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How Powerful Is The LT7 Engine In C8 ZR1? | C8 ZR1 Engine | CORVETTE TODAY #238
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May 9, 2025
Hi! We're excited to have you here for an insightful discussion on how powerful is the LT7 engine in C8 ZR1 and C8 ZR1 engine, featured on Corvette Today. This video covers how powerful is the LT7 engine in C8 ZR1 and discusses the following subjects: - The LT7 engine in the C8 Corvette ZR1 - C8 ZR1 LT7 engine performance review - How much horsepower does the LT7 engine have? ******************* Jordan Lee and Dustin Gardner are the Chief Engineer and Assistant Chief Engineer of Small Block Engines for GM. They were on CORVETTE TODAY when the new C8 Z06 debuted with the LT6 engine. They are back on CORVETTE TODAY to talk about the all new LT7 engine for the C8 ZR1 ! Your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, leads you through the conversation with Jordan and Dustin. They get knee-deep into the in's and out's of the behemoth with 1,064 horsepower and 828 lb/ft of torque. Strap in and get ready to find out everything you'll ever want to know about the LT7 engine for the C8 ZR! on this episode of CORVETTE TODAY.
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[Music] welcome to Corvette today the show that
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Garrett thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette and the
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around the world my guest on Corvette today appeared on show number 106 back
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in April of 2022 these two men developed the record setting lt6 engine for the C8
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Z6 Jordan Lee the global chief engineer of small BL engines for GM and Dustin
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Gardner the assistant chief engineer for small BL engines are back on Corvette today to talk about their new
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masterpiece the lt7 engine for the brand new C8 ZR1 guys welcome back to Corvette
4:15
today thank you Steve I'm very excited to be back on your show Dustin and I there's nothing we like talking better
4:21
than about Corvettes and Corvette engines in the lt7 is really an exceptional piece as you saw when we did
4:26
the reveal and the presentation at NCM a couple weeks ago yeah Echo that Steve yeah big thanks love being here like the
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lt6 the lt7 something we've been working on for a very long time very proud of and it's always really fun for us when
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we can finally brag about it and have all the Corvette fans out there get all excited to get one of these in their garage absolutely it's like you got a
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secret that you've kept for six or seven years you can't tell anybody but now we can finally talk about it right exactly
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yeah Trevor Keeps Us on a really tight leash Dustin's a lot better at it than I am I must admit Dustin and actually the
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small blog team have a saying that if you want to keep a secret don't tell Jordan but I was able to keep this one
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there you go well guys right off the bat congratulations on this new lt7 engine
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1,64 horsepower and 828 lb feet of torque that's mindboggling did you guys
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ever think it would get that good well okay so Dustin and I are going to answer that one probably independently but we
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agree we didn't set out at 1,64 horsepower we have a lot of experience with small block engines long history of
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push rot two valve supercharged we have a really good idea what those engines can make and we do a new design we're
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pretty close on what we expect to get power and torque wise but the lt6 and the lt7 they were new for us we've never
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done such a high performance V8 engine before a flat plane crank and we were really pushing the envelope on what our
5:47
analysis capability was so we did go For Broke and originally our Target was 850 horsepower and the first engine we put
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on the dyo it was loafing along with the wastegates open and it was already there at 850 we knew this was going to make a
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lot more than 850 so it was a long journey to get the actual number that we delivered we didn't leave anything on
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the table dusted and the team scraped for every horsepower we have a saying that there it's not a horsepower that we
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don't like we've never met a horsepower we didn't like so we just kept pushing and pushing and pushing and Dustin and
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the team in particular the design system Engineers unun Lee and Chad Gilbert did a phenomenal job delivering tremendous
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power highest horsepower v8 engine ever put into a volume production car globally not just America globally it's
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incredible yeah and the comment on the surprise right it's hard to be a surprise when it's a Long Mountain climb to get there but as Jordan says in the
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initial surprise was when we really understood that the system was more capable than we thought to start when we
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you know were achieving 850 out of the bag with a lot of iterations it was an extended team folks Jordan mentioned you
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know Jake and Analysis and Julie West a bunch of people in the calibration Community we started really sharpening
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our pencils and we made some significant Hardware changes that point of view when we realized you know if we did X Y and Z
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we can really swing for the fences on this engine so we slowly worked our way up in power ultimately achieved more
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than our wildest goal was to get to that four figure number but yeah it was a long Mountain climb to get there but truly shows the capability of that
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Gemini architecture so Steve from really interesting backstory there one of the most important days for us it's going to
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go down in our history April 15th 2024 was the day and it was a long day that we ran the power Certification testing
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in Pontiac and it wasn't until late in the evening that the testing was completed we all had hoped we'd hit
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1,000 horsepower we had an internal Target amongst ourselves for four digits and then ideally we'd want to get 1,26
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to be 1 horsepower more than the Dodge Demon 170 if you recall they make it 1,25 horsepower but only on 85 Fuel and
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I think we even have a special cow for that yeah we wanted this to be a No Nonsense pump gas more than 1,025 so
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Dustin he was ironing me instant messaging and our internal web through the evening along with the test
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Engineers every step of the way as they were inching up on the power the engine was brutal on the dyno the dyo really
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struggled and that's why the test took so long because T what was it a few seconds of testing and then we had to do
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a 10-minute idle cool off of the dyno how did that go yeah so it kind of goes back to another fun story to put to this
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to not go too far down the rabbit ho hold when we developed the lt5 for the previous generation ZR1 we were breaking
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dinos in the lab so lab bought us three 1,000 horsepower dinos and said okay this will never be a problem again
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obviously as we in over that th horsepower point we're like shoot now the dinos aren't big enough but we got
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allowance to basically overpower the dinos for 30 40 seconds at a time and then we'd have to back off so every data
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point we were running in the power runs right you have to go up stabilize get the data finish it before the dyo lets
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go and then ramp down and let the dyo cool down wow so what we thought was always going to be the biggest Dino we'd ever need we as always in the small
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block fashion we beat that so it was hard on the dyno the exhaust Stacks we had they were over temping we had a Add
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Water injection to cool the exhaust Stacks I think the emission scrubbers for the cell were hitting their limits
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and the cell facilities people were coming by asking what the heck's going on Wow the alarms are going off it was
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really quite a unique day for all the Corvette enthusiasts after April 15th it will be the day in history the 20164
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horsepower day that'll be a Date to Remember for sure guys now this is the first time a Corvette has been
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turbocharged these turbos are huge at 67 mm talk about how well they work with
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this engine you're talking about the turbine the compressor is even bigger 76 mm for the compressor and the turn to 67
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but test maybe give a little background on how we select those turbos and how they why are they so big yeah so what they are is the compressor side is 76 mm
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the turbine side is 67 that's to get a better balance with you know response on the turban side and then the flow in
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compressor throughput that we need on the turban side of it so the hot side of it the turban side it's actually an
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integrated manit turbo housing so the turbine itself is part of the exhaust manifold and it's a custom piece
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designed for the lt7 in our packaging environment so what that gives you is that turban wheel is really close to the
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exhaust valves and the runners in the head and the way it directs the air into that turbine housing are definitely
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optimized for our engine and our vehicle configuration which really helps with fast spoolup times because you only got
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a couple inches for that exhaust flow to travel to that turbo then on the 76 mm compressor side it's a very large monos
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scroll turbo what monos SCS give you is very good high engine speed read that is high flow boost capability CU When we
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knew we were really going to be swinging for this th horsepower number we needed a turbo that was going to give us everything we needed at the top end now
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to help mitigate some of the downsides of big monos turbos is it has a ported
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Inlet shroud that helps with the low turbo speed aerodynamics which lets a big turbo behave much better at lower
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engine speeds so that's a big part of helping pull that peak of the torque curve down to where we get over 800 foot
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pounds of torque by 3,000 RPM so we still have good low engine speed response without sacrificing the top end
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and then the other big enablers in the turbocharger assembly to help with turbo lag and response and dynamic driving is
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we have electric wastegate actuators as well as electric pressure relief valves so with that the control guys do a bunch
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of trick stuff and dynamic driving conditions to keep the turbo speed up even when you're off throttle to
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virtually eliminate turbo lag so it really works well is an integrated system definitely the spoke for the lt7
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it's also worth mentioning Steve it's a really large turbo and we originally went out for sourcing a lot of the turbo
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suppliers that we've used on other GM engs wouldn't even quote it they didn't have anything that was that big of a
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frame size wow so shout out to Borg Warner who worked with us developing this this really large turbo thank you
11:46
Borg Warner for sure and we'll talk about turbo lag in just a second guys also head castings have unique ports and
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larger combustion Chambers too yeah like so many things on the lt7 I know I've said this again and again it is not an
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lt6 with turbos on it we've touched virtually every component in that engine to optimize it around this boosted setup
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so it is a completely unique casting and that casting is there because of as you said the combustion Chambers are unique
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they're much larger than the LT 6s they're still 100% CNC machine like the lt6 is so the new cylinder heads look
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like jewelry and then very unique exhaust ports where an lt6 will have the exhaust flow very evenly spaced and the
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exhaust ports in the head actually start turning the exhaust flow up into the lt6 is tubular headers we're doing the exact
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opposite with the lt7 we're trying to turn that air flow or exhaust flow down and together to point it right at that
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turban wheel so even the outside cylinders exhaust ports actually angle Inward and down once again trying to
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bring all that flow together in a very short distance directed right at the turbine wheel so Steve the big takeaway
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for you is that the lt7 was engineered to be a very optimized turbo engine absolutely Dustin keeps mentioning it
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it's not an lt6 even though share basic configuration and architecture for the big Parts like the block and the crank
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the crank train all the other things that were optimized for Turbo operation was done for lt7 that's awesome guys
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let's talk about the intake system as well because I know that was tuned for those twin turbos wasn't it oh yeah as
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you guys know the lt6 has a very large intake manifold and that's done to get all the naturally aspirated High engine
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speed tuning that gives that engine the power and efficiency it has we're looking to do the exact opposite with the lt7 the intake manifold is isolated
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left to right and the intake volume is about 60% less than the lt6 cuz you want
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a lot less air to compress once again helping with turbo lag just getting into base engine design there so the goals of
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the manifold are very different and that's why they look so different the other thing is that intake manifold also packages a secondary fuel system as well
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which I think you plan to talk about in depth a little bit later as well right right yeah definitely all right guys
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let's talk about turbo lag because that's always been the knock on turbos you've created the Engine with minimal
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or no turbo lag whatsoever how did you guys overcome turbo lag so to break that
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down into kind of the three different areas you can have it right so from a standstill you always have to accelerate
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the turbo that's just base physics so you minimize that with all the things we did with the base engine design back to
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what I was talking about before that turbine wheel is really close to the exhaust valve with that bespoke integrated Manny turbo design that we
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have so you get the exhaust gas to the turbine wheel very fast then that's going through a allall bearing Center
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housing on the turbo so what that does is it greatly reduces the friction on that turbo wheel so any of the energy
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going into the turbine wheel is going to accelerating you're not losing it to friction ni that helps there as well in
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addition to that kind of what I was talking about with the very small intake manifold Air volume that kind of goes
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into further the two charge air coolers that are on the engine those charge air coolers sit right on the cam covers so
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the path from the compressor wheel to the charge air cooler is only a few inches and it's it's only a few inches from the outlet of the charge air cooler
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to the throttle bu the intake so you have very little air to compress and everything is very tighten on the engine
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as you see on other integrated turbo packages right if you have the turbochargers that are further from the engine or remote mounted intercoolers
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that's just more air you have to compress which slows down your Boost response time and then off of a start
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where we do dynamically what we call Dynamic boost control so like in a call it track driving condition we all know
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the c8s chassis controls know when you're in a driving State like that you go into a braking Zone and you tip off
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the accelerator pedal you're decelerating you know turning you still carrying engine speed but given the
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electric waste gates in the pressure control valves we can actually close the waste Gates under Dell and braking and
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keep that turbine speed up and will go into a closed loop boost control and will hold boost at the back of the
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throttle body so when you come out of that braking event and you roll into the throttle the turbo is already at speed
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and you already have Boost at the throttle body so it very much behaves like a naturally aspirated engine in those Dynamic track driving conditions
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man that's amazing you guys Steve it's worth noting the controls Engineers had done a remarkable job coming up with
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software that does the dynamic boost control and the antiag software I do recall when the the car development
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began a lot of the performance drivers were complaining it's hard to drive the car fast because the turbo lag is so
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horrendous to get around corners it was unpredictable yeah and then the controls engineer said no just wait we're going
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to enable the new software and the booth control and it it was like a miracle I mean everybody who's driven the car even
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Tony Roma he's the new chief that took over for Taj when Taj retired he didn't have a lot of experience with the car
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and when he first drove it he was just astounded that it felt just like a naturally aspirated car I think I need
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to drive it too guys just to experience that and give you my honest opinion don't you think I think you do yeah
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Trevor will help you out that's an awesome deal that would be fantastic now with these turbos and all the technology
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in it they do have to be cooled and oil too don't they no absolutely so both turbos do have dedicated coolant feeds
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so that kind of goes around the outside path on the inside of that Center baring housing to keep that bearing housing
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cool then we also have dedicated oiling lines for the same thing to keep that ball bearing even though it does have a ball bearing in it for the main shaft
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bearing interface that is bathed in oil that we do feed and then actively scavenge away from the engine the other
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part to the integrated exhaust manifolds that we told you about to keep the turbos close to the engine ends up
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mounting them very low to the so with that oiling we actually have to actively scavenge the oil away from the turbos
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and in the lt7 we have a seventh dry stump oiling stage that's completely dedicated to pulling oil back away from
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the turbos so you never have any oil stacked up there that's pretty fascinating I think I mentioned it during my presentation at NCM that seven
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stage was visible none of the journalists caught that on the lt6 it was there and we kept talking about a six stage pump yeah hiding in plain
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sight wasn't it guys that's funny I can't can't overstate the engineering work that Dustin and his crew did on
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that loop system that loop system is the heart of the engine the turbochargers included but also the engine performance
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and ability to go around tracks extremely fast without any lubrication system issues pretty remarkable yeah
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well guys let's take our first break when we come back we'll talk more about the new lt7 engine for the ZR1 coming up
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docomo Steve Garrett with me is Jordan Lee the global chief engineer of small block engines for General Motors and
22:12
Dustin Gardner the assistant chief engineer for small block engines we are talking about the already legendary lt7
22:19
engine for the upcoming C8 ZR1 guys this car is dual injected there's direct
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injection as well as port injection that seems fascinating to me tell me more about that yeah Steve well it's there
22:31
for necessity and other functions as the team out there knows we did do something similar to this with the lt5 in the
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previous generation ZR1 we did it there only because we needed the added fuel at
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the top end where the lt7 like the lt5 definitely needs the added fuel flow and
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to start out with a fun fact there if you can park an lt7 at Peak power it'll
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consume almost two gallons of fuel a minute wow so if you think about what you need injection wise to be able to
23:00
basically feed it what it needs to make that level of power is quite astonishing the added 8 PFI injectors on top of the
23:07
8di injectors which are still exhaust side di like the lp6 are definitely all
23:12
used at the top end what is really different and better utilized with the lt7 is we blend those two fuel systems
23:19
throughout the operating range even like after Catalyst light off when the engine
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is idling we'll completely shut down the direct injection system that's got a couple good advantages to it one it's
23:31
much quieter and idle to do that and two it helps with emissions to blend in some
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PFI in the light load operating range and we do that for quite a bit of driving where you'll drive on PFI only
23:42
till we start blending in the DI with load so it has a lot of nvh emissions as
23:47
well as Peak power benefits to it so it's a great tool to have in the toolbox with this engine yeah definitely Steve
23:53
just another tidbit as Dustin mentioned that the fuel flow of two gallons per minute a peak power or those who know
24:00
Corvett typically have 18 gallon fuel tank so it'll drain the tank in 9 minutes wow so it's very thirsty for
24:07
background for you you know why the two fuel systems like Dustin mentioned it offers a lot of advantages but if you if
24:13
we try to do that with one injector the injector would have to be so large to power 1,64 horsepower that the low-p
24:19
speed light load fuel injection capability would be heavily diminished we wouldn't get the fine control that we
24:25
wanted for idling and low- speeed drive quality so but the two fuel systems was a necessity I get it I understand that
24:31
now and guys you did keep the flat plane crank as well talk about how that's better for the lt7 engine rather than
24:37
the crossplane crank well Dustin and I are going to talk about this one there's a lot of misconceptions about flat plane
24:44
cranks the crossplane crank engines also can make a lot of power and they also have a little less vibration the beauty
24:49
of the flat plane crank though in the configuration that we've chosen for the lt7 with a really short stroke an 80 mm
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stroke is that it revs voraciously so even a neutral rev from an idol for an lt6 or even an lt7 it'll tack out to
25:03
8,000 RPM extremely fast and a lot of that's achieved by lightwe connecting rod optimize piston mass and the very
25:09
short stroke of the crankshaft the beauty of a flat plane though is it does help you improve volum atric efficiency
25:15
you don't have cross talk with two cylinders that are doing an intake stroke one after another on the same
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side of the engine the same plenum so it's effectively two four-cylinder engines and it it breaths bank to bank
25:26
so you're able to achieve higher volumetric efficiency and more power wow so that's the main benefit th what are
25:33
some other intrinsics that you've mentioned that flat plan crank has Advantage is over you kind of already touched on the big ones right I mean we
25:39
definitely didn't want to give up that what I always call Rev happy nature that's part of just the DNA of the
25:44
Gemini engine twins right without that we would really take a lot of a character that makes these engines fantastic and very emotional and
25:51
visceral engines to drive so maintaining that was absolutely needed there but as you said say to Jordan the breathing
25:57
part of it is huge especially when we're trying to flow these turbos at their upper air flow limit having that
26:03
balanced air flow bank to bank really takes out a lot of other dynamics that you'd have to fight to balance that out
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when you have two intake events on the same bank back to back you really change
26:14
the way things flow and we'd have to integrate the two Banks together and we wouldn't be able to do what the split
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intake enables us we control the turbos as two independent four cylinders another thing that I should have
26:27
mentioned when we were talking about the turbo in the past we actually have turbo speed sensors in both turbos so normally
26:33
you have to leave a little bit of margin to your max turbo speed right when you're predicting it but we actively
26:39
measure it so between the two Banks we can run the turbos right up to the red line because we're know where they're at
26:45
and because we can operate them independent of each other due to that firing order and intank allows us to do that which is huge see for your
26:51
understanding and for the understanding of your fans that are very technically Savvy the turbo speed Dustin's talking
26:56
about 137,000 RPM so it's getting up there to maximize the Boost is really important but while a flat plane crank
27:02
engine can be very rep happy that's primarily due to the Short Stroke so I don't want to give you the misconception
27:08
that if you did a crossplane crank it's a very short stroke it could also be quite R happy got it so lt6 flat plane
27:15
lt7 with the turbos as dusting was explaining gets to be very complicated if you do a cross plane to get the right
27:21
balance and the tuning and ideally you want every cylinder to breede the same amount of air and produce the same amount of power yeah turbocharge a
27:28
crossplane crme V8 that becomes extremely difficult H interesting guys and the mindboggling thing about this
27:34
engine is that it's got more power than two LS7 engines that's more power than
27:39
two C6 z6s and that engine the LS7 was a 7 liter engine this is 5 and a half
27:46
liters wow yeah Steve I like to joke that with the lt7 you get 14 lers of Gen
27:52
4 Fury oh God a good way to look at itn't that's awesome guys I like that I
27:59
have to remember that one also the transmission's been fortified to handle all that power too hasn't it yeah as far
28:05
as the details I know talking about my transmission counterparts they did strengthen the shafts and the gears I
28:11
think are a little bit wider all the ratios are the same but the transmission had to be hardened does he know any
28:16
other details on what was hardened in the transmission yeah not to get too far out of my swim Lane but you touched on most of them ratios are the same cases
28:23
the same but all the key internals that needed to be beefed up for lack of a meta is describe it were to handle the
28:29
torque it is a unique transmission to the ZR1 to handle the lt7 capabilities
28:35
yeah I think so with all that power for sure also guys we have extra venting on the outside talk real quickly about the
28:42
vent in the wishbone and then the vent on the top rear quarters which kind of reminds me of that vent on the shoulder
28:47
of the C7 Corvette yeah I guess the easy one is to talk about the split window or the spine on the coups and and that's
28:54
kind of exactly what it looks like right that's just additional engine C part chimney venting so you know up high heat
29:00
extracts that way in addition to the great styling throwback and how cool it looks the interesting ones as you
29:06
brought up Steve are the ones kind of on the rear quarters yes so in referencing those to the previous generation were
29:12
those were there for brake cooling on the ZR1 the additional rear brake cooling are the ones in the wishbones
29:19
which are interesting but those are dedicated to the rear brakes the ones that are up on top of the hatch at the quarter those are actually additional
29:26
air inlets into the fresh air air induction system to feed the engine okay on all current generation Corvettes
29:32
right we bring in the engine air through the inlets behind the doors by the rear radiators the coupe Z1S do that but in
29:39
addition to that they bring an additional fresh air up on top of that quarter panel and the vehicle guys did that because there's actually a good
29:45
high press cool air zone right there so it doesn't give the engine inherently more air it gives it access to cooler
29:53
air oh that gives you more time before you get into any thermal sort of Dray on
29:58
track with the coups there so we were just trying to give them the best opportunity to grab the coolest air around the car is what those are doing
30:04
that makes sense and you know what I like the best guys is right on the driver information center there on the dash you have a turbo boost meter that's
30:11
so cool yeah you have a turbo car you want to be able to see that you're making boost and I would say in addition
30:17
to that driving the car you're never going to second guess that there's Turbo's there when you get into boost you can hear it and you know it and you
30:23
can feel it too can't you yeah so and I we both throve are ones for a while for
30:29
a week each you don't have time look at the boost gauge it's there but when you you m this W you're preoccupied with a
30:34
lot of other things you're just trying to harness the car aren't you that's awesome your ears are a very good boost
30:41
gauge in it you know when you're making big boost you can hear it and you can feel it I can imagine well guys let's
30:46
take our final break when we come back we'll talk more about the lt7 engine for the C8 ZR1 coming up next on Corvette
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and now back to the only current podcast on Corvettes Corvette today with your
33:27
host host Steve Garrett thanks again for listening and watching Corvette today
33:32
the show that talks about everything Corvette Corvette today is brought to you by wheelcraft I know you want your
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2 31 I'm your host Steve Garrett with me are my buddies Jordan Lee the global chief engineer for small block engines
34:04
for General Motors and also Dustin Gardner the assistant chief engineer for small block engines we are talking about
34:10
the already legendary lt7 engine for the upcoming C8 ZR1 guys the cool thing
34:16
about this engine is that it's still built at the performance build Center there at the Bowling Green assembly plant how long does it take to build an
34:23
lt7 engine I guess Steve the first jump in there about the performance build Center can't Rave about that place the
34:29
folks that work there enough they are the reason we can do engines like the lt6 and 7 given where we traditionally
34:35
build engines in general and definitely small blocks there's a lot of manufacturing constraints given the higher volume that those plants run and
34:42
having a individual with an engine build cart hand build that really unties the engineering hands to do a complex engine
34:50
like this so yeah that team there and their passion around it and precision is hugely the only reason we can even talk
34:55
about engines like this that being said to get back at your questions so the lt7 will be built by the same individuals
35:02
and the same line as the lt6 is they'll be built together obviously there's a little bit more content to an lt7 but
35:09
ideally a builder should be able to build an engine in about 4 hours wow so ideally build two engines a shift is the
35:16
goal see if you have not been through the build Center at Bowling Green you must go you'll meet some of the finest
35:21
Craftsman putting engines together you've ever met they're so skilled at what they do they're perfectionists they
35:26
take great ride in every single engine they put together and I think they put their own name they have a badge it's
35:32
attached to the engine with their name on it and I remember it was quite some time ago I bought a C7 Z6 and I met the
35:39
engine builder who's now kind of a friend of mine his name is Jason Neil he told me I asked him why did you get into
35:44
this and you take such great care you're such a perfectionist every little detail I've been watching how you put this together that's cool and he said I'm
35:50
going to buy one of these cars one day Jordan and it may have my name on it so I'm going to build every one of them
35:56
like I'm going to buy it that's awesome that's a great idea and you know guys that performance build Center I've seen
36:01
from a distance you still can't get back in there and you can't build your own engine but hopefully one day they will
36:07
reopen that option for Corvette buyers where you can go in with the engine builder themselves and build that engine
36:13
that is going to go in your car even though this engine is a quote unquote small block it's a huge engine how did
36:19
you fit that engine into a C8 I'll start by saying that there was a good reason why we never put double over cam engines
36:26
in front engine corv cuz they just don't fit yeah they are big and the mid engine
36:31
car allowed us a lot more engine compartment room we could get wider and we could get taller so that pretty much
36:37
took the gloves off on the architecture we wanted to choose to get the most power possible Steve um before Dustin
36:43
talks I think you have seen the rolling chassis yes that was at the Corvette museum if you took the time to look
36:49
carefully that engine is stuffed in every nook and crane that engine compartment every line every wire every
36:55
hose yes Dustin and his it just a remarkable job in packaging which ironically is one of the most difficult
37:02
things to do in designing new engines is integrating and packaging them in the vehicle yeah yeah to jump in the there at the beginning of it right it's the
37:08
vehicle architecture of the mid engine is really what enabled us to do that you get the question you know why turbo over
37:14
supercharging right and the supercharging was the right answer for the previous generation front engine car
37:20
given the compact nature and as you've seen it Steve the width of the lt7 in the ZR1 is so wide imagine trying to put
37:27
that between wheels and then wheels that need to turn right so the architecture was a big enabler and to make this level
37:33
of power you really need the efficiency of turbocharging over the supercharging solution which as I said was right for
37:39
the previous generation but this generation allowed us to do that there and as ha and Company have alluded to in
37:44
the other reviews we knew the plan from the beginning for the architecture of the car and when you look at where the
37:50
turbos are kind of packaged in those little triangle wedges behind the rear radiators and in front of the rear
37:55
wheels yeah that space was always there for the lt7 when we first did the ZO6
38:01
body style yeah so I want to say we could do it cuz we package it from the beginning but also they could never give
38:07
us all the space we wanted so it was definitely a shoehorn exercise we optimized every millimeter we needed we
38:13
moved stuff on the vehicle and on the engine side where we needed to and where we could to enable it but it was definitely a one team effort between the
38:20
vehicle team and the engine team to make this all work as I said before with the lt7 being the plan from the beginning we
38:26
knew what this engine looked like many many years ago so packaging work started a long time ago and you know that was a
38:31
question I was going to ask you guys I know that when you were on Corvette today with me talking about the lt6 for
38:37
the ZO6 it took you seven years to develop that engine and these engines were developed basically side by side
38:43
there the Gemini twins how long did it take to develop and finish the lt7 if the lt6 took about six or seven years as
38:50
you said Steve they started at the exact same time so we got what two more years into the LT 7s and we do the LT 6s that
38:57
being said we architected the engines and kind of laid everything out together at the same point in time but obviously
39:02
the engineering work and focus would have been more lt6 forward at the beginning the architectures and
39:08
everything were defined at the same time that offer up too Steve it's a long time I looked up through my my history files
39:15
to identify when we actually started working on these engines and it dates all the way back to 2010 wow so we're
39:21
doing analysis and packaging and Concepts we didn't get really serious until 20 14 okay but yeah it's been a
39:29
long long time coming it's amazing how far in advance you guys plan out and
39:35
start working on things like this it's simply amazing to me and also interestingly enough guys the zr1's not
39:41
going overseas I know that the center exhaust days because of not going across the pond it's a shame people over there
39:49
won't be able to experience 1,64 horsepower well we're not ready to State
39:54
what our future plans are we're very focused on North American cuz that's where the reveal was in the launch right
39:59
but never say never you know things can change and we haven't revealed any plans yet and actually I'm not even privy to
40:04
what the plans are but there's a lot of discussions on what we're going to do with our cars yeah and I know the Corvette team said that the ZR1 is going
40:10
to go over probably 215 miles an hour I know testing isn't finished yet what are
40:15
you guys guessing top speed on this car is going to be well I think we're going to Eclipse 215 by a pretty nice margin I
40:22
wouldn't think it's going to be a couple of tents or a couple miles per hour if you look at a th000 horsepower versus what the C7 did I think the C7 was 214
40:31
755 horsepower yeah it should be pretty good Trevor swore us to secrecy DUS and
40:36
I already know the number but we can't tell you okay well that's fair it's all right I know testing is still going on I
40:42
can tell you though you're going to be very impressed I'm already impressed guys just impressing me more is just icing on the
40:48
cake Jordan Dustin thank you again for taking the time to be back on Corvette
40:54
today when we get a new engine you guys are coming back on the show how's that sound sounds great anytime Steve anytime
41:00
you want to talk to us more than happy to do so this is always a blast Steve you know us and you and your fans if we
41:05
can talk about engines with the Corvette fans we're always down to do that we can do this all day guys you have an open
41:10
invitation into Corvette today anytime you want let me know when that new engine is coming down the pike thanks
41:16
again for listening and watching Corvette today and be sure to tell your family friends and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette Today's
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