ZR1, GTD, and America’s new Nurburgring war

There’s a racetrack with a funny name in Germany that, in the eyes of many international enthusiasts, is the de facto benchmark for automotive performance. But the Nurburgring, a 13-mile (20 km) track often called the Green Hell, rarely hits the radar of mainstream US performance aficionados. That’s because American car companies rarely take the time to run cars there, and if they do, it’s in secrecy, to test pre-production machines cloaked in camouflage without publishing official times.

The track’s domestic profile has lately been on the rise, though. Late last year, Ford became the first American manufacturer to run a sub-7-minute lap: 6:57.685 from its ultra-high-performance Mustang GTD. It then did better, announcing a 6:52.072 lap time in May. Two months later, Chevrolet set a 6:49.275 with the hybrid Corvette ZR1X, becoming the new fastest American car around that track.

It’s a vehicular war of escalation, but it’s about much more than bragging rights.

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