It’s pretty wild to think that the ZR1 Corvette turns 30 years old this year and it’s even wilder to think about what a revelation this car was back in 1990. With a 0-60 time clocked at 4.3 seconds and a quarter mile time (from the factory) in the 12-second range this was the first time that the world got to see a Corvette that could take on all comers. We have come to understand that the Chevy Corvette is the undisputed king in terms of the “bang for the buck” car in the so-called super car realm and while previous iterations of the machine were awesome, this was the first modern Corvette that stood in the ring with everything else the world could throw at it.

Interestingly, Chevrolet chose France as the spot to debut the car and to allow journalists to drive it. A small number were invited to cruise the ZR1 through the city streets and then ultimately on the Goodyear test track as that company supplied the rubber for the car. The results were likely just what the company wanted. Everyone kind of freaked out about how good it was.

The ultimate example of the C4 would exist for the rest of that generation’s production run. They would get quicker and faster as time went on, but the LT5 engine with its 32-valve heads, engineering work by Lotus, and production work by Mercury stands as one of the neatest performance engines that GM ever produced or ever will produce. This thing delivered the goods and its performance numbers stand up 30 years later.

How cool it that?

Press play below to see this 1990 review of the then new Corvette ZR1 – 4.3 0-60!