No Radio Allowed: Inside the Original Corvette ZR1

Twenty-five people checked the ZR1 box on a 1970 Corvette order form. Chevrolet gave the option a dry name, the “Special Purpose Engine Package,” and priced it at $968.95. For that money, a buyer got race-tested parts built around a new solid-lifter small-block, plus a list of comforts the factory refused to install.

More than five decades later, ZR1 is the badge on the most powerful Corvettes Chevrolet sells. The C8 ZR1 uses a 5.5-liter twin-turbo LT7 rated at 1,064 hp, and the all-wheel-drive ZR1X adds a front electric motor for 1,250 hp combined. The original 1970-72 package lasted three model years and 53 cars, so it rarely comes up when people talk about Corvette history. It deserves more attention than that. The first ZR1 was Chevrolet’s last factory road racing package of the solid-lifter era, and it arrived just as new emissions rules began to change the car.