It’s barely been six weeks since Chevrolet shook up the industry by launching the new Corvette ZR1, a genuine hypercar slayer with 1,064 hp and a monstrous 1,122 Nm of torque. Now, the even more extreme Corvette Zora has been spied up close during tests at the Nurburgring. We’ve known about Chevrolet’s plan to launch a C8 sitting above the ZR1 for many years now. It will be the most powerful, the fastest, and the quickest of any ‘Vette around a circuit ever and serve as the halo car of the C8-generation model. If you thought the ZR1 was crazy, you haven’t seen anything yet.
A quartet of Zora prototypes was recently
snapped at the ring by our eagle-eyed photographers. Each of them had yellow
stickers on the rear window, meaning the car has a hybrid powertrain. This
setup is expected to combine the insane twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V8 of the
Corvette ZR1 with the front-mounted electric motor and battery pack of the
E-Ray.
What remains a mystery is just how much
power the Zora will have. Chevrolet has indicated the ZR1’s engine has more to
give so we expect some minor tweaks to be made to it. The electric motor of the
E-Ray is currently good for 160 hp and 169 Nm. If Chevy boosts the
LT7 to, say, 1,100 hp, then the Zora could produce around the 1,250 hp mark, if
not a little more. Such a monumental figure, combined with all-wheel drive,
should make the car an absolute animal off the line.
Visually, these prototypes don’t look much
different than the ZR1. The front end looks largely the same, although the
splitter may be slightly larger. Limited changes are visible on the sides and
the rear wing also looks the same. Of course, this isn’t a guarantee that Zora
will look identical to its less-powerful brother, as these are prototypes and
the finished product could be even more aggressive, which would be fitting
given its place in the Corvette’s lineup.
