Chad and I recently cornered Mike Copeland from Lingenfelter Performance Engineering while he was at the Holley LS Fest in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We asked him point blank whether or not LPE had begun messing with the new directed injected LT1 engines that Chevy has begun rolling out in trucks and in the new C7 Corvette. He smiled and told us about the bone stock truck they bolted a blower to, did a little bit of tuning on and now run deep into the 13s at the strip, stock tires, gears, etc and all with. He did tell us that they were slated to get their mitts on a new ‘Vette as soon as possible and they they had an LT1 engine strapped to their dyno testing calibrations and all manner of other stuff on. As usual these guys are at the forefront of the performance envelope.
We did as directed by Mike and kept checking back to their YouTube channel until we found the video below. This is their absolutely 100% showroom stock, brand new C7 Corvette strapped to the rollers at the shop for baseline numbers and testing. There are a few things that rule about this video. The first is the sound of the car because it is equipped with the “dual mode” exhaust which has vacuum operated valves in it that essentially turn the system into straight pipes at full throttle in the upper RPM range. Realize that when you are watching. No one is changing the audio, the car is doing that itself per the tuning of the exhaust that is on it. We also dig the fact that there is some interior shots and that multiple pulls are shown. The engine sounds fantastic pulling up to red line and the exterior styling is fantastic as well.
Copeland seems super pumped about the potential in this new engine, which is great to hear. Working with the direct injection is going to be new territory for many hot rodders but with guys like the crew at LPE leading the charge, we should all be excited about what the future holds.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A FACTORY FRESH CORVETTE GO TO WORK!
Look in the outer pipes, there are flappers. You can see them move.
Agree, I thought I’d see the numbers to be around 370 or so at the wheels, impressive
I know there are a lot of vocal late model haters on here…. But its awesome to see better and better performing cars rolling out!!
The other thing that kind of scares me is how the horsepower thing has spiraled out of control!! Just a few short years ago I’d be jumping up and down about ANYTHING that made over 400 to the tires!! Now there are so many high HP cars…I’m jaded into thinking this is just average!
Speaking of which…. either the Vette is has a VERY efficient drivetrain…or they under rated the new LT1 a little… If crank HP is 460 and they saw 416 at the wheels…that’s under 10% drivetrain loss. I understand there are variables with the chassis dyno…but still impressive!
Exhaust valve flappers… cool. Nice to see GM using innovations from the Jap motorcycles of the 80s.
The bi-modal valves have been on vettes since 2006 Z06. A technology borrowed from Ferrari.
Which GM used briefly during the 1970 – look up ‘Tiger Button” on GTO’s…
Very impressive. I am liking this C7
Love the Corvette and it is impressive, but didn’t the Shelby make 100 more HP.
Bootlegger that’s a completely ignorant statement. And BS guys i’m pretty sure all that exhaust stuff is electronic. you’re looking at 12% driveline loss thats around 475hp N/A thats insane. The c7 makes c6 power after $3k worth of mods
The exhaust (bi-modal) system operates off of vacuum. On the C6’s that have the bi-modal system, at above 3k rpm, the butterflies open and bypass the baffled portion of the muffler.
It’s a shame we aren’t likely to see this engine in crate form any time soon or maybe ever.