This is a car that was born out of questions. Rumor has it that when GM big wig Rick Wagner drove the new Corvette Z06 he was so impressed he said, “If this is what we can do with $70,000, I wonder what a $100,000 Corvette would be like..”

That’s all that was needed. With no other official permission the Corvette team went to work. Under the code name Blue Devil, the team worked night and day and put in  lots of unpaid overtime to achieve what many are saying is the ultimate production American super car, the Corvette ZR1.

638 horsepower. That’s right, that is not a typo ladies and gentlemen. The new Zr1’s supercharged V8 makes almost enough power to change the rotation of the earth if wanted. The Corvette team first started with the z06’s 7.0 liter aluminum block and turbochargers. It was deemed to unreliable for production (remember, it might have 638HP but it still has to be valid for GMs multi-year powertrain warranty). That engine was already running on the ragged edge, so instead the team used the regular Vette’s 6.2 liter V8 and put a mighty Eaton roots-type supercharger on top of it. A little tweak here and there and bingo, 638 ponies with no problems.

Now they needed a chassis able to cope with all the extra oomph. Corvette engineers worked closely with the design department to make a body kit that would make the ZR1 capable of over 200 miles per hour. The car is teeming with aero tweaks that keep that $100k Vette rubber side down at unreal speeds. Yet no matter how much boasting you make you gotta walk the walk among car guys, in other words, prove it.

No problem. You see, once the car was almost production ready the team did just that.  After flying a few cars to Papenburg, Germany the team set out to prove their claims. Luke Sewell, a powertrain engineer on the Corvette platform team was behind the wheel during the top-speed run. With back to back runs the car averaged a mighty 205mph! On one of the unofficial runs they even hit 208mph with a tail wind!

Well Rick, what can we do with a $100,000 Corvette? We can go 205mph sir, and we can do it all day long…