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Most Powerful Corvette Ever: 650 hp

June 24, 2014
Most Powerful Corvette Ever: 650 hp
The 2015 Corvette ZO6 will go on sale in the fourth quarter of this year with an estimated price of $75,000.
The LT4 engine in the new ZO6 Corvette The new 650-hp LT4 V8 will be built at GM's Bowling Green Assembly Plant in Kentucky and its Tonawanda Engine Plant in New York.

Chevrolet engineers did not spare the horses when they were designing next year’s Z06 version of America’s sports car, the Corvette. They upgraded and supercharged the LT4 small-block engine, giving the 6.2-liter V8 650 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque at 3,600 rpm. It also has tremendous low-end torque, cranking out 457 lb-ft just off idle and 625 lb‑ft by only 2,800 rpm.
Some of the new features on the ZO6’s LT4 engine include:

  • Rotocast aluminum cylinder heads that are stronger and handle heat better than conventional aluminum heads.
  • Lightweight titanium intake valves.
  • Machined and forged powder-metal steel connecting rods that reduce the amount of reciprocating mass in the engine.
  • Forged aluminum pistons with a structure that increases their strength, letting them handle higher cylinder pressures.
  • Stainless-steel exhaust manifolds and an aluminum balancer that are lighter than before.
  • Dual-pressure-controlled oil pump in the dry-sump oiling subsystem.
  • A 1.7-liter supercharger that spins at 20,000 rpm, 5,000 rpm faster than the supercharger on the ZR1 Corvette.

The engine will be mated to either a seven-speed manual transmission or an all-new paddle-shift eight-speed automatic transmission, the first automatic offered in a Z06.

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