The 1250-hp all-American wonder, Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X, blitzed to the top in 9 minutes and 30.1 seconds. This year’s 104th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb saw plenty of spectacle and unique builds, but one of the most impressive feats came from a stock machine. IndyCar veteran JR Hildebrand hammered out a new production car record of 9 minutes, 30.104 seconds behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X.
The effort seemingly arrived one year later than expected, after the C8’s non-hybrid ZR1 variant launched in 2024 with press imagery shot on the iconic mountainside. In fact, Hildebrand himself recognized the scene, and fired off missives to everyone he knew at General Motors inquiring after a seat. Tony Roma, GM's executive chief engineer for global Corvette and Performance Cars, explained the delay as an attempt to differentiate the ZR1 and ZR1X with contrasting entries at the Nürburgring Nordschleife and Pikes Peak.
View Price on Amazon“We talked about running the ZR1 last year,” Roma said. “Really, the ZR1X is a better match to the mountain. The electrification, with 186 horsepower, is still there all the way up to the top of the hill. Even though our turbochargers do a really, really good job of compensating, it doesn't quite make up for that much.” The ZR1X's differences over its more conventional sibling prove advantageous at the Colorado peak.
The mountain’s tight hairpins reward all-wheel-drive traction provided by the ZR1X’s twin-turbo V-8 and front electric motor, while air density drops by about 40 percent at the 14,115-foot summit finish line, choking internal-combustion engines of precious oxygen compared to sea level. Hence the longstanding overall Pikes Peak record of 7:57.148, still held by Romain Dumas and Volkswagen's fully electric ID.R prototype.
Among production cars, at Pikes Peak in 2019, Rhys Millen managed a 10:18.488 in a Bentley Continental GT. Then, in 2022, David Donner in a 992.1-generation Porsche 911 Turbo S managed two impressive times: a second overall finish at 10:34.053 while struggling with wintry conditions on race day, and a PPIHC-certified time of 9:53.541 set on a later, non-race one. Hildebrand never worried much about the conundrum of sorting through which record means what, though.
“First run, as a sighting lab, you could just tell, ‘Holy shit, this is just a completely different animal,’” he laughed. Comparing sector times through early tire testing mornings, the ZR1X easily gapped Donner, who had returned in the Turbo S. “I've been really impressed throughout the whole process of running the car, how much we've been able to just treat it like a race car,” Hildebrand said. “I don't think I've ever driven a car that has this type of setup, this type of system going on, that's so well integrated.”
Testing proved Chevy’s race day strategy correct: Endurance mode to save battery charge for the higher elevations, instead relying on the massive turbos to push 24 psi of boost through the lower sections. Doing so also allowed regenerative braking to warm up the ZR1X’s relatively diminutive 1.9-kilowatt-hour battery. Then, once oxygen starvation began to affect ICE output, Hildebrand started using the push-to-pass e-boost button as much as possible. All throughout, he kept the MagneRide suspension dampers in Track mode, and even (surprisingly) admitted to keeping the traction control activated—albeit at the lowest setting—to keep the hybrid powertrain happiest.
By the time Hildebrand took the green flag on one of the best mornings of weather in recent Pikes Peak memory, most spectators had already shed their jackets and beanies. Two spots earlier in the starting order, Donner had almost exactly matched Hildebrand’s sector one time, but the Corvette driver would go on to smash the production car record.
Source: roadandtrack.com
