VETTEMANN

I don't think you can chalk it off just to 'saving face' - they didn't have to say anything again with the announcement just a few days away - instead they did a 2-page article on Corvette engines...

It's a pretty in-depth article and it seems logical.

lt4obsesses

It's conjecture of course. But in time it will be true, but probably not for some time to come. And the Corvette will most likely hold on to the pushrod V-8 for as long as possible. But sure, by the end of the C7 run, the climate may be such that forced induction w/ less cubes, even cylinders will be the way they have to go. However, I'd bet that the Corvette will be among the last to make the switch.

E.T.D. Corvettes

JLinCA

Thanks for posting

I didn't read it cause I am not worried.

E.T.D. Corvettes

sundiego

Twin turbo V6 600 hp in, say, a 2500lb Carbon fiber aluminum/magnesium car car? Sign me up!

Axial

Performance V6s: Extra vibrations are fun...counterweights are fun, too. I love it when my engine shakes itself to death over shorter than average amount of time. GTR, looking at you...

Honestly, I'd rather they just go to a smaller displacement, higher-revving V8 than a V6 if they want to save fuel during cruising (because, let's face it, you aren't going to save diddly when a performance car is accelerating). Would that not have similar effect? How about a Straight Six? Why does it have to be a V at that point?

Raitzi

Why can't grand sport be available at launch

Jinx

The magazines are always guessing about Corvette's future. Don't think that just because an enthusiast mag puts words in an article they must come from an authoritative source.

I'm frankly surprised that none of them have floated the idea of a 4.0L blown V8 to better fit the regulatory quirks of the world's largest automobile market. Hey, why not?

.Jinx

Raitzi

I think base car would need dry sump and serious brakes if it is as fast as we believe. And that would be exactly what I want.

Paulchristian

Technology will advance and horsepower wars (round 3) will commence yet again. We will be older and therefore b***h about it and the youth will embrace it. (No country for old men).

Technology will find a way...

Aviator

Saw a C4 with a GNX motor under the hood run a sub 10 second quarter mile. Pretty darn quick. It was at the Forum Cruise In over 10 years ago.

rjwoerheide

And we've heard this rumor before, along with mid-engine V6s going back .... way back ....

BlueOx

Blah blah blah. It is a magazine article with nothing but speculation. Nothing GM quoted. You have no idea that it is anything.

Remember when the 'rumor' was that the base engine was a 5.5? Or even a 6-banger? Go sell crazy somewhere else.

lt4obsesses

Nice article, well written and credible.

Alot of the future is really going to depend on the performance of the LT1. How is the AFM going to perform, especially in reliablity and durability? What about the DI in the ohv engine? The current DI motors are beginning to have issues with valves getting gummed up due to pvc gasses building carbon and oil deposits. How will GM be able to adress this?

And of course, there is the question of fuel cost. Just how effeicient can they make a pushrod V8? How efficient will they need to make it? The one thing I believe GM knows about the Corvette is that it will always need to be an affordable, mass produced, high performance car. It will always need to be practicle for an everyday driver, and it will always need to be on the leading edge of performance. These are the two non-negotiables for this badge. Thus, the powertrain that gets it there will of course have to be negotiable.

Right now, the price of gas is ridiculously volitile. Even the suggestion that it might rain in the same state as a refinery causes the price to jump. This is only going to get worse. So, to keep the Corvette affordable, not only to buy, but to drive, GM will have to keep it's options open.

VETTEMANN

Go ahead, burry your head in the sand, click your heals and call for Toto, and hope the 'Good Witch' of big engines tells you that smaller engines and hybrids are all just a bad dream...

October 2102 Corvette Magazine, page 50: "More stringent Federal fuel economy and carbon-dioxide emissions standards may preclude GM from ever building such a large-displacement Corvette engine again. Sadly, the 427s days are numbered. ...The LS7 engineering effort helped us improve our capability to develop very high-performance engines, says Small Block Chief Engineer Jordan Lee. ...Specifically, Gen 5 [LT1] will benefit from all we learned in making the LS7 the great engine that it is today."

CPhelps

Thanks for posting the scan.

So basically he admits the 5.5L was just a rumor that everyone jumped on, and points out that it is contrary to what GM has stated regarding the larger displacement actually being more fuel efficient because a 3.1L V6 makes enough power for the LT1 to remain in 4 cylinder mode longer.

Then he randomly tacks on "oh but I'm sure we'll see it someday" at the end, based on nothing. He even suggests that the Z06 replacement would be called Z07. People did that for the C6 generation too. Now that Z07 HAS been used as an option code, it would be silly to bring it back as a model of Corvette IMO, but GM has done things like this in the past, so who knows.

Plus the 5.5L itself is suspect. GM only has created 5.5L when a racing series forced it on them. Their smaller displacement production V8s were 4.8 and 5.3. If we ever do see a smaller displacement Gen V V8 in the Corvette, I'd expect it to be 5.3 vs. 5.5. Especially since it has already been announced that the Gen V truck engines will be 5.3L and 6.2L, with a 4.3L V6 based on the Gen V V8s. Note that both the 5.3L and 6.2L share the same stroke of 92mm. There is a reason GM uses 5.3L and 6.2L.

It seems odd that they'd be projecting stingrays on their walls, and we'd already see CAD leaks of stingray emblems, if the sting ray model is coming later, between Z06 and ZR1 levels. That would be at least 12-24 months out, IMO.

And the TT 3.6L? I've no doubt it can make great power, but by the time you add turbos and pluming to the DOHC 3.6L, it's not really any lighter than an N/A small block. Couple that with the taller heads that make it harder to fit under the low slung hood line of a 'Vette, and color me skeptical. The first article even calls out the OHV architecture's compactness as enabling them to pass European crash standards, so the compact low engine is obviously important. Not saying it is impossible, but I'm pretty skeptical.

All in all, nothing in that article really convinces me that this is in fact GM's broader direction, since we haven't seen enough to know, and GM itself hasn't said anything to that effect yet. They have retained large displacements, and gone with AFM, and mentioned start stop, so I'd expect to see them do what they can with AFM and start/stop before caving.

Dominic Sorresso

Doesn't DoD mitigate discussion of smaller motors? As Tadge stated, a larger motor with DoD was actually more economical because it doesn't cycle between phases as often based on load. Smaller motor or would be annoying like your auto trans constantly up and downshifting with too small a 4cyl.

BlueOx

I didn't say that at all. I said the article was speculation that provided no proof of what they are actually doing with the engines you are freaking out about. The 427 will be back as it is too great a marketing tool for them to trash...but it will be a very different version of it just as the LS7 is a very different version from the big block 427.

There is no doubt that smaller engines will happen just as they already have happened. The cast iron big block is gone and the evolution will continue.

jschindler

There are three reasons why a company would offer a high performance sports car with a smaller engine with less cylinders but higher tech features such as turbos. One is if you are a niche manufacturer and fuel economy is of concern to meet your overall CAFE rating. The second is if you are trying to make a statement about being a "green" company. The third is if the company does not have a volume V8 to begin with.

GM does not need the Corvette to have super fuel economy. With the C7/LT1 technology the car will get very reasonable gas mileage, and in the scheme of GM's total volume, it won't matter to their CAFE rating no matter what their fuel economy is.

Building a "green" car to make a statement is a very expensive proposition. This is what companies like Acura (the new NSX) are doing. These cars are very limited production cars and are very expensive - think $100,000 and over. This does not fit the GM marketing model for the Corvette.

Finally, GM spreads the development of the V8 across hundreds of thousands of trucks, large SUV's and the Corvette. That is how they can afford to spend so much R&D money developing such a well rounded V8 that offers fantastic performance, economy and packaging.

Bottom line is that a turbo V6 is an answer to a question that is not being asked.