At the Circuit of the Americas race-track in Austin, there’s a smooth straightaway between the hairpin at turn 11 and the brake-melting turn 12. Nearly two thirds of a mile long, it is beloved by pros and lucky amateurs as a place where throttles open, slipstreams occur, and the fastest speeds in a race happen. NASCAR drivers hit close to 180 miles per hour here. F1 cars touch 214. MotoGP riders routinely flirt with 220. I, a lucky amateur, did more than 170 miles per hour in the 2025 Corvette ZR1. Life will never be the same.

The first thing to know about the ZR1, the most powerful ’Vette in history, is that it is propelled by an engine that’s never been seen in a production car: a 5.5-liter flat-plane crank twin-turbo V-8. For those without an automotive-engineering degree, the flat-pla

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