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but i heard that it could go 24 hours at high RPMs. why someone would want to drive for 24 hours at high RPM's is beyond me, but i would think an engine is pretty tough to do that!
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The LT5 was built from day one in the tradition of a very high speed endurance racer/grand tourer, much in the European context. As many probably know, it was introduced in Europe to the press and the public as a production car.
The endurance qualities of the engine are what enabled it to set the world endurance speed records in 1990. It held the records for about 12 years, and is still the only production car to ever hold the records. In the strict Corvette tradition of a "street fighter", it was a somewhat misunderstood engine, though it is quite fast. But as a high speed road car, it is fabulous, and I have followed it on several forums for many years, and the occurance of any internal or LT5 specific failures is incredibly rare. IMHO, the engine is really bullet proof.
Personally, and I have had a few cars in my day, it is the most enjoyable engine-car combination I have ever had. I mean this strictly from a driver's perspective.
In fact, I have become so convinced that I have developed several fixes for the C4 issues (road noise, body flex and noise, lack of chassis stiffness) that I will be finished with on my car this summer, which will (assuming they work), will extend the life of the car, and make it a really fine 2 seat touring car.
I am documenting my fixes thoroughly, so that do it yourselfers can apply them to their cars. Some of the (minor, very easy to do in an hour) hood related improvements have already been published, and at the other extreme, I will offer a kit that can be installed in two days (4 hours work spread over two days), that will completely eliminate top off chassis looseness, yet require no maintenance, and removal and re-installation when the top is removed and re-installed. So far, the design makes the car competitive with a C5 targa top car. The remaining issues involve the designing of a kit that has enough effectiveness, but is still easy to install by a typical Corvette owner.
Wow, I got off the subject... No, actually, though the improvements will work on any C4, the LT5 is such a wonderful engine that it started the thought processes about improving the car.
Sorry for the long comment, but the ZR1 and the C4 Corvette are wonderful performance bargins, and with some special, well engineered tweaks aimed specifically at their faults, you could have the world class performance bargin of all time. A modified ZR1 can sit in the very finest European and Japanese company, and make its owner proud.
Boy what a rant... But it's true.
Regards..
PS_ I hope to have all of my improvements documented, proven and published, by the end of the summer.
