Corvette C8.R Laps the Nurburgring in 440 Seconds, Thank God for Racing Simulators

It was just yesterday that we took to the Nurburgring in a 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. And it was a handful, to say the least, especially seeing that we're using a keyboard here.

We were already quite scared of it going into the lap, having seen Jeremy Clarkson's reaction to the car in a video on YouTube. And we knew that Jim Mero had theoretically managed to get a fast lap of seven minutes and four seconds. After several laps, our best result was 33 seconds slower, and we decided to switch cars at least for a while.

Regardless of how fast a car might feel driving down the road, chances are that it may not perform as well at the racetrack. And that was obvious with the ZR1 after just two corners. So we needed to get a Corvette mod that was built with racing in mind.

With all the hype going on with the new C8, that felt like the right way to go. The entry-level Stingray uses a naturally-aspirated 6.2-liter V8 that's good for 490 hp (497 PS) and 465 lb-ft (630 Nm) of torque. But we'll get back to it later this month.

The C8.R started its motorsports career at the 2020 24 Hours of Daytona. The race-ready Corvette uses a slightly smaller V8, with 500 hp and 480 lb-ft of torque. That may not sound like much on paper, but we are talking about a machine that has been extensively modified for competition use.

The C8.R feels right at home on the racetrack, and it has already won a few races and championships as well. For 2022, Corvette Racing has taken up the LMGTE Pro class of the FIA World Endurance Championship with drivers Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy, and Alexander Sims. Here, they are competing against two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo cars and two Porsche GT Team 911 RSR-19 machines too.

Once again, after asking Google for help to find a C8.R mod, the answer came via YouTube. The person that had uploaded the video was taking the C8.R for a spin around the Road Course at Daytona, and it all looked amazing. If you've already installed Content Manager, you'll be ready to play in a matter of minutes.

Once the mod is installed, you can choose between three different liveries. We opted for Car No. 3, which comes in the traditional yellow livery. According to its spec sheet, this thing weighs 1,320 kg (2,910 lbs) and has a top speed of 173 mph (280 kph).

The whole thing looks great inside and out. And it sounds the part, too, with flames coming out of the exhaust as a bonus. You could simply take it out to the track and use the game's Photo Mode for a bit of non-racing fun.

But first, it was time to start shooting for the seven-minute lap. Compared to the ZR1, the C8.R is very confidence-inspiring. It's very stable both when cornering at high speeds and when you're trying to shave off some of that speed too. The gearbox is fantastic, but you won't reach the same top speed as you did in the ZR1.

We only managed to reach 165 mph (267 kph) while going down the main straights, but you'll make up for the lost time in the corners. We're not saying that it's impossible to lose traction with the C8.R, but you'd have to make a serious driving error to get to that point.

We'd suggest that you stay away from some of the taller curbs, though, as that may unsettle the overall balance. Right off the bat, we knew that the C8.R was going to be faster than the C7 ZR1. On our first lap, we needed seven minutes and 26 seconds to get from start to finish. But we had gone off-track on two or three corners.

After getting to grips with the car and discovering its weak points, we shaved an additional six seconds from that first lap time. Still, there is some room for improvement, and we're facing the same keyboard-control disadvantage. We expect that we could go down to 7:10 with no mistakes whatsoever and a serious case of sore thumbs.

We wanted to see how we'd fare against other players by comparing lap times, and we had to face the harsh reality. Even if we'd go down to 7.10, some players have managed to run a full lap in six minutes and 32 seconds.

You'll find replays of the C8.R taking on the Green Hell in games like RFactor 2, Automobilista 2, and iRacing, and on that note, we can only hope that we'll at least see the real-life C8 Z06 trying to set a lap record in Germany next year. We'll leave you with a video of our fast lap and a batch of photos. With any luck, we'll be back to this topic by the end of the month with a much better performance.