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Title: The 1,064-HP 2026 Chevy Corvette ZR1: 335 Miles, 10 Hours, and the Battle of Los Angeles Christian Seabaugh | Writer Ryan Lugo | Illustration Brandon Lim | Photographer Feb 13, 2026 For a significant stretch during my teenage years, I was deeply invested in the unofficial records of unsanctioned “races.” I suspect this peculiar interest was sparked by a late-night rerun of Jackass’ Gumball 3000 Rally, which chronicled a journey from London to St. Petersburg, Russia, and back in a rather beat-up Jaguar. This viewing sent me down a rabbit hole that only deepened when I discovered the legendary Cannonball Run and its subsequent iterations. Created by the iconic automotive journalist Brock Yates in the 1970s, the Cannonball Run was conceived as a form of protest against the national 55-mph speed limits that had been imposed. This New York City–Los Angeles “rally” presented what seemed to be the ultimate automotive challenge. What captivated my impressionable 2006 mind even further was the news that a long-standing record had just been shattered. An eccentric enthusiast, driving a then-cutting-edge E39 BMW M5, had managed to complete the journey in a remarkable 31 hours and 4 minutes. Closer to my own stomping grounds as a Brooklynite teenager, that same driver had honed his skills by “lapping” Manhattan in a mere 27 minutes—a feat that seemed almost incomprehensible. When I was younger and perhaps a bit more naive, my friends and I would fantasize about besting this record. However, by the time we might have possessed the financial means to undertake such an endeavor, our self-preservation instincts had long since taken firm root. Still, my curiosity about other unofficial local records never waned. What was the quickest anyone had ever driven around Washington, D.C.’s Beltway? What about Berlin’s Stadtring or Moscow’s ring road? This line of thinking eventually turned my attention to my adopted hometown, Los Angeles. The Challenge The unofficial capital of American car culture presents a unique and somewhat perplexing environment to navigate, let alone to define. The term “Los Angeles” tends to consume all the oxygen in local and national discussions, yet it functions as little more than the largest of the 88 cities that constitute Los Angeles County. This vast area resembles a sprawling, Connecticut-sized mass, hemmed in by the Pacific Ocean along its heavily populated western and southern flanks. Its waist is bisected by imposing mountain ranges and dense forests, while its northern reaches stretch into the high deserts. For the locals, the definition of “real” L.A. is as subjective as how New Yorkers define “upstate.” (For the record, the correct answer for New Yorkers is “everything north of The Bronx.”) The moniker “L.A.” encompasses everything from beachside bungalows and the glitz of Hollywood’s strip to traffic-choked freeways. But it also includes winding canyon roads, arrow-straight desert pavement, and iconic boulevards. The idea of piecing together a lap encompassing its best driving roads in a single go became an enticing, if enigmatic, challenge. However, unlike a circuit of D.C. or Manhattan, lapping this state-sized county would be as much a test of endurance as it would be of speed. The 2026 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, then, emerged as the perfect candidate for such a task. Building upon the foundation of the MotorTrend-award-winning Corvette Z06—a car itself engineered for endurance racing in its GT3.R guise—the new ZR1 represents the zenith of gasoline-powered American performance. Its headline feature resides behind the driver: the high-revving, flat-plane-crank 5.5-liter V-8 engine. This powerplant is a fortified derivative of the Z06’s, enhanced with twin turbochargers that force an astonishing amount of air through the engine, generating up to 37 pounds of boost at the exhaust tips. The total output is a staggering 1,064 horsepower and 828 lb-ft of torque, which is put down to the pavement through steamroller-wide Michelin tires via an eight-speed automatic transaxle. Opting for the ZTK package further elevates the ZR1 with stiffer springs, refined MagneRide dampers, larger carbon-ceramic brakes, and aggressive aerodynamic elements including dive planes and a substantial rear spoiler. These aerodynamic aids can generate up to 1,200 pounds of downforce, although this figure is only achieved at the car’s top speed of 233 mph, rendering it something of a fantasy specification for most drivers. Nevertheless, this level of race-car technology trickle-down makes the ZR1 an obvious choice for the grand L.A. challenge. The Route The “Lap of Los Angeles” route we devised follows the perimeter of L.A. County. It commences at the Point Fermin Lighthouse in San Pedro, the southernmost point of mainland L.A. From there, it sweeps eastward across Long Beach before heading north over the San Gabriel Mountains via the scenic Angeles Crest Highway. The journey then descends into Antelope Valley and traverses the desert landscape to the county’s northern border. Finally, the route heads back southwest via a series of canyon roads, followed by an unavoidable stretch on freeways and surface streets, to reach the famously sinuous Mulholland Highway in Malibu. The concluding segment essentially traces the coastline down to the finish line, looping around the Palos Verdes Peninsula once more and returning to Point Fermin. To amplify the challenge for both myself and the Corvette—and to facilitate our photography team’s work—we chose to undertake this journey during daylight hours. We set off at the break of a late winter sunrise, with the goal of crossing the finish line before sunset. After all, what is an L.A. drive without a dash of traffic? Or fog, as it turned out. The Corvette rumbled toward the starting line at an ungodly hour, well before the sun had risen. The Victorian-era Point Fermin Lighthouse, designed to be easily visible, was anything but. The fog was so dense that I could perceive the ZR1’s aerodynamics at work, noticing how the air was being captured by the carbon lip of the frunk’s radiator outlet and channeled over the car’s wide fenders. The lack of forward visibility made navigating the narrow, hilly streets of San Pedro a difficult task, and it obscured the distinction between the nascent dawn and the ambient lighting emanating from the harbor to the east. We’re Off and Running By 6:24 am, the sun had managed to peek over the horizon, and I decided that was sufficient. I eagerly pointed the ZR1 northward with the intention of making a right turn onto the iconic Vincent Thomas Bridge and crossing over Terminal Island into Long Beach. From there, the plan was to cut through the city to bypass the Orange County border and merge onto the 605 freeway. Things went awry almost immediately. An early-morning accident had shut down the bridge, forcing the ZR1 and the port’s early-morning armada of tractor-trailers onto the 110 freeway and diverting us from our intended route. To compound the problem, instead of providing assistance in getting back on course, my phone’s navigation app crashed, compelling me to rely on my admittedly sketchy memory as I attempted to reorient myself. Knowing I needed to return to Terminal Island to rejoin my route, I veered off the freeway into the morning rush hour traffic of Wilmington and navigated my way down Pacific Coast Highway to Henry Ford Avenue. This street, along with others such as Firestone, Nash, and Studebaker, serves as a tangible relic of L.A.’s prosperous era as a hub for automotive manufacturing. It led me past former factory grounds where Model A’s once rolled off assembly lines and under a bridge that still bears the Ford family name, guiding me back toward Terminal Island. It was here that I made my second misstep. With the thick, soupy fog intensifying closer to the water, I took a turn in the wrong direction instead of bearing right. This sent me down a two-lane road that was both too narrow and too heavily trafficked by trucks to allow for a safe U-turn in the fog. Frustrated, I pulled off into a paved railroad siding at the road’s end, reset my glitching map app, and engaged the throttle, hoping to recoup some of the lost time during the long day ahead. However, it wasn’t long before I found myself ensnared in the very same morning freeway congestion I had hoped to avoid with my early start. The slow progress and the soft morning light provided an opportunity to take stock of my surroundings. Modern Corvette interiors have often been underwhelming, but the 2026 redesign, combined with the full carbon-fiber construction of our ZR1 test car, imparts a genuinely exotic feel to the Chevrolet. The traffic also served as a useful reminder of how far automotive technology has advanced; not long ago, a mid-engine car with even half of the ZR1’s horsepower would have been a miserable experience in such conditions. This Corvette, fortunately, is not. In its default Tour mode, the throttle response is linear, the shifts from the automatic transmission are seamless, and the ride quality is commendably comfortable. Even the outward visibility is surprisingly good, thanks to the oversized side mirrors and a camera display integrated into the interior rearview mirror. Two hours after departing San Pedro, I made my first pit stop. What was intended to be a quick refuel before embarking on the