The C7 Corvette is coming! Are you as excited as we are? Our friends at General Motors/Chevrolet have taken the social media outlets by storm with their #one13thirteen ad campaign. The C7 Corvette will be unclothed from its camo coverings on January 13th, 2013 to a sold out group of National Corvette Museum supporters and a limited group of journalists and industry insiders.

Last week Chevrolet unveiled the newly designed C7 logo at Petit LeMans with much fanfare. Here at the National Corvette Museum we offer C7 Lapel Pins (now sold out), C7 Logo Bricks and our smartphone C7 wallpaper ready for our Corvette faithful to purchase or download. Today Chevrolet has released information on the heart of the C7 Corvette, dubbed the LT1.

LT1 first was introduced in 1970 to the Chevrolet lineup and was an option on the Corvette from 1970 to 1972. Between 1970 and 1972 just shy of 5000 cars were produced with the LT1 engine with the solid lifters. The 1970 Corvettes packed the most punch with 370hp, and General Motors started detuning the engines to give oil companies some time to phase in lower octane levels for unleaded fuels needed for the future use of catalytic converters. 1971 LT1 Corvettes suffered a decrease to 330hp and the final year of the 1972 LT1 was at a meek 255hp.

The C4 Corvette in 1992 reintroduced the RPO Code LT1 as their base engine packing 300hp at 5,000 rpm and 330 lb-ft torque at 4,000 rpm. One big achievement for the LT1 was the introduction of the reverse cooling system. Traditional cooling methods route coolant through the water pump first then through the block to the heads. The LT1 engine routed coolant to start at the heads and then down through the block. This kept the heads cooler which allowed for greater power.

 

make sure to keep those injectors clean ... replacing them looks like a pita lol

cool info, thanks for the post

 

Thanks for the update. The new LT1 sounds like a worthy successor to the LS series. "Below 4,000 rpm, the torque of the Corvette LT1 is comparable to that of the legendary, 7.0L LS7" - That says it all. Can't wait to see the LS7 variant.

 

0-60 in less than 4 seconds and best gas mileage ever? I better start saving my nickles and dimes to buy one

 

My first ever LT1 experience was driving my brothers LT1 4Spd 370hp hardtop conv. I'll never forget the awesome sound of that engine as it tach'ed up with the relatively tall gears. Man that thing sounded mean, and it was. Thankfully, he let me drive that thing lots and often. My second Lt1 I bought brand new in 1993 and still have today. I bought that one because it was right at the point where they were starting to raise HP #'s above the pathetic levels of the 80s. Alum motors and roller cams introduced. They had more ft/lbs than hp's. It was a groundbreaking time. Finally, factory cars were getting fast again.

And here's the third iteration of it and this thing sounds like it'll be awesome. It might be a few years before I get to drive one of these, but it'll happen, and I can't wait. Sadly, I still have a bad taste in my mouth for first-year-of-the-design cars.

 

http://youtu.be/9E-DQ1qQyJk

 

Wasn't the c5 originally rated at 28mpg hwy

 

Different EPA standards, plus this is 105 hp over the 97-99 cars...

 

I bought a orginal LT1 from the factory and stuck it in a 59 vette.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like the power in the new one 450hp and the forged crank.
I wish they had forged pistons. Still for 376 cu that's a stought
engine.

 

I am really looking forward to seeing what GM comes up with in the C7 - and this LT1 engine sounds very promising.

 

Very Cool.

 

Looking forward to the Jan official release

 

Who's gonna be the first to drop it in a C5?

 

Sorry not cool in a vette!

 

I'm very interested in seeing the final look of the vehicle. That will determine if i buy one or not.

 

The other corvette website has some good pics of it.

 

 

Thanks for sharing the info!!!!

 

I'm feeling better about the C7.

The latest spy photos show it as a better looking C6

And now this about the engine.

 

Few of my concerns: