Beating Hearts: Car & Driver Names GM Supercharged 6.2-liter V8 as one of the 10 Greatest Engines You Can Buy Today
General Motors Supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 | Cadillac CTS-V, Chevrolet Corvette Z06
It’s tough not to love any engine that produces 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque, especially when its brute force is delivered linearly, predictably, and with the classic Chevy small-block V-8 rumble. And we definitely love the Chevrolet Corvette Z06’s supercharged LT4 V-8, which GM says is among the very lightest and most compact engines capable of such prodigious output. Displacing the same 6.2 liters as the naturally aspirated fifth-generation small-block V-8 that powers regular Corvette Stingray models (more details on that engine here), the LT4 runs a maximum boost of 9.4 psi to produce as much as 200 more horsepower. (Fun fact: The LT4’s Eaton supercharger stuffs four lobes into a 1.74-liter blower.)
The engine’s overall dimensions are barely larger than those of the nonsupercharged Chevy V-8—the blower adds less than one inch to the overall height of the regular small-block—and weight is up by just 75 pounds. A technical tour de force, the LT4 not only powers the Z06 coupe to 60 mph in 3.0 seconds (the convertible can do 3.1), but it also can now be found under the hood of the 2016 Cadillac CTS-V. While it makes slightly less power in the Caddy, the blown V-8 nonetheless is capable of punting the big sedan to a claimed 200-plus-mph top speed.
—Alexander Stoklosa
