The latest and greatest leak regarding the mid-engine Corvette surfaced on Christmas Day. Don’t you just love the internet?
Corroborating with pictures that surfaced on the internet last week, the next-generation Corvette will allegedly receive a new DOHC twin-turbo V8 that’s likely to birth GM’s next-generation V8 architecture. Displacement still remains a mystery and will likely remain shrouded in secrecy until launch, but it does look to be smaller than GM’s current 6.2-liter small-block. Popular theories have it pegged between 4.2 and 5.5-liters.
The internet has revealed the C8 Corvette will include a DOHC twin-turbo V8. It’s called the LT7 and it will likely form the basis of GM’s next-generation V8 engine architecture… pic.twitter.com/j7G1AQAsbL
— Michael Accardi (@ninonessuno) December 26, 2017
Regardless, the image shows a longitudinally mounted V8 with turbos hanging low off each cylinder bank, foregoing the popular hot vee setup being pushed by Mercedes and Porsche. The plumbing snakes around itself as it runs from the massive rear-mounted airbox. An earlier drawing had made the turbos seem like they were mounted at the car’s extreme rear, but this image shows they will, in fact, be mounted more mid-ship, closer to the cabin.
The picture appears to show similar thinking as we’ve seen in GM’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 LGW engine used in the Cadillac CT6. The turbos are closely coupled and include water-to-air intercoolers, additionally, the heads will have the exhaust manifolds cast into them which is also similar to what Ford has done with its 2.7-liter V6.
According to the original poster, this will be the last leak for the foreseeable future, kicking off a fresh round of speculation and once again propelling GM to the top of the news cycle as we wind down the final days of 2017.
