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2015 Corvette Z06 Engine Delivers 650 Horsepower

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2015 Corvette Z06 engine: a LT4 supercharged 6.2-liter V8.

2015 Corvette Z06 engine: a LT4 supercharged 6.2-liter V8.

Yes, you read that correctly. The all-star 2015 Corvette Z06 engine—the LT4 supercharged 6.2-liter V8—is SAE-certified at 650 horsepower. This makes next year’s Z06 the most powerful production model ever to come out of General Motors and one of the elite few production cars in the U.S. to top out at more than 600 horsepower.

“The LT4 Small Block sets a new benchmark for power and torque at GM,” said Steve Kiefer, vice president, GM Powertrain Engineering. “The engine also puts the new Corvette Z06 on par with the most powerful supercars offered in America, while delivering performance with impeccable manners that make it suitable for daily driving.”

To no one’s surprise, the 2015 Corvette Z06 engine makes for good torque as well: 650 lb-ft at 3,600 rpm. In fact, the Corvette Z06 has some bragging rights when it comes to torque. It gets 457 lb-ft just off idle and can climb to 625 lb-ft at just 2,800 rpm.

“Torque is the pulling power of an engine and the LT4’s abundance of it at every rpm in the engine’s speed range helps the 2015 Corvette Z06 accelerate quicker and respond nearly instantaneously,” said Jordan Lee, chief engineer for Small Block engines. “It’s the very definition of power on demand.”

2015 Corvette Z06 engine

Check out the numbers for hp and torque.

Lee added, “The new LT4 engine builds on the design strengths of our previous supercharged engine and leverages the technologies introduced on the Corvette Stingray – direct injection, cylinder deactivation and continuously variable valve timing – to take Corvette performance to an all-new plateau. Our new, very compact supercharger also helps the engine make power more quickly, and perhaps more importantly, it helps produce more torque earlier in the rpm band.

“It’s also worth mentioning that the LT4’s supercar performance numbers are achieved with an engine that is nearly the same size as the very compact LT1 engine introduced in the 2014 Corvette Stingray,” Lee continued. “The power density of the LT4 makes it one of the smallest and lightest 650-hp engines in the industry.”

2015 Corvette Z06 engine

See how the 2015 Corvette Z06 stacks up with the best of the best.

2015 Corvette Z06 Engine (LT4): At a Glance

  • Rotocast A356T6 aluminum cylinder heads
  • Lightweight titanium intake valves
  • Forged aluminum pistons that have a stronger structure for high cylinder pressures
  • 10.0:1 compression ratio
  • Machined, forged powder metal steel connecting rods
  • Dry-sump oiling system with a dual-pressure-control oil pump
  • Stainless steel exhaust manifolds and aluminum balancer that weight less than those in the LT1

The LT4 supercharged 6.2-liter V8 is assembled at two locations here in the States: GM’s Bowling Green Assembly Plant and GM’s Tonawanda Engine Plant. The seven-speed manual transmission (standard) and the paddle-shift eight-speed automatic transmission (available), to which the engine can be mated, are built in Toledo, Ohio.

2015 Corvette Z06 Photos

Look out for the 2015 Corvette Z06 in the fourth quarter of 2014.