Roll into the parking lot of your local burger joint on a Friday and you’re bound to hear the old “there’s no replacement for displacement” line spewed out of someone’s mouth that more than likely is wearing a faded t-shirt with a big number 3 on it. Racing legend-fanbois aside, what once was an adage you could take to the bank, now will only come back denied. On the horizon is a new way to look at performance engines and the Corvette C7 Bank is open for business.
The team behind the C7 is staying pretty tight lipped about their intentions with the next generation of America’s staple supercar. However, the new mainstream small block from GM has some details being leaked out that would surely worry any underwriters at Corvette Financial. The main concern for any of the well dressed interest gougers would surely be the price tag on the new engine program which is slated to be around $890 million greenbacks. That’s money well spent though as the new GM small block will feature direction injection, for fuel economy and added performance; an aluminum block and heads, for weight savings; and a new combustion system.
Target horsepower for this next-gen V8 is more horsepower per liter than ever before in a Chevy small block – 440hp (80hp/liter). Those ponies will be created with only 5.5L of space to suck-squeeze-bang-blow too, which is quite the improvement over the outgoing LS3 workhorse that cranks out 430hp out of 6.2L. There’s no cooking the books with the new small block either as the Corvette will be staying with its classic pushrod configuration which means that the motor will be economical to produce and still fit underhood in even the tightest engine compartments.
Even with all these changes it seems like the C7 engine isn’t selling its soul to the market and is going to be welcome addition to the GM family. This new small block will also provide an even more efficient platform for tuners to start making more go-fast goodies for, so you know what that means – an empty bank account.
