C7 Corvette ZR1 buyer's guide (2019): which wing, which gearbox, the records and what to pay

A Z06 already had a supercharger and the wide body. The ZR1 went after more power and less heat, per GM’s releases, its order guide and its ZR1 spec sheet (opens in new tab):

• Engine. The LT5: 6.2 liters, a dry sump, a 2.65-liter supercharger with 52 percent more displacement than the Z06 LT4’s, and GM’s first dual fuel injection (direct plus port). Output: 755 hp at 6,400 rpm and 715 lb-ft at 3,600, the most of any Chevrolet production vehicle when GM announced it in November 2017. GM had used the LT5 name once before, for the four-cam, 32-valve 5.7-liter V8 of the C4 (1984–1996) ZR-1; this supercharged pushrod V8 shares only the name.
• Cooling. A new front fascia and four new radiators bring the total to 13 heat exchangers, and the carbon “halo” hood is open over the supercharger and intercooler. Road & Track reported GM’s target: full power for full track sessions at 100°F.
• Gearboxes. A seven-speed manual with Active Rev Match, or an eight-speed paddle-shift automatic, the first automatic GM offered in a ZR1. The C6 (2005–2013) ZR1 was manual-only.
• Chassis and aero. Carbon-ceramic brakes, Magnetic Ride, an electronic limited-slip differential and a front underwing on every car, plus a wing on stanchions: low, or high with ZTK. GM’s order guide lists 19 x 10.5 in front wheels, half an inch wider than any Z06’s.
• Bodies. A coupe with a removable roof, or the first ZR1 convertible since the 1970 model year. GM’s curb weights: 3,560 lb coupe, 3,618 lb convertible.
• What it gave up. Active Fuel Management hardware and the Eco and Weather modes. Every ZR1 carried a $2,100 gas guzzler tax.

How quick. GM’s preliminary figure was under 3.0 seconds to 60 mph with the automatic; product manager Harlan Charles later gave 2.85 s and a 10.6-second quarter mile, Motor Authority reported. Car and Driver ran 2.9 s and 10.7 s at 135 mph in a ZTK coupe in May 2018. MotorTrend, on 91-octane fuel, got 3.0 s with ZTK and 3.2 s with the low wing. Every car tested was an automatic.

Top speed. Chevrolet’s 212 mph is the average of 214.88 and 210.20 mph runs in an automatic low-wing coupe at ATP Papenburg, Germany. The other versions’ figures in the table are Chevrolet’s claims as Car and Driver reported (opens in new tab) them. GM’s own releases say only that a High Wing car “still exceeds 200 mph”; this guide found no GM document with the lower figures.

Is the ZR1 or Z06 faster? The ZR1, wherever power counts: quarter-mile traps of 131.8–135 mph against 126 for Car and Driver’s Z07 Z06, a 2:39.5 lap of Virginia International Raceway at Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap 2018 against the Z06’s 2:44.6 (in 2015’s 100-degree heat), and GM’s 212 mph against Car and Driver’s 185 mph estimate for the Z06. Where grip counts, they’re level: Car and Driver never got its ZR1 to 60 mph quicker or around the skidpad harder than a Z07 Z06 (2.9 s for both; 1.18 g against 1.19).

Is the C7 ZR1 faster than the C8 ZR1? No. The C8 (2020–present) ZR1 has 1,064 hp, ran 2.2 s to 60 mph and a 9.5-second quarter at 149 mph in Car and Driver’s test, and has a 233 mph GM figure with standard aero. A 2027 C8 ZR1 coupe starts at $197,495 with destination. The C7 keeps the engine in front and a choice of pedals: every earlier ZR1 was manual-only, by GM’s account, and the C8’s only gearbox is a dual-clutch. More in the C7 vs C8 guide.

The 2019 model year ran 20 months from late January 2018, and a ZR1’s build date still matters:

• February 27, 2018. Corvette Blogger reported that ZR1 production would start the following week.
• May 31, 2018. The end of the build window for recall 18V360000, an air bag software fault GM found after hard driving at a Road Atlanta media event: 498 cars.
• December 17, 2018. Prices rose to $120,900 for the coupe and $125,400 for the convertible before destination; the automatic went from $1,725 to $1,995.
• February 1, 2019. GM’s breakpoint for new transmission fluid in Stingray, Grand Sport and Z06 automatics; its bulletin doesn’t list the ZR1’s LT5.
• The end. 2,953 built. One owner reports buying new in September 2019 about $9,000 under sticker, with cars sitting on dealer lots.

The National Corvette Museum’s production data (opens in new tab) splits the 2,953 by option, and every split shows up in the price. GM delivered none new to Europe or Japan: 2,729 went to US buyers, the rest to Canada, the Middle East and Mexico.

Low wing or ZTK

The $2,995 ZTK package adds the High Wing, carbon splitter end caps, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires and stiffer suspension with its own Magnetic Ride tuning. GM puts its downforce at up to about 950 lb; even the Low Wing makes up to 70 percent more than a base Z06’s aero. The owner’s manual moves the High Wing to its upper holes for more downforce on track, and keeps the Cup 2s off snow, ice and roads below 50°F (10°C).

The low-wing car keeps Pilot Super Sport run-flats and the 212 mph claim: 876 were built, 629 coupes and 247 convertibles. MotorTrend’s Randy Pobst found the ZR1’s ride more compliant than a Z06’s, and even the low-wing car better balanced at high speed.

Choose at purchase: GM won’t swap them. Its bulletin 18-NA-112 (opens in new tab) says the two wings “should never be interchanged,” even at an owner’s request, and GM doesn’t recommend driving with the wing off.

Manual or automatic

The split: 884 manuals, 2,069 automatics. Road & Track found the automatic faster on track but sluggish in manual mode, and Car and Driver called its response to shift requests perceptibly delayed. For hot track days GM leans to three pedals: the owner’s manual recommends the manual for extended track use in heat, and GM’s December 2018 track statement (PIP5311D) says automatic Z06s and ZR1s reach their thermal limits sooner. The market pays for the clutch too (see What a C7 ZR1 costs in 2026). On a test drive, a click at full throttle in an automatic is normal: GM calls it the wide-open-throttle detent.

Coupe or convertible

Every coupe has a removable roof: 1,932 in visible carbon and 507 dual roofs with a transparent panel. The 512 convertibles cost $4,000 more at launch, weigh under 60 lb more, share the coupe’s suspension tuning and drop the top at up to 30 mph; 265 have ZTK. Cargo space falls from 15 cubic feet to 10.

1ZR, 3ZR and the Sebring Orange package

The $10,000 3ZR upper trim is on 2,761 cars; only 192 are 1ZRs. The $6,995 Sebring Orange Design Package (RPO ZLZ) required 3ZR and Sebring Orange paint, and added orange calipers, stitching, belts and stripes, Carbon Flash wheels and competition sport seats: 758 were built. Sebring Orange was the most common ZR1 color, on 841 cars; Admiral Blue the rarest, on 51.

The ZR1’s own file is short: one recall, one expired service update, five NHTSA complaints and a handful of GM bulletins, more about parts supply than failures. Generation-wide records are in the C7 buyer’s guide.

Five NHTSA complaints

NHTSA files the ZR1 as a 2019 Corvette, so this site read the VIN stored with each of the 148 complaints against 2019 Corvettes (opens in new tab) (pulled October 17, 2026). Its eighth character is the engine code, 9 for the LT5. Five are ZR1s:

• Three bent wheels. A bent rear rim at about 10,400 miles; all four bent on a 3,339-mile “captured test fleet” car sold as new, which a Chevrolet dealer judged had likely been tracked; and all four bent repeatedly on another car, then a second factory set.
• A loose splitter. A rattle, a front end hard to control and a splitter nearly torn off: a shop found its center support bracket had never been fitted at pre-delivery inspection.
• A body scoop. The driver-side rear upper fender scoop came off at highway speed.

None describes the engine, supercharger, cooling, transmission, brakes or fuel system. ZR1s were 8.5 percent of 2019 production and drew 3.4 percent of its complaints, by this site’s arithmetic, but five complaints show failure modes, not a reliability score.

Recall 18V360000 and service update 18267

Recall 18V360000 (opens in new tab) covers 498 ZR1s built December 8, 2017 to May 31, 2018. Hard braking or acceleration could put the air bag sensing module into a fault state, with no warning light, leaving the air bags unable to deploy in a crash. GM estimated 1 percent had the fault; a dealer reprograms the module, and 438 of the 498 had been done by October 2019. Check the VIN: a recall stays open until it’s done.

Service update 18267 (opens in new tab) (September 2018) covers LT5 cars whose injector could stay on for 7.5 seconds coming out of deceleration fuel cutoff: a misfire, and flames from the exhaust that could damage the rear fascia and ZR1 badge. A dealer reprograms the engine computer, but GM wrote that the update expires with each car’s New Vehicle Limited Warranty. Ask whether it was done (a Chevrolet dealer’s VIN history shows it), and look at the fascia around the badge.

Automatic shudder: GM’s fluid fix doesn’t list the LT5

The eight-speed’s known fault is torque-converter shudder, a shake at light throttle between 25 and 80 mph (C7 buyer’s guide). GM’s final fix, bulletin 18-NA-355 (opens in new tab), is a fluid exchange for Corvette LT1 and LT4 automatics built through February 1, 2019. The LT5 isn’t in its table in any of the four versions this site read, nor in the earlier 16-NA-175, and no GM document found says whether ZR1 automatics left the factory with the new fluid.

Owners report ZR1 shudder anyway. In a 2022 CorvetteForum thread, a shopper’s dealer found it on a 7,000-mile car built in July 2018, an owner’s May 2019 car shuddered and got a flush, and a third owner said both of his 2019 ZR1s had it. NHTSA holds no ZR1 shudder complaint. GM’s bulletin 19-NA-142 says replacement transmissions dated February 1, 2019 or later, or with a “Contains New Fluid” sticker, have the new fluid; it says nothing about the gearboxes ZR1s were built with. So on any ZR1 automatic, drive it at light throttle, read the service records and assume nothing from the build date.

Wheels: bent, and left out of GM’s program

A Canadian owner bent two wheels at under 3,000 km in August 2019 and paid just over $3,000 US for new rims, with no help from GM. GM’s Corvette Wheels Limited Reimbursement Program covered only 2015–2019 Z06s and 2017–2019 Grand Sports, and closed to claims on January 25, 2025. GM’s answer to a bent wheel is a new one: bulletin 17-NA-052 says it doesn’t endorse welding, bending, straightening or re-machining wheels.

Carbon parts: restricted, scarce and close to the ground

GM’s PIC6338D (opens in new tab) (June 2023, first issued in August 2018) restricts the ZR1’s carbon hoods, splitters and end caps, fender vents, engine covers, Sebring Orange package rockers and both rear wings, citing “limited parts availability.” The dealer emails GM photos, the VIN and the part numbers; an approved part generally takes about three weeks, and GM won’t sell them for other Corvettes.

Owners have felt it. In 2020 one had his damaged splitter repaired while he hunted for a new one, the cheapest at about $1,487; in 2021 others found none for sale in the US and were told they were made to order, two months or more away. Another 2020 thread caught a dealer refitting only half the splitter’s screws. The owner’s manual warns that the front air dam will occasionally touch the road, and GM’s PIC6361 says a crooked wing needs its bracket reset until the mounting piers sit at least 3 mm above the fascia, or the paint gets damaged.

Heat, the intercooler and the engine

GM built the ZR1 to keep its power on a hot track, with one hedge for the automatic (see Manual or automatic, under Which ZR1). No GM coverage program names the ZR1, unlike the Z06, and NHTSA holds no ZR1 overheating complaint. The intercooler has its own 5.3-quart coolant circuit, and the owner’s manual says performance “can be greatly reduced” if it isn’t full; bulletins 18-NA-088 and 17-NA-408 tie hot-track misfire (P0300) and lost power to a circuit badly filled after service.

GM’s other LT5 paperwork is about control, not failure. At launch, an LT5 needing its heads off, or with noise or oil consumption, could be exchanged for another engine under a GM program (PIP5561, ended July 26, 2018), as the LT4 had been. Since November 2020, a replacement supercharger (12695521 or 12701997, OEM) needs GM’s Technical Assistance Center to approve it first (PIP5767), to curb unneeded replacements. NHTSA’s files of GM communications for 2015–2026 hold no recall, special coverage or bulletin for an LT5 engine or supercharger failure.

Smaller items. ZR1 brake cooling ducts ship loose for track use (16-NA-363) and should come with the car. GM’s oil-cap update (18088) and fascia-paint bulletin (17-NA-355) cover every 2019 Corvette, not the ZR1 alone.

1. That it’s a ZR1. The VIN’s eighth character is 9 for the LT5 (6 is the LT4, 7 the LT1), per the 2019 owner’s manual. Production cars carry a K58 serial ending in the build number. Corvette Action Center’s registry also lists 58 saleable pre-production “captured test fleet” cars with K57 serials, like the one in Known ZR1 problems: real ZR1s, with histories worth asking about. The Service Parts Identification label under the hatch or trunk carpet lists the option codes (LT5, ZTK, ZLZ, MEK manual or M5U automatic). Badges can be bought.
2. Recall and update. Run the VIN through NHTSA’s recall lookup for 18V360000, and ask a Chevrolet dealer for its history, service update 18267 included.
3. The front end, from below. Splitter, end caps, underwing and rockers for cracks, scrapes and repairs; every splitter screw in place; the center bracket fitted. Price any damaged piece, and the wait, before bidding.
4. The wing. It matches the ZTK code (or its absence), sits straight, and the paint around its mounts is intact.
5. Every wheel, on a balancer or with the tire off, inner barrels included.
6. The automatic. A light-throttle drive between 25 and 80 mph, and the transmission service records.
7. Cooling. The intercooler reservoir full, and no stored misfire codes (P0300).
8. Oil. Check the dry sump GM’s way: engine warm (at least 175°F/80°C), engine off, read 5 to 10 minutes after shutdown; cold, it can read empty. Ask whether track oil (15W-50) went back to 0W-40.
9. Track history. Receipts, tires, pads (no built-in wear indicators, so look) and the loose brake ducts. GM rules out track events for the first 1,500 miles.
10. Paint, cabin and records. Fascia edges, and the dash on 3ZR cars, which owners say can delaminate. Get GM dealer records as well as a Carfax: one 2023 shopper’s inspection found a bumper replacement on the dealer’s records but not the Carfax, a damaged firewall insulation pad (an engine-out repair) and a delaminating dash, about $11,000 in all. He walked away.
11. Modifications. Owners advise an unmodified engine.
12. A pre-purchase inspection on a lift, by a shop that knows supercharged C7s.

How much does a C7 ZR1 cost? About $181,000 for a low-mile one, and $120,000–$144,000 for a driven automatic. Bring a Trailer sold 31 ZR1s from January 1 to October 17, 2026, for $120,000–$340,000, a median of $181,000 by this site’s count; 9 more stalled at bids of $136,000–$286,000. Most had low miles: a median of 4,350.

The top sale was a 3,000-mile 3ZR ZTK manual coupe at $340,000 in January; the highest mileage, 29,000, was on a manual at $156,812. No 2026 sale passed 30,000 miles. The cheapest clean-title ZR1 CorvSport found on Autotrader in December 2025 was a 36,459-mile coupe listed at $134,995.

Hagerty put an excellent (#2) coupe at $187,000 in February 2025, convertibles near $200,000 and automatics about 20 percent lower; its #3 (“good”) values were $144,000 for a coupe (April 2025) and $154,000 for a convertible (January 2026). classic.com’s average sale was $187,238 in February 2026, with coupe benchmarks of $216,912 manual and $162,761 automatic.

Bring a Trailer’s yearly medians ran $156,250 (2021), $174,500 (2022), $168,000 (2023 and 2024), $174,750 (2025) and $181,000 (2026 to date), every one higher than the $119,995 launch sticker. A record of what sold, not a forecast. So is a C7 ZR1 worth $180,000? That’s what a low-mile one costs. A driven automatic costs $37,000–61,000 less, with the same 755 hp.

Fuel. EPA: 13 mpg city and 19 highway with the manual, 12 and 20 with the automatic. The owner’s manual posts 93 octane, allows 91 with reduced performance and warns that lower could damage the engine; on track GM requires 93 and recommends 100.

Oil and the schedule. The 2019 manual lists 9.8 qt of dexos2 0W-40 with the filter (no 5W-30 fallback for the LT5), 15W-50 for track use, and a first change at 500 miles. The maintenance schedule calls for spark plugs at 60,000 miles, engine coolant at 150,000 miles or 5 years and brake fluid every three years; the manual’s track section adds transmission fluid after every 15 hours of track use. Wheel nuts take 100 lb-ft (140 N·m).

Big parts. On October 17, 2026, GM-dealer web stores listed the LT5 supercharger (12701997, OEM) at about $9,560–9,610 plus a $3,000 core charge, and an LT5 service long block (12687020, OEM) at about $10,220–10,245 plus a $2,500 core, both shipping in 1–3 business days; labor is extra. Owners report that Chevrolet Performance discontinued the LT5 crate engine in 2021; four crate LT5s sold on Bring a Trailer in 2024–2025 for $28,000–$51,000.

Everything else. The splitter and wheel figures in Known ZR1 problems are owners’ reports, and dated. No sourced price turned up for ZR1 tires, carbon-ceramic rotors or insurance, so get quotes.

Storage. GM built 1,687 ZR1s with its battery maintainer option, and a ZR1 that sits belongs on one: see the battery maintainer guide.

In 2018 Car and Driver lined up a ZR1 at $143,810 as tested against a $348,730 Porsche 911 GT2 RS and called the Corvette “supercar goods at a 50 percent discount.” The ZR1 finished second. That’s the deal America’s sports car has always offered, and in 2019 it came with 755 hp and the engine in front.

The pick is a 3ZR manual coupe with records: the rarer gearbox, the one GM recommends for long track sessions in heat, and the one every market measure values highest. Add ZTK for the track. For the street, take the low wing: Pilot Super Sports instead of Cup 2s, the softer suspension, and GM’s 212 mph, on one of 629 coupes built.

The budget path is a driven automatic: $120,000–$144,000 with 10,000–27,000 miles in 2026, bought with the shudder drive passed and the splitter and wheels checked. Walk away from a damaged splitter priced as if it were whole, a wing that doesn’t match the option codes, or an engine nobody can document.

Get it right and you own the most powerful front-engine Corvette GM has built. Set the High Wing in its upper holes, roll onto the front straight at Virginia International Raceway, and let the 911 in your mirror do the math on its window sticker. For the ZR1s on either side, see the C6 ZR1 and C8 ZR1 guides, and the C4 ZR-1 for the first LT5.