Hagerty’s Ultimate Lap Battle pits three of the quickest track-focused cars on sale—the Corvette ZR1, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, and Mustang GTD—against each other. The 2026 Corvette ZR1 arrives with 1,064 hp and a clear mission: redeem the Z06’s 2023 loss. Key upgrades include massive carbon-ceramic brakes with new 10-piston Alcon calipers, directly addressing the Corvette’s previous braking shortcomings.
The Mustang GTD is essentially a road-legal version of Multimatic’s GT3 race car, developed to challenge Porsche’s long-standing dominance. It comes equipped with a supercharged 5.2L V8 producing over 800 hp. At nearly $400,000, it aims squarely at the 911 GT3 RS featuring a 518-hp naturally aspirated flat-six engine.
At the Nürburgring Nordschleife, all three are effectively dead even, separated by just 2.744 seconds despite running on different days with different drivers. The Corvette’s twin-turbo V8 overwhelms the field on power, but the GTD and GT3 RS counter with DRS-enabled active aerodynamics that trade drag for downforce as conditions demand.
All are rear-wheel drive, yet each follows a different layout—front-, mid-, and rear-engine—with weights spanning roughly 1,150 pounds. Different philosophies, same objective: the fastest possible lap. One of them also reset the Sonoma Raceway production-car lap record, beating the $2 million Czinger 21C by 0.109 seconds. Wondering which car did it? You’ll have to watch the video to find out!
