Published: Aug 31, 2012

Corvette Takes On Ferrari and McLaren

The ZR1 may be one of the fastest cars Detroit has ever produced, but can it keep the pace with Europe's finest? Road and Track drives them on road and track to find out.

The Ferrari 458 Italia, McLaren MP4-12C and Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 all hail from different countries and put their power down in very different ways. So what do they have in common? They're all powered by V8 engines. That was enough for Road and Track magazine to put together a comparison test of these three biblically fast supercars. Though it's been around since 2004, the current C6 Corvette is set to be replaced by a new model in Detroit come January. But old though it may be, the ZR1 is still one of the fastest cars on the road.

Its front-mounted 6.2-liter supercharged V8 is good for 639 horsepower. Not bad for $112,600, and arguably on par with the considerably more expensive naturally-aspirated, 562hp 4.5-liter V8-powerd 458 Italia and the McLaren MP4-12C, with its 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 delivering 592 hp.