We chose the ZR1 because it exhibits every traditional Corvette virtue while rectifying many of the weak points that plagued its predecessors. It’s loud enough at idle to produce a cease-and-desist letter from the homeowners’ association, but you can converse quietly with your passenger on the freeway. Drag racers will like the extra radiators; road racers will like the aero package. It makes big numbers, the way Corvettes always have, but it also conveys the intangible qualities of steering feel and high-speed balance typically associated with smaller, more restrained sports cars. Don’t think of it as a faster Z06; compared with that car, which failed to impress the 2016 PCOTY jury, the ZR1 is a finished piece in all respects. A closer comparison would be to PCOTY 2017’s third-place Grand Sport, which thrilled us with its feedback but occasionally felt underpowered in the fiercest company. The ZR1 redresses that grievance and then some.
Just as important, this imperial Corvette is a product of a team that treats the customer with both affection and respect. Your dream ZR1 may be a stick shift with the cheapo interior and the ZTK aero package. Others surely dream of an automatic, small-wing car with stitched leather on every surface. The beauty of the ZR1 is that both choices are valid, both choices are available, and with a multitude of options in between. We are too often told nowadays that such-and-such a degradation is inevitable, that as enthusiasts we must be prepared to put up with everything from a mandatory P-R-N-D-L pattern to a seven-inch ride height because there is no longer any other sensible option. The Corvette ZR1 is a 755-hp refutation of that assertion, a hammer thrown into Big Brother’s twin-clutch telescreen, a warp-speed expression of stubborn American independence. It is the 2019 Performance Car of the Year.
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