Flattened!

Deep dive into GM's new flat-plane crank wonder!

- STEVEN RUPP

General Motors has been thinking about the C8 Corvette Z06 for a long time now. In fact, the story of the new LT6 engine began back in 2014, with the first prototype engine builds happening in 2015 and the first production-intent engines completed in 2018. When you start with a blank sheet of paper, it takes tens of thousands of man-hours to go from nothing to the most technologically advanced engine ever under the hood of a Corvette, or any Chevrolet for that matter. The new LT6 also turned out to be the most powerful naturally aspirated V8 in a production car, ever. Fun fact: The 5.5-liter LT6 is 1 kg heavier than the LT2 but manages to make 175 more hp. For that matter, it's 14 kg lighter than the C7 Z06's LT4 and still manages to make 20 more hp. That's amazing when you consider the dry-sump oil system, including the tank, is integrated into the LT6, where a lot of it is separate on engines like the LT4 and LS7. Also, GM doesn't consider this a sixth-generation small-block-it's a whole new beast, and as such, it is known as the Gemini.