supercar of the Year goes to a 1,250bhp bargain… and it wasn’t even close

How best to describe the Corvette ZR1X and its significance? There are so many qualities and achievements to potentially highlight. It rips down the quarter-mile in 8.675-seconds at 159.57mph, for example. Cool, but hard for our European minds to identify with or, honestly, care. It is the fastest American production car ever at the Nürburgring. Okay, now we’re getting warmer.

Although the cynics amongst you will point out that the only real competition is a Ford Mustang. Well, yes, but the GTD is a pretty serious Mustang built by the same folks who produced the AMG One and Valkyrie AMR Pro.

However, I can see you’re feeling obstinate. So, how about the fact that it offers 1,250bhp for as little as $209,595 (less than £160,000) and performs at a level beyond pretty much any combustion hypercar on planet Earth, yet comes with a five-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty? That it will run with a Koenigsegg in any environment but also pootle around town with arctic air-con in quiet refinement without a care in the world?

Photography: Mark Riccioni

The ZR1X is a game-changer. Perhaps the biggest since the Nissan GT-R arrived in 2008 and set a new blueprint. Corvette has unleashed a new sportscar benchmark with hypercar-humbling performance and capability, which I guess averages it out to ‘supercar’ status. Call it what you will, the ZR1X is simply the New Boss. Nothing like the old boss.

It’s hard to use the word ‘democratises’ when discussing a car that costs around $230,000 with all the performance goodies (including the ZTK Track Performance Package and Carbon Fibre Aero Package). However, there’s no question that the ZR1X brings other-worldly performance to a new and hungry audience.

Corvettes sell in big numbers, remember. From January 1st to the end of September 2026 Chevy delivered 20,002 C8s of various flavours. The ‘standard’ ZR1, itself with 1,064bhp, is already at well over 1,500 units. For now, there’s a clamour for these models and they’re commanding a small premium on the used market, but in a couple of years, it’s easy to imagine a ZR1X for less than $100,000…

Simply put the ZR1X marries the 5.5-litre twin-turbocharged V8 from the ZR1 with the electric front drive unit from the hybrid E-Ray model (now replaced by the Grand Sport X). There are more sophisticated set-ups, of course. Ferrari uses one motor per front wheel and sandwiches another between engine and gearbox in the 849 Testarossa, for example.

However, the Corvette’s V8 alone produces more than the total output of the Testarossa’s combined powertrain and the ZR1X’s single front motor very nearly matches the capability of Ferrari’s more complex set-up. Plus, it’s proven, robust and endows the ZR1X with extraordinary traction capabilities. On the dragstrip, the ZR1X is almost painfully fast at launch and during our testing its onboard telemetry system recorded 0-60mph in 1.9-seconds and 0-100mph in 3.8-seconds. Yes, three-point-eight to 100mph.

Around a racetrack it’s perhaps more impressive still. Not because it feels light and hyper-responsive in the style of, say, a Ferrari 296 Speciale (it doesn’t). But because it makes 1,250bhp seem exploitable. Normal, even. The chassis just soaks up the ferocious power and allows you to really use it. The ZR1X has balance, poise and feels almost benign.

It’s shockingly fast every single time you open the throttle but the fear is missing. It’s all thrill. This is a big car and the X weighs 1,875kg, but it absolutely tears-up any circuit and somehow the brakes cope with the toughest job on Earth, too. There’s a Porsche GT3-like toughness here. Only with an additional 747bhp on tap. (It just occurred to me that GT3 + 911 Turbo is still 21bhp shy of a ZR1X).

The ZR1X simply scrambles senses and reprogrammes your internal G-meter

On the road? Here the ZR1X is wild. The core ingredients of massive traction, a tough but controlled ride and an overwhelming sense that this is an intuitive car despite its towering performance remain. But the power is all the more absurd. The ZR1X simply scrambles senses and reprogrammes your internal G-meter. Straights vanish. Speeds accumulate at deeply unsociable speeds. The sensations and even the sounds are all very hypercar-y. What an engine.

On the flipside, the CarPlay works every time. It never goes into limp mode. Nothing steams-up or leaks or requires a reset. There are no weird rattles or ‘well, it’s a pre-production car’ moments. The ZR1X simply works. This is the rarest of commodities in the stratosphere of mid-engined cars with 1,200bhp+. And we love it.

Things we don’t love? The steering is too heavy in the more extreme drive modes (although you can select lighter set-ups in the configurable Z mode), the eight-speed dual-clutch ‘box takes a huge leap between third and fourth gear, almost as if its missed out half a ratio (although the massive torque mostly masks this), and cars with lighter-coloured leather for the dash suffer from terrible glare in bright sunshine.

Well, it is a hypercar. Got to have a few foibles, right? As you can tell, we’re nitpicking. The Corvette ZR1X is a force of nature and it could take years for its rivals to truly catch-up.