Lingenfelter Experimental Supercharged C8 Is the Mid-Engine C7 Z06 of Your Dreams!

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Despite track issues, the ‘top secret’ Lingenfelter Experimental Supercharged C8 blazed a 10.43 quarter-mile at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for 1st place at LS Fest West 2024!

If you don’t know, Holley’s LS Fest is always a “highly-charged” event–people from all over the U.S. bring their best car builds and A-game for clout and prize cash. And for LS Fest West 2024 in Las Vegas, Lingenfelter took it a step further and brought out the experimental “big guns” to Holley’s premier desert party — the company’s “top secret” Lingenfelter Experimental Supercharged C8 Corvette.

Corvette Forum got a chance to speak with  Lingenfelter Race Team‘s Mark Rapson, COO and VP of Operations, about their flagship C8 Corvette and how its inner workings helped Andy Voelkel land it in first place on the dragstrip at 10:43 and second place overall in all classes–even with wacky weather and pavement woes. Which is impressive, considering we also don’t know how much HP it churns out, as Lingenfelter team members aren’t at liberty to say.

“That, and the fact that the track was so slippery, it made up its time in the second-half of the strip,” chuckled Rapson. “We don’t know exactly what the next best time was after us, but we do know it was nowhere near that.”

Field Testing New Joint Venture at LS Fest: Lingenfelter x Magnusson

The Lingenfelter Experimental Supercharged C8 is a creative collaboration from multiple automotive heavyweights, including Lingenfelter, Mahle, and Magnusson. It starts with Lingenfelter porting the C8’s LT2 cylinder heads to accommodate a 10:1 compression ratio. Mahle provided a specialized drop-in piston set to work with said compression. And the experimental supercharger is a direct collaboration between Lingenfelter and Magnusson.

“What we’ve done is take an LT2 motor, and made it an LT4. We used our LT4 CNC program in the LT2 heads, so as far as airflow, combustion chamber design and the topography of the pistons, it is effectively an LT4,” said Rapson.

Lingenfelter’s 5-axis CNC machine does wonders, effectively producing a mid-engined C7 Z06… with better aero and better handling. But in case you haven’t noticed yet, this collab supercharger looks quite tall at first glance, and no, it is not an illusion or strange camera angle…

Tooling & Engineering

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Lingenfelter stacked two intercooler bricks on top of one another, which charge-air temperatures considerably. Remarkably, despite being able to hit higher max boost levels, this new experimental system uses the same TVS2650 rotors and lid found on the company’s current C8 supercharger package. “Depending on what stage we are running, our Stage 1 kits run about six pounds of boost. But when you get to this car out there at LS Fest, we’re running 8.5-9 psi,” said Rapson.

Thankfully, the C8 can accommodate the extra height with no fitment issues or modifications needed. However, the HTC version, if they were to ever try it, may be a bit more challenging.

Aero & Thermals

As we all remember from the supercharged C7 Z06 days, heat soak can be a real problem on the track, and part of the problem was inlet temps being affected by the supercharger lid design, among other air intake issues. Yet, despite the elevated ambient temperatures in Vegas during LS Fest 2024, this thing ran cooler than you’d think.

In fact, much cooler.

Granted, the C8 also already has two coolers on either side on the bumper intakes, but it lacks a front opening like the C8 Z06. Despite this, Rapson said the Lingenfelter Experimental Supercharged C8 actually lowers its IATs (Intake Air Temperatures) during dyno pulls, which is an impressive feat.

“We added two more auxiliary exchangers in the front since that is already a ‘flow-through’ area, as there are already fans there,” said Rapson. “We placed them in such a way that it doesn’t impede too much on the two radiators in there, and allow the air to travel in at an angle, and it works very, very well.”

Lingenfelter set the C8’s electric fans to activate any time the Corvette is sitting or moving slowly, providing a constant flow of cooler air. According to Rapson, no matter where the starting inlet temps are, the delta consistently drops instead of rising during performance runs.

Using Weight Bias an Advantage

Thanks to Alcon Brakes and two-piece rotors, the Lingenfelter Experimental Supercharged C8’s stopping power is heavily geared toward the rear since the bigger brakes are back there. Which is ironic, since they moved as many components and accessories to the front as they could.

The goal, obviously, is to keep the overall weight bias very close to GM’s spec (40/60), and they managed to achieve 60.8% in the rear. Again, very impressive for a supercharged application, with typically adds a lot of weight, making balance and distribution challenging.

“One of the reasons we put the resevoir tank in the tunnel as far forward as we can is because water is heavy, so we try to move as many minor parts forward as well,” said Rapson. As a result, this C8 stays very flat around corners, and pretty much eliminates most, if not all, of the nose-diving you’d normally get while braking.

Drag & Auto X Performance at LS Fest 2024

As we mentioned earlier, the strip posed its hurdles for those running street tires, and Lingenfelter’s C8 was no exception. It’s an NHRA track, so naturally, they prep the surface with rosin and traction compound. And in this case, the “Quick 16” vehicles took precdence.

Slicks and drag radials love it–production car tires? Not so much. Especially if you are running right after a car with said drag tires.

Lingfelter’s C8 uses 285/315 staggered tire, However, even with the disadvantages, the car more than made up for the lost time in the latter half of the strip, and shot like a bat-out-of-hell. “We know it’s a 9-second car from our testing, even in road race trim,” said Rapson.

Speaking of which, the C8 seemed to do well in the slaloms of the 3S Challenge and autocross, as well as stopping power. But, despite being a fire-breathing monster compared to the other two-seaters at LS Fest West, its always the little things that creep up on you, and in this case, it wasn’t their fault.

Dreaded ‘Frunk’ Funk

They worked on the calibration and getting everything dialed in perfectly, however, when it came to the speed stop portion of the 3S, that annoying frunk issue came into play.

“The frunk popped up twice, and when that happens, the car will go into “Reduced Power Mode” (aka limp mode), and you can’t go more than 25 mph when it pops up to that safety latch,” said Rapson. “(Voelkel) dealt with that multiple times before we finally got to stay down.”

Naturally, when stuff like this happens, it limits the amount of runs you can do in a session. However, Rapson believes if they’d that more time to iron out the little issues and more time on the track, they most certainly would have taken first place with everything. “He’s really that good of a driver, and I believe the car is capable,” he said.

Lingenfelter, unfortunately, will not be at LS Fest Texas this year due to Hyperfest in Virginia. But they will definitely make a splash at Holley’s upcoming “Bowling Green party” come September.

Photos: Derin Richardson

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