SocalChvy

Going NA for a 700+ application is unrealistic. Raising the hood to fit a larger supercharger makes no sense.

BUT a twin turbo Corvette would solve all these issues. Look at the McClaren 720 is you don't have faith in turbos

Warp Factor

Who is lacking faith in turbos? In the current Corvette, it presents packaging, servicing, and heat challenges.

Raising the hood? Superchargers don't need to sit on top of the engine. Most centrifugal superchargers do not.

johnglenntwo

It's probably easier to have a unitized assembly all the way around.

Corvette has said they had a fire testing turbos. In that same statement turbo lag was claimed as being a stumbling block.

The new turbo tech considerably reduces turbo lag so there you go.
Look for the C8 to employ side mounted lower CoG turbos per a cad model, sometime.

turbo8765

3 Z06ZR1

The 720 costs a lot more and is a lot lighter. That 720S engine in the heavier Z06 would lose a lot of punch and vise versa. The weight is the big hang up not so much the power.

3 Z06ZR1

GRAMPA!
He means raising the hood on the LT5 made no sense! Hope that helped!

Warp Factor

No retort needed from me. If you are happy sucking on your bong 24/7, who am I to try to introduce some shred of reality?

Palantirion

- READ. Chevy was very clear publicly about their reasons for sticking with the supercharger. They didn't go with a supercharger for efficiency or packaging or weight. Turbos are generally better for all those factors. They chose a supercharger because of the throttle response and powerband linearity. And they were right to do it, given their goal.

The C8 Z06 or ZR1 will have undoubtedly have a TT setup, with flappy paddles. That would be a more ideal pairing of those technologies anyway.

p.s. 700hp from a modern 6.0L is very realistic. Lambo already exceeded this. The issue would be cost, which they don't have to care about as much as Chevy does. Superchargers are the cheapest way to increase power.

Warp Factor

Publicity statements don't always reflect reality. I'm around auto engineers or suppliers nearly every day.

keagan

23/C8Z

Car and driver. I believe them as in the past they're always correct to about 9/10ths. So it's coming. Along with and a hybrid variant.

keagan

638HP

A variant of the Caddy 550hp 4.2 liter DOHC LTA engine will find it's way into the C8 platform.

Warp Factor

It looks rather tall and top-heavy, but I suppose the mid-engine platform could handle the height.

CPhelps

It also weighs about the same as the LT4.

GTRSOLO

I have no aversion to turbos at all. With ball bearing center section over standard journal reduces lag significantly, among other advancements. Didn't GM learn anything from their own Buick Grand National?
Oh yeah, now I remember all the macho gold chain wearing fellas were put off by it being a little V6 (231c.i. / 3.8 liter)....that would crush their lopey V8's...so many butts got hurt, the looks of confusion at the following stop light of how could that quiet car just handed me my ***?

Warp Factor

Way down on power too. Maybe no advantage, except being able to say that it's a twin-turbo DOHC. Slightly better fuel economy, perhaps?

Bill Dearborn

With Turbos I don't think you will ever get that instant low rpm grunt the LT4 has. The LT4 and LT5 both have ridiculous amounts of torque at 1000 rpm and I suspect getting the same result from a Turbo setup would be challenging at best. The chief advantage of the Turbo always has been it is more efficient. It uses waste engine heat to produce more power while the supercharger consumes crankshaft power to make more power. However, at low just off idle rpms the waste heat isn't sufficient to drive as much boost as the supercharger can at those rpms. Maybe GM will provide an electrically driven Turbo that will bring the blower up to speed at low engine rpms and phase out as engine rpms increase to where it can be driven by exhaust gases.

Bill

3 Z06ZR1

That's no kidding there. They said you need maybe give it a break stay home your not on the pay roll you get in the way! Signed the guys at PEP boys!

Hib Halverson

For an upcoming article in Corvette Magazine, near the end of last year, I was in Michigan and interviewed the three key people on the team at Global Propulsion Systems which developed the LT5.

One of the questions I asked them was if a DOHC TTV8 was ever considered for the C7 ZR1.

It was not–for a number of reasons.

1) Packaging. Doing a four cam, twin-turbo engine under the hood of a C7 would have been very difficult.

2) Performance. The 4.2L DOHC TTV8 wouldn't have come close to 708-hp which was the minimum goal for the LT5 and, thanks to the LT5's BAS*, it made 750–and with the GM Performance Parts air box, it's more like 765. Replace the second set of cats with a good aftermarket X-pipe and I bet you'd be at 780

3) The LT5 program was done with a limited budget. Money for an all new engine wasn't there, so they had to leverage what was learned in developing the LT4 as well as many LT4 parts.

4) The cost of integrating DOHC TTV8 into the C7 platform, as well as, certifying it (crash testing, emissions, etc) would have wayyyyy outside the budget the Corvette Team had for the ZR1.

5) Doing a DOHC TTV8 in the final uplevel performance C7 would have been a bad marketing move ahead of the 2020 mid-engine car which will use that engine configuration.

Some say the C7 ZR1 is the best Corvette ever. I'll add this caveat "...for now."

I think it's better to say that the 4Gen ZR1 will be the last great front engine Corvette. That said, the car has some weaknesses: 1) the 8L90 automatic can't shift as responsively as a dual-clutch trans, but then, the easy way around that is to leave the car in drive, put PTM in mode-5 and let computers make you quick around the track and 2) some road tests by mainstream automotive press indicate that, given consistent driving skill and the same tires (PS Cup 2s), a ZR1/ZTK is no quicker 0-60 than a ZO6/ZO7 and, in some situations, doesn't get though turns any quicker. That said, my understanding is the ZR1's suspension tuning is a little towards the understeer end of the spectrum. In the GM C7 parts bin there are different stabilizer bar mounts that, when substituted for the "stock" ZR1/ZTK mounts, will take some of the steady state understeer out of the car. and make it a little quicker in the turns–depending on who's driving, of course.

The problem with a 750-hp Corvette is the same one a 650-hp Corvette has only worse. Short of putting real racing slicks on a ZR1, we've reached the limit of a rear-drive chassis. Future uplevel, high-performance Corvettes must have all-wheel-drive.

Obviously, that's one important reason why the "C8" is a mid-engine car. My guess is the up-level, performance C8 won't come until '21 or '22 and will have a 550-600-hp V8TT driving the rear wheels and 300 or 400-hp worth of electric motors driving the front wheels but only on "demand".

*Big-*** Supercharger