Speaking in an interview to The Drive, Jordan Lee, an engineer at Chevrolet, admitted that the company bought a broken Ferrari 458 Italia engine in Poland to strip it down, study and build a new 5.5-liter V8 on its basis for the Corvette Z06.
Both engines feature a flat crankshaft, which allows for higher horsepower throughput, but affects the overall balance of the drivetrain and is therefore rarely used in production cars. Therefore, engineers have to do their best to make it viable in a mass-market car. Aside from Chevrolet and Ferrari cars, a similar solution finds use on the Shelby Mustang GT350, among others.
The Italian engine cost the team of researchers $25,000, a mere fraction of a cost of a new supercar. Studying it in minute detail helped the engineers solve many problems – for one, they figured out how to protect electronics and ignition parts from excess vibration loads.
Work on a new naturally aspirated engine for the Z06 began eight years ago. Later on, when the company unveiled working prototypes of the chassis and the engine, they were tested side-by-side with a real Ferrari 458 – yes, they did buy one, after all.
The newest Z06 debuted last October with a non-turbo V8 that its maker believes to be the world’s strongest naturally aspirated street-legal engine, ever. It has 5.5 liters of displacement and makes 670 PS (661 hp / 493 kW) along with 623 Nm (459 lb-ft) of torque. Going 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) takes 2.6 seconds.