Video: Remembering the Dominance of the C6.R

Get an inside look at one of the most dominant Corvette race cars of all time.

Donut Media‘s Felipe Armenta is here to tell us one of our favorite stories. It’s the story of how the Corvette took on the big boys from Europe in sports car endurance racing — and how Chevy chased them home with their tails between their legs.

Felipe is sitting next to a familiar-looking yellow Corvette C6.R race car. This is the car that won the GT1 class in the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans. Most would agree that the famous 24-hour race is among the most grueling circuit races in the world. As Armenta says, “It’s the ultimate test of man and machine.”

While the C6.R was successful over in France, things really heated up when it came back home to compete in the American Le Mans series. In its first year of competition — 2005 — it won all but two races, easily clinching the championship.

The following year, they won again, which resulted in Dodge dropping out of competition altogether. You can guess what happened in 2007 and 2008 — more championships, and fewer competitors. Bye-bye, Saleen and Aston Martin. It was nice knowing you.

Getting to Know the C6.R

A lot of the credit for the C6.R’s success goes to Pratt & Miller, the company responsible for building it. The stiff chassis, coilover suspension, and lightweight body make a great home for the LS7 under the hood.

The LS7 displaces 7.0 liters and is good for 590 horsepower and 640 lb/ft of torque.  In race spec, this car weight just 2,400 pounds. We’ll let you handle the math on that one yourselves.

It gets better. Removing the intake restrictors — placed there in the first place for rules compliance — results in nearly 800 horsepower from the race-spec LS7.

As Amenta explains, “Because the engine uses high lift, short-duration camshafts, it gets high torque at lower RPM.” This gives the Corvette a definite advantage leaving low-speed corners compared to its more high-strung rivals.

After wedging himself inside of the cramped race car, Armenta exclaims “This is the coolest car I’ve ever sat in!” Our favorite feature? The map of Le Mans stuck to the steering wheel where the horn would be on a street car.

Unfortunately, the Donut Media crew did not have access to the support equipment required to run the C6.R, so we don’t get to hear it run in this video. That’s just fine by us — any Corvette fan worth their crossed flags has heard the legendary C6.R roar plenty of times. Know, we know how and why it sounds so good.

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