I drove a $137,000 Corvette ZR1 to see if the most powerful Vette ever is worth the steep price tag — here's the verdict (GM)

The Chevy Corvette ZR1 is the most powerful Vette that General Motors has ever produced.
The 755-horsepower ZR1 is surprisingly easy to drive on public roads, but the car has the kind of specs that enable it to shame supercars on a racetrack.
I was staggered by the ZR1's power, but I actually found it pleasing for slo-mo cruising.
The ZR1 is the pinnacle of Vette-ness but a new Vette is slated to be revealed on July 18 , and it will have a mid-engine design.
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The next generation of the Chevy Corvette, a car that has been in continuous production since 1953, will not have the engine up front where it belongs, but in the middle. Chevy has confirmed this and set a date to reveal the eighth-generation Vette: July 18.

The mid-engine design will make for a better race car Corvette Racing has for years been notching prestigious victories so the eighth-gen Vette will be a whole new ball game.

Things change, and there's no point in defying progress. But until the new Vette arrives, we have a bevy of seventh-gen Vettes to enjoy.

There's the magnificent Stingray, Business Insider's 2014 Car of the Year. Then there's the Grand Sport, in my view the best bang for the buck in sports cars on Earth. For the fearless, there's the beastly Z06, Bowling Green's version of a supercar.

And finally, there's the ZR1. If the Z06 turns Corvette up to 11 with 650 horsepower, the ZR1 takes it to 111, or 1,111 or just trashes the amplifier dials altogether and creates a white-hot supernova of noise and power. The same V8 engine that provides the Z06 with its epic output, when modified and ridiculously intensified, generates a near-comical 755 horsepower in the ZR1.

The ZR1 designation has come and gone in the Vette's history, first arriving in a special package in 1970 on the third-generation car. There was a fourth-gen ZR1, but no fifth-gen version. Gen six also saw a ZR1. Gen seven has been around since 2014, but a new ZR1 arrived for the 2019 model year .

The latest ZR1 isn't for the faint of heart. If you don't like huge rear carbon-fiber wings and low front aero technology, you might want to look elsewhere like at the Stingray or the Grand Sport.

I did not look elsewhere on a weeklong visit to the Motor City last year; Chevy kindly lent me a roughly $137,000 2019 ZR1 to sample.

There was a surprise in store for me. Read on to find out what it was.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

I drove a $137,000 Corvette ZR1 to see if the most powerful Vette ever is worth the steep price tag — here's the verdict (GM)

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