ZR1 - STAR POWER

Welcome to America, where more speed means (a lot) more horsepower. Looks like the new Corvette ZR1 got the memo...

- WORDS OLLIE MARRIAGE

The Bugatti Veyron doesn't qualify. That fell a fraction short. Nor do any of the Holy Trinity from just a decade back, and nor did the Ferrari SF90 before the XX came along. The Lamborghini Revuelto sneaks in by a fag paper. Apt.

The 1,000 imperial horsepower club. For so long a four figure power output has felt like the entrance ticket to the ultra exclusive hypercar club. A place where European exotica from the likes of Koenigsegg and Bugatti sit around in Gucci loafers and fashionable shades, sweaters draped across shoulders, sipping cocktails and enjoying an innate sense of superiority.

And now here comes Corvette, banging open the doors like it's entering a saloon bar and strutting in like it owns the place. You can practically hear the spurs ringing on the floor 1,064bhp, an output that matches the AMG One and Aston Valhalla, all delivered without the faintest trace of an output-boosting electric motor.

Let me tell you what else the Zee Ar One hasn't got. A multimillion dollar price. A capped production run. An attention seeking personality. A sense of superiority. We could call these black marks in the hypercar rulebook, any one of them enough to deny the ZR1 entry. As if it cares. What we have here is as wholesomely, predictably American as you imagine - a rootin' tootin' horsepower figure with no pretences. A 36oz longhorn prime rib steak with wheels.