Yahoo Finance The Chevy Corvette ZR1 Has Roots That Date Back to the 1970s
Chevy introduced the ZR-1 option package to the Corvette in 1970.
Fewer than 60 ZR-1s left the factory between 1970 and 1972.
Opting for the performance-focused option meant sacrificing key comfort and convenience items.
GM's race engineers of the 1970s would surely be impressed if you told them the original ZR-1 they developed would eventually evolve into today's 1064-hp 2025 Chevy Corvette ZR1, but they wouldn't have been surprised. From its earliest beginnings, ZR-1 was synonymous with a tuned-up and beefed-up powerplant that featured better cooling, braking, and handling.
Casual Corvette fans might be the ones surprised to learn that the ZR1 designation goes all the way back to the third-generation Corvette. In 1970, at the height of Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) racing, Chevy brought out the ZR-1 as a performance add-on to its 5.7-liter LT1 small-block V-8. The LT1 was already a high-revving engine with a lumpy cam and a big Holley carburetor, making 370 horsepower and 380 pound-feet of torque, a sum capable of propelling a so-equipped Corvette through the quarter-mile in the low-14-second range. The ZR-1 package was designed with autocross and amateur road racing in mind, the idea being that would-be wheelers could check the box and add even more go-fast improvements in one easy step.
The numbers for the first ZR-1 may be less astonishing by 2025 standards, but the idea was the same. The 1970 ZR-1 included a cold-air hood, a larger radiator with a different shroud and fan, the famed Muncie "rock crusher" four-speed manual transmission, electronic ignition, and handling improvements such as power brakes, stiffer shocks and springs, and front and rear anti-roll bars.
If you checked the ZR-1 option box when ordering your then-new Corvette coupe or convertible, you gave up most other luxuries, including air conditioning, the rear-window defroster, power steering, any fancy wheel covers, an alarm system, and a stereo. Luckily, the engine sounded good so you wouldn't miss that last one as you terrorized your neighborhood in what would end up being one of the rarest small-block Corvettes ever sold (fewer than 60 were made between 1970 and 1972). Customers for the new ZR1 won't have to make quite as many comfort-related sacrifices, but going the ZR1 route will certainly add more to the bottom line than the original package's $1000 upcharge.
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