[VIDEO] Top Gear Throws the 2025 Corvette E-Ray at the Porsche 911 GTS Hybrid

Comparison tests used to be the bedrock of the auto-writing profession. Individual reviews were all well and good, but how a car was able to stand up to its closest competitors was gameday – it’s what really mattered. These comparos are what hooked your author and countless other future enthusiasts long before we could actually drive. They were the primary driver behind the sale of magazines and subscriptions, but strangely, now that publications are desperate for sales and clicks, they’ve all but dried up. The industry standard, Car and Driver, reads more like Consumer Reports in 2025 – the fun; the competition is almost nonexistent, and other than a few annual holdouts from the good days, all that’s left are bored journalists droning on about one car at a time.

Due to shifting priorities for marketing dollars, shrinking corporate fleets post-COVID, a loss of power in the press, spineless companies unwilling to test their metal out of fear of losing, or any number of other root causes you could point at, the one-time monthly occurrence of real professionals getting multiple performance machines together for a duel is almost a lost art at this point. When a blue moon shines, and the planets align, battles still happen from time to time, and even if the theatrics have largely migrated to YouTube, when they do, the lack of repetition makes it feel more special than ever, and we are forced to sit up and take notice.

Top Gear and host Jethro Bovingdon, who you might recognize from his time at Motor Trend, Road & Track, or on one of the attempts at creating a US version of the “Plucky Motoring Show on BBC2,” came through in the clutch with one such matchup this week!

Unlike the C8 Z06, the Corvette E-Ray hasn’t seen much action in the comparison realm, and on rare occurrence, its number has been called, it’s been in an oddball pairing, but this time, things are different. About a year ago, we posted about Porsche’s first hybrid 911, a flat-six + electric collaboration that motivates some 3,600 lbs. with a total of 478 HP and 420 lb-ft in an all-wheel-drive coupe, convertible, or Targa-bodied sports car. To say that it mirrors the blueprint of Chevrolet’s 655-horse 3,900-lb. Corvette E-Ray is an understatement. The E-Ray and the hybrid 911 Carrera 4 GTS are the perfect pairing of Europe and America’s two most iconic sporting vehicles, and TG got them together first!

As usual, we won’t spoil the beautifully shot, driven, and presented (except for the usual British hesitation even to say something nice about an American car and the typical feigning of surprise when said Freedom Wagon is, in fact, good) video. There are a few differences that should be put in print, though. The ‘Vette is a lot more powerful and is listed as quicker with a 2.5-second sprint to 60 vs. 3.0 for the 911, while the Porsche is lighter and has the higher top speed – 194 MPH to 183 (unfortunately, there isn’t any hot-lapping, though it’d be hard not to vote domestic if there were). The most eye-poppingly significant difference between these convergent performers is price. Jethro quotes the Riptide Blue E-Ray at around $118,000. The 911 Hybrid, meanwhile, checks in at an astounding $206,000! So, as you watch this excellent clip, just keep in mind that the humble E-Ray is battling a sub-500 HP Porsche that commands 1,064 HP ZR1 money (plus about $20,000!). As difficult as that is to fathom, it sure was great to take in a proper comparison test again!

From Top Gear via YouTube:

America’s sports car champion is the Corvette, Europe’s the Porsche 911, but what happens when two icons from either side of the Atlantic get electrified? This is the first hybrid Corvette, the E-Ray, against the first (road-legal) hybrid Porsche 911, the 992.2 generation Carrera GTS.

Source:

Top Gear

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