Watch: Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X becomes America’s quickest production car

Chevrolet has proved that electric power isn’t the end of the road for drag strip performance with its ballistic new Corvette. 

Armed with the 919kW Corvette ZR1X, the American brand set out to break production car records, and it looks like this was more than achieved. 

For context, the new Corvette ZR1X is the brand’s most powerful production car, and uses a twin-turbo 5.5-litre which is paired with an electric motor on the front axle. 

So while the V8 engine sends more than 1300Nm to the rear wheels, the electric motor adds 223Nm at the front wheels, pulling it off the line. 

To achieve their goals, Chevrolet has stated that a prepped surface was used, and they picked a certain time of year where the air was cold enough to produce good power, but still provide traction. 

As for the numbers? The headliner was an 8.65-second quarter-mile run, where the Corvette managed a 0-96km/h time of 1.6-seconds. 

Chevrolet notes that these figures were achieved without any sort of rollout accounted for, and the timer started as the car moved. 

With these times under its belt, this officially makes the Corvette ZR1X the quickest American production car. 

That record was previously held by the Tesla Model S Plaid, which did a 9.2-second quarter mile run, and achieved a 1.99-second 0-100km/h (with rollout). 

More recently, Dodge held the record with the Dodge Challenger Demon 170, which was released as a purpose-built, street legal drag car. 

It set a quarter mile time of 8.91-seconds with a 0-96km/h time of 1.66-seconds. Arguably more impressively, the Demon did it as a rear-wheel drive car, but also with factory-equipped drag slicks.