Corvette’s Wildest Creation Caught Tearing Up The Ring With A Secret Weapon

The first reviews of the current range-topping Corvette, the ZR1, have only just dropped, but Chevy engineers are already far advanced on another C8 that’s even more extreme. Its called the Zora, and it looks like the Corvette crew is currently at Germany’s old Nurburgring track getting ready to see exactly how fast it can go.

Related: C8 Corvette Zora Will Be Part ZR1 And Part E-Ray

New spy shots show two different examples of what appears to be the new C8 halo model, one purple, one yellow, being driven on the 12.9-mile (20.8 km) forest circuit and the roads around it. Our intel suggests the Corvette team will base themselves at the Ring for three weeks, hopefully giving them a chance to set an official lap time, and potentially embarrass some far more expensive European machinery.

A Corvette With Killer Supercar Intentions

There’s no such thing as a slow C8 Vette. Even the base car can hit 60 mph (97 kmh) in 3 seconds. But the Zora – named after the late, great Corvette engineer Zora Arkus Duntov – is going to make that entry-level Corvette feel about as athletic as a centenarian with locked-in syndrome.

Combining the twin-turbocharged, flat-plane crank V8 from the 1,064 hp (1,079 PS), rear-wheel drive ZR1 with the front electric motor from the E-Ray hybrid, the new flagship Corvette is rumored to produce around 1,200 hp (1,217 PS). Expect a zero-to-60 mph time in the low 2-second range, but more importantly when it comes to Nurburgring glory, a much bigger advantage beyond 60 mph.

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Both cars present as ZR1s with their angry-looking air intakes, split-rear window treatment and big rear spoilers, though the purple car has Z06 badges. And since neither car is wearing any camouflage it would be tempting to presume Chevy is simply testing Euro-spec versions of the ZR1, hence the weird exhaust tips. Or that it is simply getting ready to record a ZR1 Nurburgring lap-time, something it hasn’t yet done.

But both cars also have yellow circular stickers on their windows that tell emergency crews they’re hybrids, and hybrid power is something the ZR1 doesn’t have, but the Zora will. Even the ZR1 should be capable of lapping the course in well under 7 minutes, and should be able to do it faster than the Ford Mustang GTD, which recorded a 6:52.072 in May. But the Zora will be significantly faster again.

Could it go as far as dethroning the current production car champ, the Mercedes-AMG One, which clocked in at 6:29.09? That remains to be seen. But Chevy sure looks like it’s aiming high.

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