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The Chevrolet Corvette Z06, ZR1 and ZR1X took over the 12.9-mile Nordschleife circuit where, for the first time in the track’s history, an automaker brought three different cars with three non-racecar drivers to record three lap times in a single visit. Three of the Chevrolet engineers who helped develop these cars, and have extensive experience and advanced driving credentials, piloted them during the fast laps, highlighting the depth of talent and performance within General Motors.

The Chevrolet team now has the fastest official laps set by an American manufacturer at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

America’s sports car, unleashed in Germany

Corvette ZR1X vehicle dynamics engineer Drew Cattell completed a 6:49.275 lap in the electrified all-wheel drive ZR1X and now has the fastest lap time of any non-professional racecar driver at the Nürburgring in the list of official record laps. ZR1 vehicle dynamics engineer Brian Wallace set a 6:50.763 time in the 1,064-horsepower ZR1.

The 670-horsepower Corvette Z06, with the most powerful naturally aspirated V8 ever put in a production car, set a lap of 7:11.826 with vehicle performance manager Aaron Link behind the wheel.

“No auto manufacturer has done a Nürburgring lap attempt like this before,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “From development through production, and now at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the Green Hell, we have clearly shown there is no limit to what our GM engineers and vehicles can accomplish. These are the best Corvettes in history, period.”

The new documentary “Homegrown Speed: A Corvette Story” goes behind the scenes and showcases the journey from GM’s Milford Proving Ground to Germany, illustrating the intensity and precision of pursuing three lap times with three separate Corvette variants and three different drivers. In addition to the engineers who set the lap times, the film features Reuss, Senior Vice President of Product Programs, Safety, Integration and Motorsports Ken Morris and Corvette Executive Chief Engineer Tony Roma.

Watch the "Homegrown Speed - a Corvette Story" documentary.

The cars

The Corvettes at the Nürburgring were all U.S. production-spec vehicles, with the only modifications being the safety equipment recommended by the track. This includes a roll hoop, full containment race seat, fire extinguisher, and a six-point safety harness. All three set lap times for the Prototype/Pre-Production category, since the ZR1 and ZR1X are not sold in Europe and the Z06 was a North American variant.

The drivers

Link (800 laps), Wallace (425 laps) and Cattell (600 laps) have extensive experience behind the wheel on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and have gone to the Nürburgring a combined 31 times to develop and test GM vehicles. The track offers unique road dynamics that challenge both the drivers and vehicles, and it is an important part of tuning Corvettes to deliver the on-track performance our customers expect.

Link, Wallace and Cattell are among the most seasoned Nürburgring-certified drivers at GM – with a combined 36 years of experience working on Performance Cars. Wallace also leads GM’s high performance driver training program.

“We’ve created a different kind of relationship between our cars, iconic tracks, and our engineers, it is how we develop our vehicles,” said Morris. “These Corvettes weren’t piloted by pro racecar drivers. They were driven by the same engineers who designed, engineered and tuned them. Brian, Aaron and Drew have grown into world-class drivers and even better engineers. Their lap times now rank among the fastest ever recorded by non-professionals at the ‘Ring, which is so cool.”

Fastest Production Cars at the Nürburgring