Tag: LT5 Corvette engine

THE KING IS BACK!!! The New 2019 ZR1 Corvette: The Facts

Published on by Scott

Chevrolet just released “The Ultimate Front-Engine Corvette”!

Dateline: 11.15.17 (All images GM Archives, except where noted) The wait is FINALLY over! If you recall, the C7 ZR1 was supposed to make its debut last January at the Detroit Auto Show, but was a no-show. Since then, there was a steady stream of reports, rumors, and spy photos of heavily camouflaged ZR1 engineering mule cars. Lots of tease, no solid details.

The December 2017 issue Car and Driver is first off the line to splash the new ZR1 and I’m sure the rest of the automotive print publications will be dedicating their covers to what is now being called, “The Ultimate Front Engine Corvette!” (Note the reference to “front-engine” as a primmer for the mid-engine C8.) But yes, the new King will get boat loads of ink.

If you recall, Car and Driver splashed the C7 ZR1 on its April 2017 issue with the cover story, “25 Cars Worth Waiting For”. After that, it certainly seemed like, “any day now” the ZR1 would arrive. Then the LONG wait began. I recently said to my Corvette friend, Mike Wahl, Continue reading “

THE KING IS BACK!!! The New 2019 ZR1 Corvette: The Facts” →

Morrison 1990 ZR-1 Speed Record: Aver 24-Hour 174.885-MPH! – VIDEO

Published on by Scott

Race-prepared, stock 1990 ZR-1 Shatters a 50 Year 24-Hour Speed Record

Illustration by: K. Scott Teeters

Dateline: 5.22.17 (This story first appeared in the May 2017 issue of “Vette Vues”) – Racing Corvettes used to have a long history of durability issues. There are many reasons why Corvette racecars had durability issues, but one of the biggest is easy horsepower. It’s always been relatively easy to get a lot of power out of a small-block or big-block Chevrolet engine. If a builder is more oriented towards drag racing, the temptation for an extra 50-horsepower is just too tempting for many builders. That’s fine for drag racing where a car is stressed to the max for a matter a seconds. But in endurance racing, you have to finish to win.

From the perspective of the mid-1980s, the new C4 Corvette was light years ahead of the previous two-generation Corvettes. In the mid-1980s Corvettes were so fierce in SCCA Showroom Stock racing that after two years they were kicked out for being too fast! So, the factory-built Corvette racecars duked it out in their own series, The Corvette Challenge. Breakage with the C4 cars wasn’t much of an issue thanks to the much-improved structure and suspension, plus the cars weren’t powered by massive, torque-monster big-blocks. Continue reading “

Morrison 1990 ZR-1 Speed Record: Aver 24-Hour 174.885-MPH! – VIDEO” →

Vette Videos: 1992 C4 ZR-1 Corvette Promotional Video

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 8.12.11

Take a ride in the CorvetteReport.com Time Machine back to 1992 for
a review of the ’92 ZR-1 Corvette.

Even though the big news for the ‘92 Corvette was the LT1 350 engine with 300-horsepower (a 50-hp jump from the previous L98 engine), the 375-horsepower ZR-1 continued to get most of the attention. The ZL-1 and its LT5 engine had proven itself in March 1990 when the Morrison Motorsports ZR-1 shattered a 50-year 24 hour average speed record, recording an astonishing speed of 175.885-mph!

 

Photo from www.ZR1NetRegistry.com

The engine was so stout that engine builders, such as Corvette racing legend, Kim Baker, were building LT5 engines that were pulling horsepower figures in the low 600-plus range, WITHOUT the use of turbos, roots, or centrical superchargers!  The LT5 was arguably one of the strongest engines to ever work under the hood of a Corvette.

Unlike the C6 ZR1, which is its own unique model, the C4 ZR-1 was an option package that cost a staggering $31,683 on top of the $33,635 base price of the ‘92 Corvette, for a grand total of $65,318 – PLUS other options!  Continue reading “Vette Videos: 1992 C4 ZR-1 Corvette Promotional Video” →

The Art of the C4 ZR-1 LT-5 Corvette Engine

Published on by Scott

Dateline: 7.23.11
Corvette Engines as Art Objects


Too bad this wasn’t a 283 Fuelie!

Everything has a beginning, right. For me, it goes back to 1965 when my Dad bought me “The Visible V8” model kit. What a wonderful way for young boys to understand the basic operational principals of an internal combustion engine. If you carefully put the parts together and didn’t get glue in places you shouldn’t and wired everything right, your got to see the pistons go up and down, rocker arms actuate, the fan spin, the camshaft rotate, AND the red grain-of-wheat lightbulb spark plugs light up at top-dead-center. Of course, it sounded all “WHEEEEEE” Because the battery-opperated starter motor was driving everything. “Sorry kids! No VROOM! VROOM!”


LT-5 art prints available HERE.

But, it was a lot of fun and started my lifelong passion for engines. But engines didn’t become “art” for my until I got into drag racing and those wonderful supercharged hemi engines. And the first Corvette engine that wowed me was the 1967 L71 427/435 big-block. While 3-deuces Continue reading “The Art of the C4 ZR-1 LT-5 Corvette Engine” →