Chevrolet’s much-anticipated 650-horsepower Corvette, developed under the codename “Blue Devil,” will be called ZR1. That badge is expected to appear on the January 2008 Detroit show car, and on the production version set to go on sale later next year as a 2009 model.

During its development, Bob Lutz, vice-chairman in charge of product development said, “It’s a very difficult vehicle development. This thing has so much power that we have to explore a dynamic envelope that we’ve never explored before. We want the vehicle to be safe and we want it to be predictable, even at speeds that no mortal is ever going to attain in the United States. That’s our obligation. We’re really into a speed and power realm that General Motors has never been in before. We’re way up there with Porsche Carrera GTs and Ferraris.”

GM has been developing this car for several years. In this process, Chevrolet used a supercharged version of the new 6.2-liter small block V-8 used in the 2008 Corvette. GM Z07 and Super Sport for the ultra-low-volume car were also considered by Gm to be this vehicles name but in the end, ZR1 prevailed. According to reports, Chevrolet first used the ZR1 moniker for eight cars built in the 1971 model year. These cars were equipped with a 370-horsepower, 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) small block V-8. The ‘71 ZR1 came with no special bodywork or badging. In 1990, Chevrolet resurrected the name  for a 32-valve Lotus-designed, Mercury Marine-built 375-horsepower quad-cam V-8. This car had a wider tail to accommodate P315/35ZR17 Goodyear’s on 11-inch wide wheels and was built for the ‘95 model year. The badges included a hyphen, as in ZR-1, which doesn’t fit GM RPO nomenclature.

Interestingly, rumors that “ZR” stands for “Zora’s Racer,” has never been confirmed by GM.