For Corvette engineers, America’s Sports Car is part of their 9-to-5: No cameras, no stopwatches, no headlines. It’s just what they do. Even in unglamorous Michigan winters at Milford Proving Ground, where GM has tested cars for 101 years, Corvette developers log and slog their share of 15 million annual company miles.
That all changed on a 12.9-mile circuit in Germany, ringing kleine Nürburg town with 73 rollicking corners—or closer to 170, depending on who’s counting the kinks.
With the clock ticking in every sense, GM tasked Corvette vehicle dynamics engineers Brian Wallace and Drew Cattell—professional drivers, but not professional racers—with bringing a few Nürburgring trophies back to Detroit in the ZR1 and ZR1X. You know, the breathlessly reported, obsessively scrutinized records that might convince a waffler to shell out $182,395 for a 1,064-horsepower 2026 ZR1 coupe, or $207,395 for a 1,250-horsepower ZR1X.
At these prices, and at this level of competition—including hypercars like the $3.7-million Ferrari F80, whose options alone can cost as much as a ZR1—it’s not surprising that marketable Nürburgring lap times were a priority from the start of ZR1 development.
"When you get to ZR1 and ZR1X levels of capability, we want to document just how proud we are of our product and development process," says Ken Morris, GM’s senior VP of product programs, integration and motorsports. "This is not only a statement for Chevrolet, it’s a statement for the engineers and their commitment to excellence and making these cars as good as they can possibly be."
Cattell made his ZR1X statement in a succinct 6:49.275, history’s fastest lap for an American production car, and the fastest in any production car for a non-professional racer. Wallace followed up with a 6:50.763 in the ZR1, right on the ZR1X’s heels, and still breathing the rare air of a sub-7-minute lap. Engineer Aaron Link drove a 670-hp Z06 to a sparkling 7:11.826 lap.
As a massive project team schlepped six cars to Germany, two of each 'Vette variant, engineers received an unwanted education in the import/export business. If you’ve ever forgotten to pack an adapter in your luggage, imagine shipping boatloads of specialized equipment, or making it work on Europe’s 220-240-volt power supplies.
"Our stuff doesn’t work over there, and it’s really hard to convert it over," Cattell says of the logistical nightmares.
The team had to procure tire ovens while abroad and call in German recruits when a 220-volt tire balancer failed, costing valuable time. It all speaks to the daunting “away” handicaps visiting teams from America face.
Wallace says he had previously logged about 425 total laps at the ‘Ring versus about 600 for Cattell and roughly 800 for Link. The engineers drove some simulator laps beforehand, but those were more about experimenting with alignments and other variables without wasting critical time on track.
"There’s obviously a lot of corners that require an enormous amount of courage to take at the limit of track," Wallace says. "So simulations are kind of nice to level-set yourself for those seven or eight key corners that turn into big chunks of lap time if you throw away a lot of speed in those corners."
Courageous corners include the infamous Schwedenkruez, or "Swedish Cross," where top cars can gain several seconds on lesser rivals—but only if a driver commits to this blind, undulating left-hander at roughly 150 mph.
Prior to timed runs on June 24 and 27, the team had about 3.5 track days during Industry Pool sessions shared with other automakers. Drivers hopped back and forth between six cars to let techs work on some while others kept lapping to maximize track time. But it was impossible to get a clean lap in a thicket of prototypes from other manufacturers.
"The Corvettes are all so fast that you end up catching cars from other OEMs," Cattell says. "It’s a good problem to have, but those 3.5 days got picked apart pretty quickly by having wasted laps in traffic."
For engineers used to working behind the scenes, the reality of this D-Day campaign (the “D” for “Detroit”) began to hit home on the first timed-lapping day.
"It was very surreal, being on pit lane and seeing the monstrosity of the team we had prepping our cars," Wallace says. "[The cars] were all ready to go up on jack stands, waiting for us to get in and go set a time. The fact that the three of us were given the opportunity to do it was unbelievable."
Where their day jobs normally revolve around thousands of engineering variables—tires, suspensions, diffs—their job descriptions suddenly changed.
"Development driving is nothing like this," Wallace says. "Most days we’re driving 90 or 95 percent, though we’re all capable of turning laps and leaving nothing on the table. But being turned into 'Drivers,' where that’s all we’re supposed to do, is something that Drew and I and Aaron are not used to at all."
"It was a nice feeling to shut everything out and drive, rather than worry about what tires are going in the car, or what electrons are in the car."
He’s also "super excited and proud that we did this with three engineers who happened to develop the car, not pro drivers. I think it says a lot about our company, says a lot about our team."
'Development driving is nothing like this.'
Struggling to sleep the night before, Cattell thought of the hundreds of people who’d gotten the cars to this point. He ran through a checklist of priorities, all the things he’d need to nail to make sure his performance met the team’s standards. The pressure was on.
"Most of the time we’re driving secret cars that we can’t tell anyone about," Cattell says. "So it’s exciting that you get to go out and put it all on the line."
An already tight two-day test window was further narrowed by June’s big swings in ambient and track temperatures, which can leave only an hour or two of optimal conditions a day. This being the Nurburgring, naturally, it began to rain on day one.
"Before the track opens in the morning, it’ll be beautiful, perfect. Then the track opens, and six minutes later it’s raining,” Cattell says of the rambling circuit. "It's the ultimate tease of rain and optimal conditions, and that’s exactly what happened."
Some track sections didn’t dry out until roughly 2:30 pm, with debris washed over in other areas, and any remaining track rubber long gone. But the track finally went green, and the American pilots attacked, their Chevrolet V-8s keening through the moody Eifel woods.
Years of design and engineering work quickly culminated with Cattell and Wallace’s record-setting runs; both drivers logged their fastest times on their fifth timed lap that afternoon. Despite posting consistent times throughout, neither managed to beat those times over eight total laps over two days.
The ZR1X ran in a standard "Plus" (or Endurance Mode) setting, ensuring its battery electricity would last a full lap. Versus an E-Ray, the ZR1X can squeeze 26 percent more energy from a same-sized, 1.9-kilowatt-hour battery stuffed in the center console.
Late-night data exchanges with team members back home helped create a strategy for when to hit the Push-to-Pass button, for "boost out of certain corners where we’d get the most lap time for your state-of-charge buck," Cattell says.
'Most of the time we’re driving secret cars that we can’t tell anyone about, so it’s exciting that you get to go out and put it all on the line.'
Wallace reminds me of the advice he gave after I chased him around Circuit of the Americas in a ZR1: Just leave the eight-speed, dual-clutch transmission in Automatic. Yes, a manual Corvette with 1,000-plus horsepower would blow our little minds, but these ultra-skilled pilots drove without touching a paddle shifter, a testament to the brainy shift logic aboard.
Both the ZR1 and ZR1X lapped using the Race setting of GM’s Performance Traction Management. And the cars ran in a form any showroom customer can mimic, with a few simple alignment tweaks straight from the owner’s manual.
I ask a question that’s on many minds, regarding the seemingly teensy, 1.5-second gap between the ZR1 and ZR1X’s lap times. For a moment, it’s crickets on my Zoom call. These guys aren’t about to choose a favorite or declare a clear winner, even if Wallace focused on ZR1 handling development, and the ZR1X was more Cattell’s baby. Wallace finally jumps in, after a Chevy PR man gives the OK to discuss nuances for customers.
"Look, you can bet we switched cars on a regular basis," Wallace says. "And I really love the ZR1X exiting corners. It is so confidence-inspiring to have four wheels putting traction to the ground instead of two, and the car’s balance."
"I wouldn’t call the ZR1 a handful, but it just doesn’t put power down as well as the ZR1X, and that’s really nice for a customer who wants that feature."
Wallace and Cattell agree the ZR1 shines in quick steering transitions, or other situations that highlight its slimmer curb weight.
"Unfortunately, we haven’t figured out how to hybridize a car at zero kilograms [of added mass]," Cattell says of a ZR1X that tops 4,100 pounds. Yet the cars are cut from the same cloth.
"Jumping back and forth between the cars, it’s funny how similar they feel," he says. "It wouldn’t take me three laps to get used to the other car."
These Motown mirror images even reached near-identical top speeds of 199 to 200 mph on the Döttinger Höhe, a 1.75-mile straightaway near the lap’s end. That may underscore how closely matched they are, and how they’re different strokes. The ZR1X’s corner-exit abilities and extra 186 horsepower are largely offset by its extra pounds—at least on the ‘Ring. At a stoplight in the States, the ZR1X will spank its rear-drive cousin, sneaking below 2.0 seconds to 60 mph.
Of course, almost no one who buys a Corvette will ever slice up the Nordschleife, or even drive an Autobahn. But automakers still make the pilgrimage.
'[The ZR1X] is so confidence-inspiring to have four wheels putting traction to the ground instead of two, and the car’s balance.'
"There are 73 corners, 1,000 feet of elevation change, unique curb surfaces we don’t see anywhere else," Wallace says. "The car will have all four wheels come off the ground, and long durations of maximum power down these long straightaways."
"So it’s really the ultimate program for us. If a car is capable at the ‘Ring, it will be capable at every track in North America."
Records aside, these drivers made memories that will warm every bitter winter morning back in Milford, when it’s time to bundle up, down some coffee, and go back to being unsung heroes. Their mission, as it’s been since 1953, is to make next-generation Corvettes that look fresher and go even faster.
That may sound less glamorous than setting lap records, but it means everything to customers who plunk down their hard-earned money.
Strapped into their showroom superheroes, amid a whirlwind of activity, responsibility, and intense focus, the drivers still managed to enjoy themselves.
"Neither of us complained about not having fun on that trip," Cattell says. "We’d get laughed out of the room otherwise."
"I gave Drew a big hug on day two, and said, 'This is amazing,'" Wallace says. "We work so hard together, and I couldn’t imagine doing this with anybody else. So I had to give the kid a hug."
Corvette buyers would surely love to return the favor.
