If you drive the 12.4-mile, 156-corner route up Pikes Peak at the posted speed limit of 25 mph, it’ll take you a good 30 minutes to reach the top. Professional racer JR Hildebrand covered that same distance in just 9.5 minutes on Sunday. He did it in a 1,250 hp hybrid-powered Corvette ZR1X — a car you can actually buy for about $210,000.
It set a new production car record for the hybrid class at the 104th running of the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, one of the most historic races on the planet.
Up at 14,115 feet, the air is so thin that climbing a flight of stairs is a proper workout. Combustion engines lose up to half their power at the summit. Forced induction helps, but the real trick with the ZR1X is the hybrid setup — a 5.5-liter twin-turbocharged V8 in the back paired with an electric motor up front, combining for that eye-watering 1,250 hp figure.
“The engine is down a couple-hundred horsepower, still making in the 700 hp range at the top,” said Stefan Frick, an energy performance engineer on the team. “The turbochargers definitely help with that as well.”
No software tweaks needed — the car runs a stock tune. Hildebrand just selected the “Race 1” traction setting to minimize wheelspin. The car started life as a development mule before being fitted with the mandatory roll cage and fuel cell in the trunk.
“We drilled the holes in and put safety equipment in it,” said GM Executive Chief Engineer Tony Roma. “It’s every bit a representative car.”
The previous production record was a 2022 Porsche 911 Turbo S at 9:53. Hildebrand’s Corvette obliterated that.
What makes this result stand out is that the Corvette wasn’t the most powerful car there. It was the smartest combination of power, weight, and traction management that took the day.
