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The Corvette team decided to one-up the Viper with four extra cylinders, they decided on one of Ryan Falconer’s stunning, all aluminum, 600-cubic-inch, 683hp, 680 lb-ft V-12 racing engines. The biggest challenge was the fact that the all-aluminum V-12 engine was 8.8-inches longer than the production Corvette engine. So the front end of the ZR-1 would have to be stretched 8 inches. This test car was named Conan, after his raw, beastlike charisma.
1993 Corvette C4 40th Anniversary ZR-1 parked on street
In 1993 just 448 ZR-1 Corvettes were produced and only 240 of them were 40th Anniversary Edition cars. The 40th Anniversary Package consists of a deep and glossy Ruby Red exterior finish over a matching Ruby Red interior with leather adjustable sport seats. A Corvette with both of these highly desirable packages is rare and special. At the heart of the ZR-1 is the 405-horsepower LT5 V8 engine mated to a 6-speed manual transmission.
In the late 80s, Chevy was developing what some dubbed a ‘Super Vette.’ But the 1989 debut of the Dodge Viper sent GM engineers on a new path to develop a ‘Viper-Killer.’ It started with a factory test mule and the experiment was to see how a ZR-1 would perform if given more power and less weight. It was so fast it was called "Snake Skinnner", for it's ability to beat the Viper and Cobra.
2017 corvette c7 z06
You can find a newer, low-mileage, Corvette at a price point that is reasonable when looking at a C7 vs the competition. You'll pay more than you would for a Mustang, Challenger or Camaro, but you'll get a lot more car for the money too. 
1971 ZR2 Convertible
Finally in 1971, both the ZR1 and ZR2 packages were offered side by side as initially intended. The solid lifter, 350 cubic-inch LT-1 found under the hood of the ZR1 featured a ‘178’ high-performance camshaft and a 780 CFM Holley four-barrel carburetor, which resided atop a specialized aluminum intake. The LT-1 featured a reduced compression ratio of 9.0:1 for the 1971 production year, relative to 11.0:1 specified the year prior.
1993 ZR-1 COrvette
The C4 ZR-1 Corvette, even some 30 years after its initial year of production, carries indisputable performance merit, the likes of which few can deny. In fact, the ZR-1 is often cited as the car which helped fend off threats, both foreign and domestic in origin, to the Corvette's elite performance car status. However, after only 6,939 ZR-1 Corvettes were built, and 6 years of production had passed, the program was terminated, falling victim to decisions regarding pricing.
There were several successful attempts to build a convertible ZR-1, most of them by private people. The DR-1 was a GM prototype to test the structural integrity of the ZR-1 chassis when it would be topless. The car was built by American Sunroof Corporation (ASC) for Don Runkle, who was the vice-president of Advanced Engineering Staff, which explains the “DR-1” designation. It was a standard convertible transformed to ZR-1 specs.