2023 Corvette Z06 extends legend with radical engine
If General Motors’ shift to electric vehicles spells the end of the legendary Chevy small-block V-8, the engine that powered many of its greatest vehicles is going out with a roar and a record: the most powerful naturally aspirated V-8 ever in a production car, the 2023 Corvette Z06.
The 670-horsepower 5.5L V-8 snarled to life in GM’s high-security Design Dome recently, summoning the ghosts of eight decades of performance design and engineering.
The radically reworked Z06 features a host of other changes — many, like the V-8, born in development of the Corvette C8.R race car, which won a championship in its first year of competition and is leading in its second.
“Racing is the reason the Z06 was developed in 1963,” Corvette executive engineer Tadge Juechter said. “We’ve tested the Z06 on the best tracks in the world, from Circuit of the Americas here in the United States, to the Nürburgring in Germany.”
The interior also got a host of upgrades, including performance-oriented displays, carbon fiber trim with subtle red highlights
and a raucous “dippedred” color package.
The 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 goes into production next summer in Kentucky. It’ll be available both as a coupe and convertible.
“Visceral,” “urgent” and “scalpel” were the keywords when the ’Vette team started working on the Z06 in 2019.
The bodywork was widened to accommodate a 3.6-inch wider stance necessitated by massive 345-series rear tires and bigger side air vents for cooling. Four 5-foot-long “strakes” on the underbody direct air out from under the car to reduce air pressure and increase roadholding.
“The steering response is in another universe” due to the big tires and light wheels, Juechter said. Engineers retuned the ’Vette’s steering, suspension and eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission for more power and higher speeds, but the basic components, including MR adaptive suspension, are common with the Corvette Stingray.
The engine, however, is new from the ground up. In development for more than five years, it has 32 valves and dual overhead cam shafts, more smallblock firsts. The high-pressure direction injection system is the exact same one used in Corvette C8. R race cars at tracks from Daytona to LeMans. Engineers also borrowed some tricks from Chevy’s Indy Car engine, including moving the fuel rails to the exhaust side to make room for bigger intake valves.
There will be Z06s as long as there are Corvettes — which means as long as there are Chevrolets. Someday, they’ll have electric power, and probably even quicker 0-60 times than the 2023, but they may never exceed the 5.5L flat-plane small-block’s visceral appeal.