4 — Automotive Lightweighting
Automotive Lightweighting > 2016 Chevy Corvette Z06: Lightweighting for Greater Performance Automotive Lightweighting > 2016 Chevy Corvette Z06: Lightweighting for Greater Performance
You might think that if you have a supercharged, 6.2-liter V8 engine
under the hood, an engine that is SAE-certifed at 650 hp and 650 lb-ft
of torque, mass is probably not too much of an issue: after all, there is
all that power to move the car with alacrity.
But the engineers who worked on the 2016 Corvette Z06, the most power-
ful production car that General Motors has ever built, made sure that they
were frugal when it came to adding grams of mass to the vehicle.
Ostensibly, there were two key themes used in the development of this
version of the Corvette: minimize mass, maximize performance.
The hood is carbon fber. There are carbon fber aero packages available
for the car, which include a carbon fber front splitter with aviation-style
winglets (the Z07 package features larger winglets), carbon fber rocker
panels, and a rear spoiler.
It doesn't hurt that there is
the highest-performance
production engine GM
has ever built under the
carbon fber hood, but
lightweighting of the
vehicle helps the Z06
go from 0 to 60 in less
than three seconds.
2016 Corvette Z06:
LIGHTWEIGHTING FOR GREATER PERFORMANCE