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The 2023 Corvette Z06 Has Flat-Plane Fury: Video

The 2023 Chevy Corvette Z06 brings the eighth-generation Vette to a whole new level of performance, equipping, among other things, the new naturally aspirated 5.5L V8 LT6, a high-revving gas-powered thrill-maker offering substantially more power than the Stingray’s 6.2L V8 LT2. Now, Chevy is detailing the Corvette Z06’s LT6 engine with the following Corvette Academy video.

Purpose-built specifically for the new C8 Corvette Z06, the 5.5L V8 LT6 engine returns the Z06 nameplate to its naturally aspirated roots, providing the atmospheric response and feel desired for the next-gen sports car. However, given the C8 Corvette Z06 still needs to outperform the supercharged V8 found in the previous C7-generation Z06, and as such, GM’s engineers were tasked with figuring how to make more power without forced induction. The answer – a sky-high redline.

Helping the LT6 rev higher is a flat-plane crankshaft, which has very low inertia, allowing to more freely climb in the rpms.

“You’re able to reduce the size of the counterweights compared to a cross-plane, and everything being lighter, it just spins faster,” says Corvette Design System Engineer Yoon Lee.

To test the technology in the new Corvette Z06’s LT6 engine, GM installed the powerplant in the C8.R race car, and the results speak for themselves, with championship wins in 2020 and 2021.

Additionally, the flat-plane crank afforded the GM engineers some interesting tuning opportunities for the intake and exhaust. For example, there are three tuning valves inside the intake manifold that allow for the adjustment of the internal volume within the manifold, allowing for the maximum power output across the engine rpm range.

“It basically seems like it never wants to stop pulling,” Lee says. “It just pulls and pulls. You don’t feel the power really tapering off.”

Indeed, there’s a long list of interesting features baked into the 2023 Corvette Z06 and LT6 V8 engine. Check out the full video right here:

Subscribe to GM Authority for more Corvette Z06 news, mid-engine Corvette news, Corvette C8 news, Corvette news, Chevy news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. for GM to race that engine it had to be available for sale to the public.

    Reply
  2. How much already!!!!! Damn

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    1. Agreed…I just double-checked the calendar and it is now Summer 2022…

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      1. in the northern hemisphere. i am tied of waiting on this also.

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  3. So here we go…again, waving that beautiful carrot in front of us “hope to be a Z06 owner someday”, getting us all excited about what truly looks to be an amazing feat of engineering, from the good old USA.
    BUT…we don’t have a price (well, MSRP anyway, actual cost will be determined by those dealers who feel the need to bang you long and hard until you say “Uncle” and will pay their asking price!) and we don’t have any real “performance numbers”, yet. Oh we have some “it should be” numbers but nothing new performance wise on video, and while we have some video taken a while ago, we’ve yet to see some real, honest to goodness Street Cred numbers…yet.
    So what do we here? Once again, well GM you’ve got us all eager and ready for what is promised to a spectacular machine, but you’ve also got us all salivating to the point where “come on, lets stop with the theatrics and bring on the show”, it’s time (Summer Time!) to unleash the dogs and show us what you got!
    I know, I know….it’s going to late but good when it gets here, okay I get it, “promises made, promises kept”, and I’m sure we’ll all be in awe when this “Land Bound Cruise Missile” finally arrives at our local dealers, and in the meantime, we’ll just keep watching for an actual “Auto Magazine Editors Report” about how amazing this new Z06 is…but until that actually makes it to our hot little hands, we wait, and wait, and wait some more. Well at least you can please make another video, not made months ago and on some race track or road specially designed to show off the car…lets go for a real Street Drive, in traffic, on real roads, made at Cars & Coffee events, or Cruise Nights or anywhere that gives us all hope that one day in the not too distant future…we’ll actually get close enough to The Beast to realize that’s it’s real alright, and it’s at your local Chevy Dealers for you to go see…but bring lots of cash, ain’t no one without 100 Grand or a lot more just laying around that’s going to even get close to this thing! Okay, ‘Nuff said…back to watching this video again, Day-Am already!

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  4. The car that never will be.

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  5. Awesome, awesome, awesome. But When When When ???

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  6. Well, if I’m not mistaken. This “Flat – Plane Fury” video is just an excerpt from a previously released video. In other words, nothing to see her folks. Just filler material until a price is announced. Keep moving along nothing to see here.

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  7. Yawn. Seriously. It’s getting boring. Just tell us when the car is available and we will tune back in. Maybe.

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  8. enjoy those 2020 on up C8 ‘s .

    Reply
  9. It still will lose to the Porsche team when the bean counters take over and the engineers are sent off the o work on the EV’s. Gm never sticks to a good thing they always manage to screw things up.

    Reply

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