Chevy built a one-off 850-HP supercharged C8 Corvette mule just to create another car

Chevrolet faced a problem when it came to developing the 2025 Corvette ZR1.

It’s a mighty fast car, running on 1,064 horsepower, but there was no data on how to develop tires and suspension for a car that powerful.

Their solution was a little unorthodox.

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The creation of a mule car

Speaking of how they overcame the problem, the Executive Chief Engineer of the Corvette, Tadge Jechter said: “We had to cobble up a super high-horsepower, high-torque car.

“We built a mule.

“A hot-rodded [C8] Stingray, actually, with an LT5 in it.

“A hot-rodded LT5 with 850 horsepower and a sequential shift gearbox, to do tire development.”

The higher-ups at Chevy needed some convincing however.

Juechter explained: “It didn’t take long for us to convince ourselves. Convincing leadership, we need to go build this hot rod…oh, we’ve gotta do this.”

Once the car was built, there were still some teething issues that needed to be worked through.

Chief engineer Josh Holder said: “We put a smaller pulley on the supercharger and it used to just eat belts.”

“In hindsight, it was too slow,” admitted Chris Barber, the lead development engineer on the ZR1.

The mule’s performance was still 214hp short of the production car.

What did Chevy do with the mule car?

It’s not clear what happened with the mule after ZR1’s LT7 engine became a reality.

The likelihood is that it was disposed of quickly.

A short life cycle for the most powerful Corvette ever built.

Now that the 2025 ZR1 is on its way, maybe it’s time for a rematch against the Tesla Plaid?

The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 went head to head with the Tesla Model S Plaid in 2023, where the latter stormed to victory.

With 755 horsepower, this Corvette is powerful but still some way short of the capabilities of its 2025 iteration.