Jay Leno has what you can call “eclectic” taste in automobiles. Some of the vehicles in his massive garage include a McLaren F1, vintage Bugattis and Bentleys, cars powered by steam and airplane engines, and several Deusenbergs. Despite that, he always has space and time for American cars. He recently welcomed GM President Mark Reuss to share details about a very special C2 convertible and the new 2025 Corvette ZR1.
Just as the C8 continues the lineage of the Corvettes before it, Reuss continues his family’s legacy at GM. His late father Lloyd started with the automaker in 1957, eventually advancing to president of the company in 1990. Along the way, he was the chief engineer at Buick and Chevrolet, as well as Buick’s general manager in 1980. One of the projects he was involved with was the Powerglide two-speed automatic transmission, the very same one found in the 1967 Corvette 427 convertible that his son inherited from him and brought to show Leno.
Like his father, Mark is a longtime GM man. According to his company bio, he joined GM as a student intern in 1983. “Reuss also served as GM’s vice president of global engineering, where he created and led GM’s Performance Division in 2001 and was responsible for GM’s racing vehicles, including the V-Series Cadillacs and SS Chevrolets.” Reuss was named the president of GM in 2019. Under his tenure, the first-ever mid-engine production Corvette was launched in the 2020 model year.
As its predecessors did, the 2025 ZR1 takes Corvette performance to a stratospheric level. Like the C8 Z06, it’s powered by a 5.5-liter V8 with a flat-plane crankshaft. The addition of 67-millimeter turbochargers that pump in up to 20 pounds of boost enables the hand-built LT7 engine (aka “Gemini”) to rocket past the Z06’s output and produce 1,064 horsepower and 828 lb-ft of torque. Of course, that kind of thrust generates a lot of heat, so Corvette engineers had to replace the front trunk storage space with a charge cooler and add an air vent to the lid.
Of course, there’s more to a high-performance Corvette than just power. It needs the exhaust sound to match. Reuss tells Leno that initially, the ZR1 was too quiet and that making it sound like a Corvette was “very difficult.” While benchmarking rival midengine cars, the Corvette team discovered those were bouncing exhaust sound off the firewall behind the passenger compartment, whereas the ZR1 was jettisoning its exhaust sounds directly. To give themselves more time to get the ZR1’s aural signature just right, the ZR1 crew pushed back the car’s debut.
Unfortunately, this newest peak Corvette also marks the end of an era within Chevrolet. Earlier this year, Tadge Juechter, who headed the development of the C7 and C8 Corvettes, retired after spending 47 years with General Motors, 31 of which were in the Corvette division.
If you happen to buy a 2025 Corvette, you can see Juechter any time you want. Just glance at the top left of the ZR1’s split rear window, one of the corners of the windshield, or the front tunnel reinforcement panel and you’ll find a graphic bearing his likeness. The best way to honor his legacy? Put your right foot down all the way.
Source: www.classiccars.com