"We decided to use many of the dynamometers that tested this engine," explains George Lee, Chevrolet's chief engineer for a small block engine before we tied us to the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 2019 passenger seat for several rounds of the Willow Springs international race course. This is understandable, because the engine called "Lee" - super-power LT5 V-8 supercharged; His 755 horsepower broke the exhaust pipe with a hot plate and crashed on the General Motors engine test stand. This is a common problem among the bloated V-8s that generate this power. It seems that Dodge is facing similar problems when developing the Hemi V-8 supercharged with 840 hp. for his Challenger.
GM finally added water cooling to the dinosaur speaker and improved hardware for continuous management of the LT5. After the car came to us in Willow Willow, Willow Willow, we hoped that our bodies could be improved. This fast and bumpy contour is the ideal playground for LT6 lighting and aerodynamic improvements available on the ZR1, a key update on the 650-horsepower Corvette Z06, which takes it to a new performance level.
Two compartments for the development of the ZR1 in Chevrolet (the convertible version bowed at the Los Angeles motor show earlier this week), each of which wore uncoordinated lipos and unpainted panels, but the final production specification and equipped with an eight-speed automatic transmission and, critically, a package performance ZTK. This kit adds a towering, adjustable rear wing of carbon fiber and an additional vertical fin at each end of the front splitter. This is not a porcelain detail: the wing mounts to pierce the Corvette body and go straight into space. ZR1s carry their own body in front of the rack with an additional hole for the supply of four additional radiators with respect to the front wheel Z06, as well as the front wheel by half an inch.
Naturally, LT5 stole the show. The evolution of the LT4, which extends the capabilities of the Z06, LT5, has a strengthened crankshaft and uses a larger Eaton supercharger that is 2.9 inches taller than the low profile low profile LT4 unit. This is really too high for the ZR1 hood, so it has a hole in the center of the LT5 release. Chevrolet carries a supercharger on a beautiful carbon fiber tire for additional effects. The supercharger pulleys are larger than the LT4 and thus rotate the fan at lower speeds, although Corvette's chief engineer Tadge Juechter reminds us that installing smaller pulleys and increasing the fan speed "cancel the warranty". The LT5 is 755 horsepower and 715 lb-ft of torque, gets 105 horsepower and 65 lb-ft over the LT4 Z06. Do you really need more?
Leaving an opening for our trio throughout the round, the Chevy development engineer Alex McDonald offers a demonstration of the LT5's power by shuffling the throttle. Or he just wants to rip it off. In any case, ZR1 breaks out of the hole with malignant neoplasms, especially for cars that do not have jokes. Chevrolet said that the Vette should reach 60 mph in less than three seconds and build less than 11.0 seconds. We will say that the sound sounds reasonable. With McDonald standing on him and guiding the ZR1 into the house directly to Willow, our brains of the stomach, fortunately not solvable by the LT5, - are making the turntables that will be familiar to those who experienced the launch of the Tesla Model S Hi-po version of the Ludicrous mode. The number that comes out with the feeling will come out when we can check the production itself.
A few seconds after the launch, MacDonald stood over the brakes that were to be installed in the second corner, and we rolled on the seat belts. Braking is not an area where Z06 needs repair, especially when it is equipped with carbon ceramic rotors, which are standard for ZR1, and the only difference between the ZR1 and Z06 brakes is a special gasket joint. Chevrolet illustrates the difference between them and Z06, which is similar to the one that lies between the stock floor and the special elements of the aftermarket track.
Rocks riding horses. Turns 3 and 4, more or less flattened by the force of LT5, and drifts slightly ZR1 out of 4 and goes to turn 5. Turns 6 and 7 is a soft lesson that the MacDonald basically has a straight line, reaching up to about 140 mph before applying Brakes and floats around a long 8 Turn and sweep as much as 130 miles per hour without actually exiting the throttle. This better angle shows the superiority of ZR1 compared to Z06: downforce. Thanks to the giant ZTK wing, the ZR1 just sat on the rear tire and felt dead in high-speed corners. Diving below 100 mph in the 9th turn, we kissed 150 mph at the end of a straight journey after crossing the runway / finish line of Willow, as you can see in our closed hot clips (shot using the standard combination of ZR1 Performance Data Recorder plus GoPro),
Since he is not behind the wheel, we can not talk to the balance of the ZR1 chassis or with a turn about Z06. We can say that the car feels more "more" than the Z06, and in fact it is very rude in its path, its braking, its capture and its acceleration are able to rearrange your organs, like God Himself playing in your body. However, shortly thereafter, the ZR1 felt an acute or tortuous, even slower angle, when its wings did not produce anywhere about 950 pounds of downforce, which, according to Chevy, produced the maximum speed of ZR1. As if most sensible people did not do this, MacDonald advises holding the Corvette Corvette Multi-setting Performance Traction Management (PTM), repeating what Chevro engineers tried with the seventh generation Corvette, which debuted for 2014: with active PTM. For our laps the car is in Sport 2M, which PTM is quite permissive, which means that we sometimes experience drift and uncontrolled from time to time.
So what next? Of course, we operate ZR1 where we can learn more about how the production version behaves in the real world and, ultimately, at the racetrack in our annual Lightning Lap study. Based on this limited experience, the ZR1 is without a doubt the manufacturer of the Corvette front-engine, just before the next-generation C8 engine appears in the middle of next year. The fact that some of the dinosaurs needed to bite the dust to make this happen is like fair trade. In fact, we heard that GM forged a lot of money, even for heat-resistant dinosaurs from Inconel. We assume that this means that more energy can be on the horizon for future versions of the American sports car.
