Brace yourselves, we’re about to find out the real horsepower numbers for the brand-new 2023 Corvette Z06. It’s one of the hottest performance vehicles ever produced by an American automaker, certainly the most exotic ever to wear the Corvette badge. While it’s not supercharged, this unique flat-plane crank V8 engine makes a lot of power and screams as loud as a Ferrari or Lamborghini.
In the old days, you’d find out about the new Corvette power rating from a Motor Trend or Car and Driver magazine. But in the age of YouTube, we’ve got guys ready to deliver the goods on their own special-order vehicles. And the first to ever dyno a 2023 Corvette Z06 is Speed Phantom.
The YouTuber drove his Z06, still wearing protective wrapping to Dallas Performance. Usually, they’re the guys who make Gallardos, Huracans, and R8s set land speed records with their turbo setups, so a mid-engined Corvette with an exotic engine is right up their alley.
In case you didn’t receive the memo, the new Z06 is powered by an all-new double-overhead-cam (DOHC) 5.5-liter V8. At 670 horsepower, it’s the most powerful unit of its kind, beating the 2014 SLS AMG Black Series with its 622 hp. Displacing only 333 cubic inches, this 32-valve aluminum monster does have direct injection, but it lacks in one area: torque, of which it only produces 560 pound-feet at 6,300 rpm.
But that’s just on paper. With its carbon fiver wheels strapped in and its 345-wide tires on the dyno, let’s see what the Corvette Z06 has got!
The best of the first two pulls puts the 5.5-liter at 599 horsepower and 424 pound-feet. That’s at the wheels, not at the motor, how the Chevy measures it. The power climbs straight all the way to the red line, and the Z06 hits 190 mph on the dyno in 5th gear. With the motor cooled down and an extra fan installed, she manages to put down 610 hp.
The dyno shop owner reveals that a Lamborghini Huracan only makes about 500 hp at the wheels and a Ferrari 458 Italia is about 420 hp, so the Corvette is way more powerful. That’s not bad for a car that costs $110,000… in theory.
Chevy engineers could have easily installed the Camaro’s supercharged V8, but it just wouldn’t have the same character. To keep such a high-revving engine alive, GM opted for a lot of exotic internals, like the titanium connecting rods and intake valves. However, there’s one thing it has in common with other small-block V8s, and a 4.4-inch bore center which even the C4 ZR1’s LT5 shared.
