Don’t Expect The Corvette ZR1 To Break All Nurburgring Lap Records

General Motors recently posted a teaser from the Nürburgring, showing the 2026 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 setting a lap time. Speculation has already run rampant, with a former Corvette engineer even predicting the 1,064-horsepower ‘Vette would be within a shout of breaking the production car lap record around the famous racetrack in Germany. Speaking with the current executive chief engineer for Corvette, however, it seems we may need to temper our expectations.

Many of the rumors circulating around this teaser are related to the date it was published: June 28. This led some speculators to predict that the ZR1 would set a 6:28 lap time, which would put it ahead of the current production car lap record holder, the Mercedes-AMG One. That car features an F1-inspired V6 engine, and is capable of a blistering 6:29.090 time. The Porsche 911 GT2 RS with the Manthey Performance Kit is in second place by a significant margin (6:38.835). When CarBuzz asked about the date being a hint at the lap time, Tony Roma seemed to insinuate this was not the case.

Setting A Lap Is Difficult

The Nürburgring Nordschleife is possibly the most grueling racetrack in the world; they don’t call it the Green Hell for no reason. It stretches for 12.944 miles with a staggering 157 corners, meaning there could be rain at one end of the track and clear skies on the other.

“It’s more difficult than it’s even been to set a record at the ring. They charge you a lot of money to talk about it, and they want to have certified timing and scoring,” Roma explained. “You have to rent the track, get the safety marshals, pay the licensing fee, pay the filming fee. And if your day rains, oh well. We are not based in Stuttgart, so we can’t just go back next week. That’s why you haven’t seen us set a lap record attempt.”

Some automakers will publish what is called a “segmented time,” where they take the best times from various sections over several runs to estimate a lap time. But Roma says that is “a little cheesy” and “a bit misleading.”

Will It Beat The Mustang GTD?

Roma said he wanted to “wait until you have a story that’s worth telling.” Though it seems unlikely that the ZR1 will defeat the AMG One, there is another important car that Chevy hopes it can take down: the Ford Mustang GTD. For reference, the GTD became the fastest American production car to lap the Nordschleife when it set a 6:52.072 time earlier this year. Becoming the fastest American car would certainly be a good story for Chevy.

Related

See How The Ford Mustang GTD Beat Its Own American Nurburgring Record

Ford has revealed side-by-side footage and telemetry to show how the GTD beat its own sub-7-minute record around the Green Hell.

“You can see the effort Ford had to put into the GTD,” Roma hinted. “And they had to go back twice to get decent weather.”

“All I can say is, stay tuned. We did go and drive around the Green Hell, and we’re pretty proud of how the car did. And so, we’re going to release more details when the time’s right. Very soon, very soon.”