Redesigning the LT to Live Behind the Corvette’s Cabin
Road to the mid-engine Corvette was hard enough; moving the LT to the back, however, took more work to make it a success.
How many LS and LTs do you know live behind the cabin of a given car? Some are LS4s pushing a random Toyota MR2 or Pontiac Fiero. Others are LS3s placed in a Porsche 911 or a nice kit car. It’s an undertaking to make it all work, to be certain. The results can be amazing, sketchy, or both.
Now, apply all that to the factory. AutoEvolution recently looked at how GM’s engineers made the dream of Corvette fans come true: placing a V8 behind the cabin. The road to that point, though, took more than just throwing an LT in and calling it a day.
The lead-up to this moment back in 2019 was fraught with prototypes and broken promises. The most anyone could have ever hoped for was catching a Corvette GTP or Corvette DP making the rounds at Daytona. After all, racing is a different breed of innovation, though not everything carries over. Including, perhaps, a mid-engine Corvette for the street.
Yet, it did happen after all. Today, the C8 Corvette carries the torch lit by so many mid-engine proponents before, beginning with the Father of the Corvette himself, Zora Arkus-Duntov. Its debut at the Kennedy Space Center, captured by our friends at Corvette Forum, in July 2019 proved to be analogous with the space program itself. The moonshot heard ’round the world, as it were.
And just like getting the Saturn V out of Earth’s atmosphere to send those astronauts to the Moon, engineers at GM worked to fit the LT perfectly behind the Corvette’s cabin. As AutoEvolution says, they wound up engineering the new LT2 to fit the very tight confines of the C8’s backside.
A new intake manifold added more volume for air to travel down into the party zone, while emissions are down 25% thanks to new cats and the all-new wide-range air-fuel sensor. Said sensor also allows for a smooth-sounding V8 at idle, kicking out the jams at throttle. Throw in a dry sump system, and the LT2 is a lightweight ready to go 12 rounds.
Not a bad first effort, indeed.
Photos: Chevrolet
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