C7 Engine Question
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Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 6,813
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From: Toronto Ontario Canada
C7 Engine Question
I was talking with a friend about the LT1 engine and he asked an interesting question. If GM really wanted to bring out a Corvette that would be a performance beast why did they not put the supercharged engine from the Camaro ZL1 into the C7 Z51 ? I am sure with that much HP it would have 0-60 times of almost 3 seconds. I don't remember this being covered before but I thought I would ask.
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2012
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I was talking with a friend about the LT1 engine and he asked an interesting question. If GM really wanted to bring out a Corvette that would be a performance beast why did they not put the supercharged engine from the Camaro ZL1 into the C7 Z51 ? I am sure with that much HP it would have 0-60 times of almost 3 seconds. I don't remember this being covered before but I thought I would ask.
Safety Car
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 4,875
Likes: 1,174
They are moving on to new technology that will allow them to continue to develop the car well beyond where it is today. They also very likely held back a bit on the real capability of the LT1 to make room for the iterations to come. It isn't just about coming out with a performance beast by transplanting engines... the car needs to fit in the overall line which will include Z06/ZR1, etc. That's my take as to why.
GM could have put a 800hp engine in the C7 if it wanted to... that's not hard to do but isn't the purpose or objective either.
EDIT: I also think we, as consumers and car nuts, over simplify the development and engineering. That is, with competing sales, profit, government regulations in multiple countries and consumer objectives, the process of developing a new car is far more complex than I expect we imagine. We can bench engineer all we want and ask "why not just do this" until the cow's come home but that is all because we do not appreciate the competing agendas and challenges a company faces to bring a car like this to market.
GM could have put a 800hp engine in the C7 if it wanted to... that's not hard to do but isn't the purpose or objective either.
EDIT: I also think we, as consumers and car nuts, over simplify the development and engineering. That is, with competing sales, profit, government regulations in multiple countries and consumer objectives, the process of developing a new car is far more complex than I expect we imagine. We can bench engineer all we want and ask "why not just do this" until the cow's come home but that is all because we do not appreciate the competing agendas and challenges a company faces to bring a car like this to market.
Last edited by gthal; Aug 18, 2013 at 09:52 PM.
Safety Car
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 4,546
Likes: 609
From: Southeast, WI
They are moving on to new technology that will allow them to continue to develop the car well beyond where it is today. They also very likely held back a bit on the real capability of the LT1 to make room for the iterations to come. It isn't just about coming out with a performance beast by transplanting engines... the car needs to fit in the overall line which will include Z06/ZR1, etc. That's my take as to why.
GM could have put a 800hp engine in the C7 if it wanted to... that's not hard to do but isn't the purpose or objective either.
EDIT: I also think we, as consumers and car nuts, over simplify the development and engineering. That is, with competing sales, profit, government regulations in multiple countries and consumer objectives, the process of developing a new car is far more complex than I expect we imagine. We can bench engineer all we want and ask "why not just do this" until the cow's come home but that is all because we do not appreciate the competing agendas and challenges a company faces to bring a car like this to market.
GM could have put a 800hp engine in the C7 if it wanted to... that's not hard to do but isn't the purpose or objective either.
EDIT: I also think we, as consumers and car nuts, over simplify the development and engineering. That is, with competing sales, profit, government regulations in multiple countries and consumer objectives, the process of developing a new car is far more complex than I expect we imagine. We can bench engineer all we want and ask "why not just do this" until the cow's come home but that is all because we do not appreciate the competing agendas and challenges a company faces to bring a car like this to market.
