1,250 hp hybrid Corvette shatters the Pikes Peak production record - Ars Technica
Skip to content
AI
Biz & IT
Cars
Culture
Gaming
Health
Policy
Science
Security
Space
Tech
Forum
Subscribe
Story text
Size
Small<br>Standard<br>Large
Width
Standard<br>Wide
Links
Standard<br>Orange
* Subscribers only
Learn more
Pin to story
Theme
Search
Sign In
Sign in dialog...
Text<br>settings
Story text
Size
Small<br>Standard<br>Large
Width
Standard<br>Wide
Links
Standard<br>Orange
* Subscribers only
Learn more
Minimize to nav
Chevrolet provided flights from Albany, New York, to Denver, Colorado, and accommodation so Ars could attend the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.<br>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—If you drive the 12.4-mile (20 km), 156-corner route up Pikes Peak, abiding by the posted speed limit of 25 mph (40 km/h), it will take you a good 30 minutes to reach the top. That’s assuming you resist the urge to stop and gawk at the infinite vistas that surround you along the way.
On Sunday, professional racer JR Hildebrand covered that same distance in just 9.5 minutes, ignoring the scenery all the while. He did it in a 1,250 hp (932 kW) hybrid-powered Corvette ZR1X, a car that you can take home yourself for about $210,000. It set a new production car record for the hybrid on a day when EVs and combustion-powered cars fought for mountain supremacy.
2026 marked the 104th running of the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, one of the most historic races on the planet. Since its inception, competitors have struggled not only to string together all those corners but to maintain speed all the way to the 14,115-foot (4,302 m) summit.
Up there, the air is so thin that climbing a flight of stairs can be a proper struggle. It’s just as hard on a combustion engine, which traditionally loses up to half of its power at the summit. The use of forced induction—turbocharging or supercharging—helps to mitigate that, but lately, the focus of many manufacturers has been on cars that don’t need to breathe at all.
There’s very limited testing and racing at altitude, which presents its own set of challenges for car and crew.
Credit:<br>TIM STEVENS
There’s very limited testing and racing at altitude, which presents its own set of challenges for car and crew.
Credit:
TIM STEVENS
King of the mountain
The current Pikes Peak record is held by an EV, the insane Volkswagen I.D. R Pikes Peak, which made the climb in an astonishing 7:57 back in 2018, with French endurance racing legend Romain Dumas at the wheel. Dumas was back this year with Ford, running an upgraded version of the company’s wild, three-motor, 1,400-horsepower (1,060 kW) Super Mustang Mach-E.
It’s basically the same car that ran an abbreviated, weather-shortened course last year. Zach Burns, Program Engineer for demonstrators at Ford, told me that the team spent the past year optimizing the aerodynamics and suspension of the car as much as possible, working with Dumas in the simulator to optimize things.
But there’s no way to simulate all the variables of real life, particularly the weather. “The mountain is an ever-changing beast,” Burns told me. “Luckily, this year it’s been fairly great.”
Dumas was after overall honors, but ahead of the race, Burns told me that the competition this year was fierce: “I would love to say where we’re going to be. I think we’re very competitive within our class, and we’ll see how we do on the overall.”
Things weren’t necessarily looking great in the lead-up to Sunday. The Ford was out-qualified by some V8-powered competition: the open-wheel Sendycar V1, driven by Robin Shute, and the Nova Proto NP01 ATM Bardahl, driven by Simone Faggioli. All three feature different approaches to generating speed and grip, but only the Mustang relied on electric power.
Romain Dumas might not have qualified in first place, but he made up for that on Sunday, even if he couldn’t eclipse his 2018 time.
Credit:<br>Larry Chen
Romain Dumas might not have qualified in first place, but he made up for that on Sunday, even if he couldn’t eclipse his 2018 time.
Credit:
Larry Chen
Almost-stock
The competition was just as fierce in the production class. Before this year, the production record was held by a 2022 Porsche 911 Turbo S that was pulled off the production line, outfitted with a roll cage and a fuel cell, and then sent up the hill at the hands of local legend David Donner in 9 minutes and 53 seconds.
This year, that car was back, again at the hands of Donner and again running the 000 number in the hopes of repeating the magic.
Powered by a 3.7 L, twin-turbocharged engine making 640 hp (477 kW), Donner qualified third-fastest in the production class, a few seconds behind another Porsche, a 700 hp (522 kW) 911 GT2 RS Clubsport piloted by Jeff Zwart and likewise driven by a traditional, twin-turbocharged flat-six engine.
JR Hildebrand on his run up the mountain.
Credit:<br>Tim Stevens
JR Hildebrand on his run...