Here’s How GM Made the 2023 Corvette Z06 Sound So Amazing

Aside from its special powerplant, GM worked some magic on the 2023 Corvette Z06 exhaust to make it sound just right.

By now, pretty much everyone is aware that the 2023 Corvette Z06 sounds absolutely incredible. That was essentially the main reason why it features a flat-plane crank powerplant – GM wanted to give us the same supercar sound that has made vehicles from the likes of Ferrari so desirable, albeit in a much more affordable package. Now, in this new Corvette Academy video, GM explains how it managed to fine tune the exhaust of the 2023 Corvette Z06 to make it sound so amazing.

“One of the things with the Z06 is that we wanted to make sure that the feel of the car, from a vibration standpoint, and the sound that you are hearing, just gives you thing feeling of being in an exotic car and something you’ll never be able to forget,” said Cindy Molnar, vehicle performance engineer, Chevrolet Performance Cars. “The character of the engine is something that we wanted specifically for this car – the sound quality, the visceral nature of that engine.”

Of course, no engine can do that all by itself, and the Z06’s LT6 needed the right exhaust to help it belt out its siren song. “The exhaust now goes into the tips, or the bezel, that’s part of the fascia,” Molnar explains. “That was designed to reflect some of the sound coming out of the exhaust back up towards the cockpit so you could feel it. There are two sets of valves on this car that will help change the sound of the vehicle. There’s the intake manifold valves, IMTVs, and then there’s also the variable exhaust valves, on the exhaust itself. They can change in two degree increments. As opposed to in the past, it’s either been open or closed.”

As Molnar explains, each driving mode – Weather, Tour, and Track – has its own unique tune. “Weather is the quietest of all of the modes. The valves are closed most of the time,” she says. “Tour, you know we crack the valves a little bit so you hear a little bit more of that exhaust sound coming into the cabin. Sport is still another step from Tour, and you can really feel that exhaust coming into the car. And then Track we tuned so that it was pretty loud. We kept it so that if you are driving around town in Track it’s still not overbearing, but when you’re on the track it’s like nothing else. My mode, you can go in and customize the sound. And it’s a latching mode, so if you left your car in My mode you can start the car up in whichever exhaust sound you prefer the most.”

While we already knew that the 2023 Corvette Z06 is arguably the best-sounding variant of the iconic sports car ever built, it’s also interesting to get a little behind-the-scenes look at how GM made it that way. And it’s sure to be a sound that owners never get tired of, though thanks to its exhaust modes, our non-car loving neighbors won’t either.

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