Corvette Trio Sets Record Nürburgring Laps With GM Engineers
Chevrolet sent the Corvette Z06, Corvette ZR1 and electrified all-wheel-drive Corvette ZR1X to the 12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife and, for the first time in the track’s history, one carmaker logged three separate lap times in one visit with three non-professional drivers. Vehicle dynamics experts Drew Cattell, Brian Wallace, and Aaron Link—engineers who developed these performance cars—piloted them, underscoring the depth of GM talent and placing the brand at the top of American manufacturers on the fabled Green Hell.
Cattell guided the 1,064-horsepower ZR1X to a blistering 6:49.275, the quickest official lap ever set by a non-pro driver at the Nürburgring. Wallace followed in the Corvette ZR1, clocking 6:50.763, while Link squeezed 7:11.826 from the naturally aspirated 670-horsepower Corvette Z06. Each time, now sits among the fastest non-professional laps officially recorded.
“No auto manufacturer has done a Nürburgring lap attempt like this before,” declared GM President Mark Reuss. “From development through production, and now at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the Green Hell, we have clearly shown there is no limit to what our GM engineers and vehicles can accomplish. These are the best Corvettes in history, period.” The forthcoming documentary “Homegrown Speed: A Corvette Story” captures the journey from GM’s Milford Proving Ground to Germany, spotlighting the precision that delivered three laps with three Corvette variants and three engineer-drivers. Ken Morris, Senior Vice President of Product Programmes, Safety, Integration and Motorsports, added: “We’ve created a different kind of relationship between our cars, iconic tracks, and our engineers, it is how we develop our vehicles.”
The team ran U.S. production-spec cars, adding only Nürburgring-recommended safety gear—a roll hoop, full-containment race seat, fire extinguisher and six-point harness—so each Corvette competed in the Prototype/Pre-Production category because ZR1 and ZR1X are not European models, and the Z06 carried its North American specification. Link, Wallace and Cattell, boasting 800, 425 and 600 Nürburgring laps respectively, have visited the circuit 31 times to refine GM performance cars, building a combined 36 years of experience and cementing their status as Nürburgring-certified drivers.
Since 2019, the Nürburgring has officially documented manufacturer laps, requiring onboard video proof. Chevrolet’s latest assault places the Corvette Z06, ZR1 and ZR1X among the fastest production-car efforts on the Nordschleife. It confirms that GM engineers, not racing professionals, now hold the standout American records on the world’s most demanding circuit.
