1,250 hp Corvette hybrid breaks Pikes Peak performance record

The quality of electricity?

Its 911 Turbo S combines all-wheel drive with rear-wheel drive for added power, but the front-wheel-drive Corvette gives it an edge in a few areas, including handling.

“It makes everything easier to work with a hybrid, especially to remove power,” said Matt Foley, chief of staff at 000. Traditional control cuts the power of the engine, slows down all four wheels, or binds the brakes to the rotating wheels, which strip them very quickly. “It’s a hybrid, you can just put the power out front,” he said.

But in the Corvette, its main purpose is to provide a quick, fast response in all corners, from the bottom to the top, something that really impressed Hildebrand in the lower metal.

“Any car you have, no matter how powerful it is, you’re always waiting for it to go into the electric range and start going into corners,” Hildebrand told me. “This is like ‘POP!’ It just pulls the car into second gear RPM, and it’s off to the races. “

With all-wheel drive and hybrid power, the Corvette ZR1X had a slight advantage over other cars in the production lineup.

Credit: Tim Stevens

Add to that the ability to steer the front axle under acceleration and deceleration, and you have a car that blends the added control and finesse provided by the electric and internal combustion engines.

In the end it proved the winning combination, with Hildebrand’s ZR1X beating Jeff Zwart’s 911 GT2 RS by 14 seconds and coming in 23 seconds faster than Donner’s Turbo S, which climbed the hill in 9:53.740. That’s two-tenths of the way to 2022, a remarkable display of consistency.

Whether they are genuine documents, however, is a matter of debate. Chevrolet sees this as a new production car record on the hill. Pikes Peak rules for production cars, however, seem to exclude hybrids, making the ZR1X the fastest production car. hybrid.

Regardless, it was the EV that came out on top again. Romain Dumas actually set the fastest time of the day 8:18.202. He missed out on his 2018 record by 21 seconds but won by 11 seconds on the Sendycar V1, which set a new record as the fastest rear-wheel drive car.

Hybrid, electric, and good internal combustion all had fun last Sunday, but as usual, the real focus is selling on Monday.