A big part of the Corvette Z06’s appeal is the scream from its 5.5-liter, 670-horsepower LT6. Featuring a flat-plane crank and special features in the exhaust to amplify the character of the engine, it’s bound to be one of the best Corvettes ever. And while it’s set to bring the fight to supercars in Europe at a fraction of the cost, the ‘Vette being sent across the pond isn’t quite the same as the one we’re getting here, as Corvette Blogger reports.
Yes, as it turns out a spy-photographed C8 that was widely speculated to be a hybrid Corvette seems to actually just be the export market Z06. Speaking to members of the Corvette engineering team, Corvette Blogger was told that the spy-shot Z06s with corner exhausts were simply equipped with gasoline particulate filters; extra emissions equipment required in many markets. According to them, “pretty much everywhere except North America and the Middle East” will get a Z06 with this exhaust system and likely less horsepower.
These GPFs are already a thing on the LT2-powered Stingrays that get sent to the United Kingdom and other markets. They reduce the output of the Z51-equipped 6.2-liter V8 from 495 horsepower to 482 hp. It’s not a huge difference, but it’s more than 10 horsepower. On the Z06, it may be even more power, and these GPFs will likely affect the noise of the car as well.
Corvette engineers allegedly insisted that the car “still sounds great” with the corner-exit exhausts, though a lot of time was spent tuning the new center-exit system in the Z06 to perfection, as you might’ve read. The tailpipes feature special trumpet-like features which reflect more exhaust noise back to the driver. We’ve reached out to Chevy to see if there was any attempt made to add a feature like this to the exported Z06’s corner-exit system, as well as to try and find out exactly how much power this exhaust system is going to cost European versions of the car. We have yet to hear back at the time of publishing.
So next time you’re despondent about a sports car from abroad not coming to America, remember: the other side of the Atlantic is getting a slightly less good Z06. We’re out here living the center-exit life, and Europe is stuck with no chrome tips, no Nissan Z, and no high-horsepower GR Corolla. We’ve got it pretty good.
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