New Corvette Model?

Gossip is that the 2008 model year will introduce a "Corvette SS" with a new LS-9 supercharged engine making ~600 HP. Same year, LS-2 will be replaced by LS-3, I don't know the specs but would guess ~450 HP to keep up with the Jonses and holding ~6-liter displacement to keep the car's nearly 50-50 balance.

They just came up with ls2 - you think they already have ls3? unless ls3 will just be a supercharged ls2

Good marketing technique demands that your first design has room for simple changes to make it saleable after the new wears off. During the life of the C5 there were 2 HP increases that were very minor changes.Within months of the LS1 hitting the streets I read a GM spokes person telling how with little work the 345 HP could be bumped to 450, just a cam with head work. Not long after that I saw them at a Corvette meet where GM had them on display. That same work now on the LS2 can reach 500 HP and with the lighter valve trains and rotating mass it feels stronger than that.

It still amazes me what the old pushrod design has become with the new manufacturing techniques and materials. Who would have guessed when the powdered metal process came out that it would become the method of making connection rods on combustion engines?

It make you wonder "what is next? and just how far are they going to be able to go with out going to some kind of forced induction.

What really impresses me is the fact that the can make all of this power and still have the tremendous reliability that they have, and get better than 30 miles per gallon.

I mean less than 30 years ago a motor that was approaching 1 horse power per cubic inch was not going to be very durable, some engine / chassis combinations you could not even get a warranty with.

For those of use that still have old style hot rods like me, i catch myself thinking of going to a modern EFI setup, yea that would be the setup maybe a F1 procharger and a megasquirt in my big block Chevelle instead of the build up i have now.

If i had the funding i would be out in the shop doing it right now. :

I was just passing on what I had seen.

At

you'll find a brief article on the "SS" and LS9. At you will find some info on the LS3 and LS9, plus some pics of a possible mule of the Corvette "SS." At you will find purported images of GM documents discussing LS-8 and LS-9. LS-8 is 480-500 hp auto & manual. LS-9 is 600 hp, 560 ft-lb, manual only, maybe DOHC.

At

you will find a purported image of a GM document referencing development of the LS-9.

At

you will find some possible specs for the Corvette "SS". At you will find mention and brief discussion of the LS3, with comments that I think lend the idea credibility.

What's the limit for the gas guzzler tax?

Every engine I built that increased power got better gas mileage within limits. I'm talking those that approached the 1 hp per cube or so, not the outrageous stuff like the 450 hp 302 or the 600 hp 427.

The one secret to gas mileage is to have enough power that there is plenty in reserve so that you do not have to use extra fuel to maintain a given speed.

The other secret is gearing. If you spin an engine at 4000 rpm, it will consume twice the fuel as 2000 rpm. That is just simple logic.

If I remember right, I don't remember anyone having problems with a 325 hp

327 or 350 hp 350 or 3/90/400 hp 427 when driven normally. The problem is that people who had these engines long ago tended to keep their foot planted to the floor from every stoplight.

Exactly what the C5 does in 6th gear on the highway! Same thing as with a recip aircraft engine when we pull the prop back while cruising and manually lean mixture.

Just went through that with a leased Infiniti. 3.5 liter OHC layout and in top gear it ran at over 3000 rpm on the highway (I have no clue as to what Nissan was thinking about -- probably had to do with their French ownership.) My mileage (on premium) never made it over 21 highway and was always under 19 in mixed city-freeway driving. In contrast, on the same drives, my old C4 with automatic now gets 24-25 highway and a little over 22 in mixed city-freeway driving--and that's with the "performance" rear gears (about 2100 rpm at 70 mph.) The C4 really doesn't come into its own on gas mileage until it exceeds 75 mph. (I think that some of this "mileage sweet spot" has to do with the lack of resolution in the computers and injectors that went into the early C4s).

The rated horsepower on the Infiniti was higher than the C4's but it wasn't really usable until the engine was screaming at over 6K rpm. Possible good for top speed trials. Not very practical outside of Montana. -- I have strong doubts that the usual Infiniti buyer revs out that engine very often.

Tom, if you remember right a 350/350 or a 425/454 almost never reached

100,000 miles, hell in the late sixties and early 70's a car with a 100,000 miles was a junkyard refugee, i still own one of them a 70 ss454 chevelle, it is not raced just driven on the street and i can not count how many times in the last 20 years i have had the motor out for one reason or the other (well over 12 times) they are just not as reliable as a modern automobile, imho Greg N

Greg,

In the '60s and '70s, it was rare to see any car at 100,000. Part of that was the culture, part of it was workmanship, and part of it was how people drove.

How many people did you know commute 30 miles to work one-way back then? And today?

How many people traded their cars every year or two years at most back then? And today?

How many had a 400 hp engine and drove it like a normal car back then? And today?

Actually, I almost bought a 115,000 mile '68 350 hp 327 back in '77. Of the dozen or so I looked at then, the mileage ranged from 50,000 to 140,000 and these were either 350 hp or 427s.

People with the powerful cars simply went out and ran them until they blew. I had a friend with a 440 Super Bee that went through 5 transmissions and 3 engines. He was at Hall Street constantly drag racing.

People didn't commute to work 30 miles each way. I remember my dad having this long commute, almost 10 miles to work in the steel mill. Some of the guys there were farmers and had these outrageous commutes of 20 to 30 miles, something most considered crazy at the time.

100,000 was not without possibility, as GM initiated their 50,000/5 year warranty fully expecting to get by. However, what they ran into was the muscle car era of everyone with a foot to the floor. 6500 rpm shifts were the norm.

Hi PJ it is kind of hard to run a automobile engine "oversquare" i take it you are a pilot and will understand that one.

in a c5 or what ever in high gear at cruise you have a very low power level %, in recip aircraft we almost never cruise at less that 55% and most of us use 75% or better.

my guess is that in a c5 you would go straight to jail if you got ticketed running at a stable 55% in high gear, that is a thought how fast would you go at different power settings?

all in all i think everyone agrees that cars are better now than they were 35 years ago.

have a great one Greg N