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What the Devil's going on? Corvette team said to be working on Ford GT fighter
By BOB GRITZINGER
THE 2005 C6 CORVETTE hasn’t even been officially introduced, but the Corvette development team is already hard at work on future, high-performance variants, including a wild 600-plus horsepower Ford GT-fighter known internally as “Blue Devil.”
While chief engineer Dave Hill has publicly announced the Z06 version of the next-gen Vette due in 2005 will have 500 hp, his engine team wasn’t sure until recently that they could actually achieve that impressive figure. Sources now say that it will be a case of “nothing beats cubic inches” with 95 extra horses (compared to today’s 405-hp Z06) coming as a result of boring and stroking the next-gen Chevy small-block V8 to 427 cubic inches—7.0 liters. Not since the late-1960s has that magic number of cubes been under a Corvette’s composite hood (though there were some 454s along the way).
More important, Chevy is clearly investigating an ultra-performance Corvette designed to do battle with—and conquer—the mid-engined GT from rival Ford, as well as many supercars from across the pond. Called Blue Devil (no one knows why it has that name—could it be Chevy hopes to bedevil Ford’s blue oval?), unofficial stats make the name seem appropriate. Reportedly producing 625 hp, Blue Devil’s initial power will come from a supercharged 427 engine—and it will use lightweight carbon fiber for key body parts, reducing weight by several hundred pounds to drop the super C6 to about 2900 pounds.
The price indicated on the internal documents is $100,000 for Blue Devil, if and when it actually makes production in 2006—at the earliest. We wonder whether the Devil’s chances of seeing light are further improved following product czar Bob Lutz’s comments that he’d like to see a Chevy-badged car like the 2002 Cadillac Cien concept.
General Motors officials aren’t connecting the dots and saying this is a “go,” but the high-performance heart of Blue Devil is the kind of specialized, high-content engine project envisioned for the General’s new Performance Build Center set to open shop next year in Wixom, Michigan. The center is intended to attack projects with “a sort of race team mentality,” says Ed Koerner, vice president of GM Powertrain engineering operations.
Patterned after low-volume race shops, the center could build up to 10,000 powerplants per year for very specific, high-end, high-performance GM vehicles. Koerner says engines from the shop should appear in showroom vehicles by 2005.
By BOB GRITZINGER
THE 2005 C6 CORVETTE hasn’t even been officially introduced, but the Corvette development team is already hard at work on future, high-performance variants, including a wild 600-plus horsepower Ford GT-fighter known internally as “Blue Devil.”
While chief engineer Dave Hill has publicly announced the Z06 version of the next-gen Vette due in 2005 will have 500 hp, his engine team wasn’t sure until recently that they could actually achieve that impressive figure. Sources now say that it will be a case of “nothing beats cubic inches” with 95 extra horses (compared to today’s 405-hp Z06) coming as a result of boring and stroking the next-gen Chevy small-block V8 to 427 cubic inches—7.0 liters. Not since the late-1960s has that magic number of cubes been under a Corvette’s composite hood (though there were some 454s along the way).
More important, Chevy is clearly investigating an ultra-performance Corvette designed to do battle with—and conquer—the mid-engined GT from rival Ford, as well as many supercars from across the pond. Called Blue Devil (no one knows why it has that name—could it be Chevy hopes to bedevil Ford’s blue oval?), unofficial stats make the name seem appropriate. Reportedly producing 625 hp, Blue Devil’s initial power will come from a supercharged 427 engine—and it will use lightweight carbon fiber for key body parts, reducing weight by several hundred pounds to drop the super C6 to about 2900 pounds.
The price indicated on the internal documents is $100,000 for Blue Devil, if and when it actually makes production in 2006—at the earliest. We wonder whether the Devil’s chances of seeing light are further improved following product czar Bob Lutz’s comments that he’d like to see a Chevy-badged car like the 2002 Cadillac Cien concept.
General Motors officials aren’t connecting the dots and saying this is a “go,” but the high-performance heart of Blue Devil is the kind of specialized, high-content engine project envisioned for the General’s new Performance Build Center set to open shop next year in Wixom, Michigan. The center is intended to attack projects with “a sort of race team mentality,” says Ed Koerner, vice president of GM Powertrain engineering operations.
Patterned after low-volume race shops, the center could build up to 10,000 powerplants per year for very specific, high-end, high-performance GM vehicles. Koerner says engines from the shop should appear in showroom vehicles by 2005.
