The New Corvette ZR1: The Most Powerful, Also the Most Expensive
With 1,064 ponies onboard, you didn't expect the most powerful Corvette ever to be anything less?
In between our fevered wait for the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1's arrival and the eye-popping news about its performance capabilities, we must've missed the news that dropped earlier this month on its price tag. Chevy announced that the most powerful factory Corvette ever will also, unsurprisingly, be the priciest, with a starting price of $174,995 for the ZR1 coupe and $184,995 for the convertible.
Those MSRPs (which include Chevy's $1,695 destination charge) even hold up as the richest in Corvette history when accounting for the inflation-adjusted prices of past high-zoot Vettes. Take the 375-hp 1990 Corvette ZR-1—its inflation-adjusted price comes to around $143,000. In a win for the progression of time, that ZR-1's only boast over today's model was the hyphen in its name; the 2025 Corvette ZR1 loses that punctuation but has nearly three times the horsepower onboard. Even a 1970 Corvette with the ZR1 package cost the equivalent to $50,000 today, while the C6-generation ZR1 cost about $150,000 in today's money.
Though it is the most expensive Corvette of all time, it just can't shrug off that cloak of value that hangs over every Corvette, no matter its price tag. The new ZR1 is a ton of car for under $200,000, with straight-line performance that should keep up with blue-chip exotics costing twice as much or more. The engine is hand-assembled, there is carbon fiber everywhere, and—oh yeah—it goes 233 mph.
To squeeze the most all-around performance out of the new Corvette ZR1, one must add a few options—starting with the $8,495 Carbon Fiber Aero package, which adds front dive planes, a tall hood spoiler, underbody fins for added downforce, and a high-downforce rear wing. The Carbon Fiber Aero kit also is required if you want the $1,500 ZTK Performance package and its Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R tires.
Those who need more luxury with their 233-mph missiles can look beyond the "entry-level" 1LZ trim to the 3LZ that adds a 14-speaker Bose audio system, leather-slathered interior, and heated and ventilated seats in GT2 or Competition forms. That jumps the coupe's price to $185,995 and the convertible's to a heady $195,995. That's a lot of cheddar, considering a base 490-hp 2025 Corvette Stingray runs $69,995, but then there's never been a Corvette quite like the newest ZR1, has there?