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Powertrain
For the first time in decades, the "big block" V8 engine is back under the
hood of the Corvette. Like the meanest Corvettes of the sixties and
seventies, the new Z06 comes packing a four hundred and twenty seven cubic
inch engine. The 427 first appeared in a stock car in 1963, turning in a
then-record breaking one hundred and sixty six mile per hour lap at Daytona
Motor Speedway. When this 427 race motor entered production some time after
the amazing Daytona performance, it carried the name of the Mark IV. This
new 427, which carries the name LS7, is similar to the 427 of yesteryear
only in the relative size. This new LS7 is actually 427.6 cubic inches, but
carries the 427 moniker for marketing purposes. The LS7 is an all
aluminum block, with a 4.13 inch bore, and a 4 inch stroke, and features
thin, pressed in cylinder sleeves. The bottom end of the engine is just as
tough as the rest of the car, coming with a forged steel crankshaft, forged
steel main bearing caps, forged aluminum pistons, and titanium piston rods.
Like the engine block, the cylinder heads are also aluminum, CNC milled for
perfection, and house a huge 2.2 inch titanium intake valve and 1.61 inch
exhaust valve, per cylinder, which have sodium filled valve stems, which
help to increase the durability of the valve stem over extended periods of
high RPMs and extreme heat. The valves are set in the cylinder head at a
twelve degree angle, relative to the face of the cylinder opening, which
helps to decrease the size of the combustion chamber, and that decreased
combustion chamber helps to build the new Z06's steep eleven to one
compression ratio. The valves are opened to an unusually steep .591 inch
lift, and are controlled by 1.8:1 ratio rocker arms. These valves are fed
by a high flow air filter and air intake system which funnels air into a
massive three and a half inch throttle body. The air then streams through a
composite intake manifold, and into the precision engineered intake ports,
then meeting the aforementioned valves. All of this precision intake
process goes to waste if not for proper venting of the exhaust, and to
ensure that there is no more exhaust pressure backflow than needed, the
exhaust valves dump the exhaust gases into exhaust ports that are as perfect
as the intake side, then enter the innovative hydroformed header style
exhaust manifolds, through a three inch exhaust pipes and high flow
performance catalytic converters, eventually make their way into the dual
mufflers mounted at the back of the new Z06. The previous C5 Z06 used
titanium mufflers to cut down on exhaust system weight, but the C6 Z06 has
gone with a steel muffler, and a whole new style of muffler. This new style
muffler features a dual-through setup; at lower RPM the exhaust gases pass
through one of the sections, which is heavily muffled for a nice quiet ride,
but when the RPMs exceed thirty-five hundred RPM, a vacuum control opens a
second chamber within the muffler, and with a straight-through, relatively
unruffled designed of the second chamber, it allows much greater exhaust
flow, not to mention a deep, throaty, ear drum pounding sound that every
true American Muscle car should have. To ensure that things stay properly
oiled and as cool as possible, a dry-sump oil system, holding eight quart
reservoir makes sure that this new LS7 never runs dry. With this newly
designed engine, from the precision cylinder heads to the free flowing
performance exhaust, this new Z06 drivetrain builds an astonishing five
hundred horsepower at sixty two hundred RPM, and four hundred and seventy
five pound-feet of torque at only forty eight hundred RPM.
All of the horsepower in the world is no good to a driving enthusiast if it
cannot be applied to the road efficiently. This is done by use of a
single-mass flywheel, and a lightweight, high performance clutch which is
mounted in a heavy duty rendition of the C6 Corvette six-speed manual
transmission, which transfers power by means of the drive shaft into the
closed rear differential. This differential and transmission are cooled by
a system of cooling lines which travel from the differential case and
transmission case to the front of the car, through the radiator, and then
back to the respective cases, which helps to increase the longevity of the
performance transmission and differential over the life of the car from the
damage that such a powerful engine can do to other items in the drivetrain.
The rear differential puts the power to the ground by means of two
325/30/ZR19 inch aluminum wheels wrapped in Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar
run-flat tires with muscular looking fender flares built into the rear
corner panels helping to keep all of the nearly thirteen inch wide Goodyear
rubber safely tucker under the back of the Z06.
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