Behold the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1!  Officially unveiled by General Motors on Friday, the ZR1 is the fastest and most powerful production car the company has ever produced. In fact, the company claims that the ZR1 will even give other supercars like Porsche 911 GT2, the Ferrari 599 and the Lamborghini LP640 a run for their money.

The reason for these bold claims is the supercharged LS9 6.2 liter V-8 engine that is capable of delivering at least 100 horsepower per liter, according to the Corvette team's project manager, Harlan Charles, in an interview with Autoblog. That works out to approximately 620 horsepower, and 595 lb.-ft. of torque. 

Performance wise, the ZR1 builds on the Corvette Z06, from acceleration and braking, to cornering grip and top speed. But unlike the Corvette Z06, top speed is achieved in sixth gear in the ZR1's new six-speed manual transmission - one notch up from the Corvette Z06. It also gets huge wheels, measuring 19" in front and 20" at the rear.

And as if to indicate the massive efforts that would be required to bring this blazing blue goblin to a halt, huge carbon-ceramic, drilled disc brake rotors, similar to those used in a Ferrari 599, have been fixed to the front and rear wheels of the ZR1.

General Motors was unable to provide timings on the ZR1's 0-60 or 0-100 km/h. but the company has promised those figures just before the vehicle's launch next summer.

www.gm.com