The Chevrolet Corvette has always been an archetype of automotive performance for the masses - an attainable, blue-collar sportscar capable of punching far above its price tag and challenging some of Europe's finest. But with the next Corvette Z06, Chevrolet might outdo themselves. The rear-mid-engine sportscar is believed to be getting the C8.R's ferocious 5.5L flat-plane-crank V8, and evidence appears to bear this out; just this week, a prototype was caught on video sounding decidedly Ferrari-like.
One relevant detail from that encounter went somewhat underreported, however: what it's being bench-marked against. One Brandon Byers managed to snap a photo of the C8 Z06 alongside a benchmark car, and it says a lot about where GM has set its aspirations.
That car is the 991-generation Porsche 911 GT2 RS - a $293,200 monster motivated by a twin-turbocharged 3.8L flat-six engine whose output peaks at some 690 horsepower. Since its 2017 introduction, the GT2 RS has set numerous production car lap records, including a then-fastest time of 6:47.25 at the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife.
That Nordschleife lap time has since been outdone by the Lamborghini Aventador LP770-4 SVJ, but the fact remains: the GT2 RS is no slouch. If Chevrolet is benchmarking the C8 Z06 against it, that means that engineers are interested in approximating its performance, including its 2.7-second 0-to-60-mph time and unreal levels of lateral acceleration.
Granted, manufacturers often bench-mark their own prototypes against cars that slot into a distinctly higher price and performance bracket, but it would be fair to say that American automakers have largely mastered maximizing the performance-per-dollar ratio. What this means is that, even though the GT2 RS starts at nearly five times the price of a base 2020 Corvette, it's not unthinkable that the Z06 could just about equal the Porsche in terms of raw performance figures.
Whether those raw figures will necessarily translate to near-equal lap times is anyone's guess, but at the least, Chevrolet clearly has high hopes for the next Z06's performance, and we are stoked.