C8 Corvette Z06 Will Now Reportedly Come With a Naturally-Aspirated V8

Mere days after saying the C8 Corvette Z06 would pack twin turbos, a source reveals that GM is going back to its roots.

It seems like only yesterday that everyone thought the C8 Corvette Z06 was going to be packing a twin-turbo, 5.5-liter, dual-overhead cam, flat-plane crank V8. Because, well, it was actually just a few days ago that MotorTrend reported exactly that, following months of similar rumors. But things like this can change mighty fast, and they did in this case. Mere days later, the rag was changing its tune, big time.

Now, MThas corrected itself after receiving some new information from a source at General Motors. That source says that the C8 Corvette Z06 will not come with forced induction of any sort, but rather a naturally-aspirated version of the forthcoming 5.5-liter LT6 V8. The new engine will also reportedly rev to 9,000 rpm, and we already know that it sounds amazing.

Output is estimated to be around 625 horsepower and roughly 485 pound-feet of torque, both of which are less than the C7 Z06’s supercharged powerplant, which offered 650 hp and 650 lb-ft. But the new mill is a different animal altogether. In fact, the current most powerful N/A V8 is the Mustang Shelby GT350’s 5.2-liter Voodoo engine, also a flat-plane crank design, which produces 526 horsepower.

GM’s goal with the C8 Z06 is also to get back to its roots, which is as a street car with supreme track capability. The C7 Z06 was certainly fast and capable of lapping a track pretty quickly, but its supercharged mill was also quick to overheat under hard use. That’s something that simply plagues forced induction engines of all sorts, not to mention the weight they add.

There is one notable issue with flat-plane crank engines, however, and that’s the fact that larger displacement versions, like Ford’s Voodoo, often face vibration problems. Ford gets around this by placing a large rubber dampener on the front of the crank. For what it’s worth, Chevy is already running a detuned version of the LT6 in the C8.R racer (to much success), so they’ve clearly got it figured out.

For those that simply need a factory-built twin-turbo C8 Corvette, well, they’ll apparently have to wait for the C8 ZR1, and perhaps the rumored Zora, which will reportedly couple that mill with at least one electric motor. Or, they can just slap an aftermarket twin-turbo kit on their Z06 like folks have already done with the regular C8.

Photos: Corvette Forum

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