Why the world needs this naturally aspirated Wisconsin-built V8.
Back in 1990, a Corvette cost R450 000 and the ZR-1 option added another R380 000. What that bought you, mostly, was the most fearsome engine ever bolted into an American car. Instead of the pushrod, two-valve heads used in the standard Corvette engine (and every other Corvette engine before and since), the ZR-1 had a 5,7-litre V8 with quad overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. This allowed it to rev high and breathe deeply, spinning out 280 kilowatts back when a Ferrari 348 TS made only 225. A friend who was reviewing cars at the time managed to wreck a ZR-1 so violently that the car broke in half. “When the GM people showed up,” he said, “they only cared about the half with the engine.”
That engine, dubbed LT5, wasn’t built by GM. It was built by Mercury Marine. And when the ZR-1 went out of production in 1995, Mercury went back to making boat engines and GM went back to using pushrods. Ah, but what if? What if GM kept developing the LT5, eschewing the current Corvette Z06’s supercharger for high-revving, naturally aspirated power? Well, we have an answer. It’s called the Mercury Racing SB4 7.0, and you can buy it for R410 000.
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