Corvette ZR-1 pricing starts at £109,000 in UK

Posted by autospider

September 28, 2008

Corvette ZR-1

Hailed alongside the Nissan GT-R as one of the absolute pinnacles of performance-per-dollar value, the car’s $103,300 U.S. sticker price is a real deal for the 638hp (476kW), carbon-fiber-clad rocketship. UK fans will have to dig a bit deeper for their fun, since the car’s starting price of £109,000 equates to about $202,000.

For that price, however, Brit buyers will also get a driver training course and three years of roadside assistance. The real challenge in getting a ZR-1 in the UK, however, will not be the price - at least not directly. Only 2 of the cars are headed to the UK this year, reports Edmunds and just 9 more of the cars will be available to UK buyers through the end of 2009.

Pricing isn’t a static figure, however - it’s dynamic, and concepts like supply and demand play a big role. In the U.S., the ZR-1 is already being marked up to 75% more than its list price, and supply is much greater than what the UK will see. Provided there is enough demand for the supercharged V8 mega-car, the market could drive the ZR-1’s pricing up above £165,000 ($300,000) with little trouble. That would still place it well below the price of most of its natural competition, in terms of performance and power, however.

Recent dyno testing of some of the first retail examples has shown the cars are putting out about 530hp (395kW) at the rear wheels early in their break-in cycles. Considering standard powertrain losses and the vagaries of dynamometer accuracy and tuning, that would put power at the crankshaft very close to the claimed 638hp (476kW) figure.