ProCharger Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray Is An 855 HP Hybrid ZR1-Hunter
The Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray is still officially the quickest Corvette ever, but that will probably change next year. The hybrid Corvette E-Ray will soon have the 2025 Corvette ZR1 to deal with.
While the E-Ray’s all-wheel-drive system’s traction gets the most out of the available power, the ZR1 will have a lot more of the latter. Its 5.5.-liter twin-turbocharged V8 is rated at 1,064 hp, which will make it the most powerful production car with an internal combustion engine ever offed by a major American automaker.
Chevrolet says the E-Ray can accelerate to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and cover a quarter-mile in 10.6 seconds, while the ZR1 will do a quarter-mile in less than 10 seconds. Testing and development of the ZR1 is still ongoing, however, and Chevy hasn’t released a 0-60 mph time for it, but since the 670 hp Corvette Z06 can hit 60 mph in 2.6 seconds with just rear-wheel-drive, it’s probably not a stretch to assume the ZR1 will beat the E-Ray to that mark. At least the stock E-Ray.
ProCharger Superchargers has launched a new supercharger kit for the E-Ray that adds a lot of juice. The centrifugal blower adds 230 hp to bring the total output to 855 hp. It’s priced at $16,999 and the company says that the installation is relatively simple and easily reversible.
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ProCharger told American Cars And Racing that doesn’t touch the front electric motor, which is good for 160 hp on its own, but did have to teach the more powerful combustion engine setup how to communicate properly with its battery-powered cohort so that they can stay in sync.
The result is an E-Ray that can sprint to 60 mph in 2.0 seconds flat on an unprepped surface and street tires while running on premium. That’s as quick as a $600,000 Ferrari SF90 Stradale hybrid and everything quicker is all-electric .. .except for the quickest of all.
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That would be the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, which can do it in 1.66 seconds, but only when it’s burning E85 to crank its supercharged V8 up to 1,025 hp, wearing MIckey Thompson drag radial tires and running on a prepped drag strip. On a regular street with normal performance tires? Dodge hasn’t officially said.
So it’s far from a foregone conclusion that the ZR1 can break the two-second barrier, and we likely won’t find out for sure until sometime next year. Until then, the ProCharger E-Ray can stake a claim to be King of the Hill. But it might also be a vision of the future.
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Chevrolet has confirmed that it’s working on an all-electric Corvette, but it may have something else up its sleeve. It’s long been rumored that a Corvette Zora named Zora Arkus Duntov, the engineer who turned the Corvette into a performance icon in the 1960s. Chevy threw gas on this fire by trademarking the name.
When this chatter started a few years ago, it was widely assumed that the ZR1 would come in at around 800 hp and the Zora closer to 1,000 hp, but the real ZR1 threw a wrench in those works. How does 1,224 hp sound instead?
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The Zora is expected to be a hybrid and that’s how powerful a ZR1 equipped with the E-Ray’s front electric motor would be before they even started fooling around with it. More power certainly seems possible, but considering how quick the ProCharger E-Ray is, how much more do you really need?
Don’t answer that and don’t hold your breath for the final word. The E-Ray was revealed in January 2023 and the ZR1 this July, so it might be 2026 before whatever the next Corvette is will be announced. Considering what quick cars they are, Chevy sure makes you wait long for them to arrive.
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