carwow lines up the Rivian R1T quad motor against the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 for a standing quarter mile. The contest is exactly as lopsided on paper as it looks in a car park, but the result is not what you would necessarily expect.
The Rivian R1T quad motor has one electric motor per wheel, producing a combined 1,025 horsepower and 1,624 Nm of torque. It weighs 3,170 kg, has launch control, and costs around $120,000. The Corvette Z06 packs a 5.5-litre naturally aspirated V8 making 670 horsepower and 625 Nm, driving the rear wheels through an 8-speed dual-clutch gearbox with launch control adjustable between 3,500 and 5,000 rpm and variable slip settings from 5 to 15%. It weighs 1,685 kg and also costs just over $120,000. The Z06's exhaust is not standard, fitted with an aftermarket cat-back system, though the ECU remains partially locked.
Behind the wheel of the Z06 is Jesse Iwuji, a NASCAR racer sponsored by GM who also owns the car. On paper, this is as bad as it gets for the Rivian: a professional driver in a rear-wheel-drive performance car with a highly tuned launch system against a heavy electric truck with a speed limiter.
The R1T tops out at around 112 mph, which makes rolling races more competitive for the Corvette. In the initial rolling race from 30 mph in second gear, the Z06 came out ahead. In a brake test from 100 mph, the Z06 won again, helped by carbon ceramic brakes. The R1T's regenerative braking kept it respectable but could not close the gap.
The standing quarter mile was different. In the first run, the Rivian launched hard but the Corvette caught it near the top end. Close result. In the second run with the R1T in reduced traction mode, the result was similar. In the third run, after some button-pressing adjustments, the Rivian ran 10.6 seconds. The Corvette took 11.3 seconds. The electric truck won on the race that matters most.
Jesse's post-race discovery changed the final runs: turning the Z06's stability control fully off transformed the launch entirely. With the system active, the car was managing wheel spin conservatively. Without it, the numbers improved significantly. He learned this after the match was already decided, which is exactly the kind of information that would have been useful at the start.
The key constraint on the Rivian throughout was the speed limiter. Around 112 mph, the truck begins to slow rather than continue accelerating, which hands the advantage to the Corvette in any race long enough to reach that point. In the standing quarter mile, that is not enough track for the limiter to matter. It is a narrow window, but the Rivian found it.