How can you tell the two apart, though? The first car – the ZR1 – appears to feature wider hips and definitely boasts a central exhaust system. Curiously, the CAD rendering of the LT7 from a few years ago shows a different design. According to Randy, the ZR1 has a "unique, quad exhaust centrally mounted with outer pipes being about half the diameter of the inner."
The thunderous sound that you can hear when the driver gently taps the loud pedal is another indicator of what hides under the car’s glass hatch.
LT7 is how General Motors refers to this engine, a different affair from the LTA – a.k.a. Blackwing – of the Cadillac CT6-V sports sedan. It’s not a hot-vee design; instead, the turbos are located on each side of the engine.
The 5.5-liter motor is an evolution of the LT6 in the Z06, and both of them feature a DOHC valvetrain and a flat-plane crankshaft for maximum aural pleasure. The free-breathing Z06 is supposed to get 600 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque, translating to 608 PS and 678 Nm in the metric system.
Some say that 650 horsepower (659 PS) is possible as well, and that would be the ideal scenario given the output rating of the supercharged small-block V8 from the previous generation, codenamed LT4. As for the twin-turbo ZR1 – which is expected for the 2024 model year – hearsay suggests 850 horsepower (862 PS) and 825 pound-feet (1,119 Nm).
The torque figure, however, may be optimistic.
Because of the health crisis and UAW protests, the new Z06 is expected to drop sometime next year as a 2022 model. Given that 2020 is the final year for the Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT350R ponies, a flat-plane crankshaft V8 in an American car is more than welcomed.
The Corvette was unique, quad exhaust centrally mounted with outer pipes being about half the diameter of the inner.
Posted by Randy Hermann on Thursday, June 18, 2020
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