The Nürburgring has rapidly become a core pillar of the Chevrolet Corvette’s history with the brand using the fabled track to test the car’s limits for several decades now. However, it has been roughly a decade since Chevrolet set a record lap in the Vette on the course.

That changed today with the brand announcing that the Chevrolet Corvette smashed the preious record held by the Ford Mustang GTD with the Vette now being the fastest American sports car to lap the course.

Corvette’s record is a two for one affair

The announcement came after Chevrolet brought three Vette models to the track: Z06, ZR1, and the ZR1X. The Z06 posted a respectable time but the record was bested by the ZR1 and its slightly spicier counterpart the ZR1X with both cars beating the GTD’s 6:52.072 lap record. We have posted the times for all three of the Vettes below.

• Corvette ZR1X — 6:49.275
• Corvette ZR1 — 6:50.763
• Corvette Z06 — 7:11.826

All three Corvettes were pure production units but track regulations forced engineers to add safety equipment to make them compatible with the rules including a fire suppression system, bucket seat, a roll hoop, and a six-point harness system. The trio also had their respective performance packages in place but since the two ZR1s are not sold in Europe and the Z06 was a U.S. spec model shipped in for the challenge the Nürburgring technically considers them all prototype vehicles (a minor asterisk in the category department.)

Record set by Corvette engineers

Unlike other track records where an automaker typically taps into its stable of highly trained and carefully selected factory race drivers for a task like this, Chevrolet chose to keep the pros at home, and instead had Corvette engineers set the records in question.

In this case, Vehicle performance manager Aaron Link set the time in the Z06, vehicle dynamics engineer Brian Wallace set the time in the ZR1, and fellow vehicle dynamics engineer Drew Cattell set the time in the ZR1X. GM’s head of Motorsport Ken Morris released a brief statement praising all three of the drivers.

We’ve created a different kind of relationship between our cars, iconic tracks, and our engineers, it is how we develop our vehicles. These Corvettes weren’t piloted by pro race-car drivers. They were driven by the same engineers who designed, engineered, and tuned them.

Brian, Aaron and Drew have grown into world-class drivers and even better engineers. Their lap times now rank among the fastest ever recorded by non-professionals at the Ring, which is so cool.’

Record attempt the subject of new documentary

In addition to going through plenty of tires when attempting the record breaking attempts, Chevrolet also brought a film crew along to document the feat as part of a 17 minute long documentary. The film provides a glimpse into some of the behind the scenes challenges that the team had to face and how multiple factors had to be pieced together perfectly to ensure success.

The Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is currently on sale now with the ZR1X expected to make its way to dealerships later this year. The Z06 is also available in showrooms and if you’re looking to buy one, now is the time with some dealerships applying steep discounts to the model to try and get it off of their lots due to the ZR1 cannibalizing demand from it.