Watch: Hennessey Delivers Fastest Christmas Tree Run Ever with 2026 Corvette ZR1
Texas-based tuner Hennessey, which is well-known for its high-powered car conversions, recently held its seventh annual Christmas Tree Run, this time using a 1,064-horsepower 2026 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. The team managed to reach a speed of 196 mph (315 km/h) on the runway at Chase Field Airport in Beeville, Texas.
This would be, according to Hennessey, a record for a road-legal car carrying a Christmas tree, beating the 192 mph (309 km/h) achieved in 2022 with a Ford Mustang Hennessey Venom 1000. The feat was captured in the following video.
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“Hennessey’s Christmas Tree Run has evolved from a crazy little holiday stunt into one of the most fun traditions,” said company president Alex Roys. “Every year we strap a tree to something a little wilder and a little faster. It’s the kind of event that reminds you why this whole thing started… because cars should be loud, fun, and just a little bit unhinged. Running the 2026 Corvette ZR1 was a perfect finale to another amazing year for the Hennessey team.”
The 5.5-foot (1.7 metre) Christmas tree was adorned with more than 200 festive lights and holiday ribbon. Professional race car driver Spencer Geswein was behind the wheel.
To be perfectly clear, Hennessey made no modifications to the Corvette ZR1. The car they used had the same twin-turbo 5.5-litre V8 producing 1,064 horsepower and 828 lb-ft of torque. It was equipped with the ZTK track package. By the way, the team also tested the car without a tree on the roof and reached 206 mph (332 km/h) before running out of space on the runway.
In late summer of 2024 during a session on the High-Speed Oval Track at ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg in Germany, a Corvette ZR1 managed to reach 375 km/h (a two-way average speed) with none other than General Motors President Mark Reuss behind the wheel.
