2026 Corvette ZR1X and ZR1 conquer Green Hell

The 2026 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X is officially the fastest American production vehicle to lap the Nürburgring, dispatching the Green Hell in a Mustang GTD-beating 6:49.275.

This result perhaps isn’t surprising for the average car buff though; the ZR1X is massively more powerful than the GTD and is a dedicated supercar as opposed to an enhanced sports or muscle car.

That said, it probably could’ve gone even faster seeing as the standard Corvette ZR1 was only 1.5 seconds behind it, clocking a 6:50.763 and crowding the Porsche 911 GT3 RS into a Corvette sandwich.

An important note here is that the ‘Vettes were driven by two different drivers, both from the C8 development team as opposed to professional racing drivers.

Unsurprisingly, the ZR1 variants were fitted with the optional ZTK Performance (super sticky Michelin Pilot Cup 2Rs, firmer springs) and carbon aero packages to help extract maximum dynamic performance.

The twin-turbocharged duo was joined in Germany by a fully-loaded Z06 (Z07 Performance Package) which set a lap time of 7:11.826.

As it turns out though, GM wasn’t the only automaker to claim a new record at the world’s most demanding racetrack recently… BMW has also been out playing on the Nordschleife with the goal of breaking its own lap record for wagons.

And it did; the 2025 BMW M3 CS Touring shaved roughly six seconds off the standard M3 Touring’s time to stop the clock in 7:29.490.

That puts the five-seat high-performance wagon within 20 seconds of the mid-ship Z06 – a supercar – which GM proudly advertises as the ‘most powerful naturally aspirated V8’ production car.

For reference, the CS Touring was only eight tenths of a second (0.8s) slower than the equivalent sedan.

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