AMG
08-09-2002, 05:47 PM
http://www.motortrend.com/june02/vette/vette.jpg
http://www.motortrend.com/june02/vette/vetteeng.jpg
John Lingenfelter is as good a Corvette tuner as any -- actually, better than most. He's always happy to let us (and others) test his cars against all comers, bring what they may. So this time, we brought something that would give his latest road rocket a run for its proverbial pink slip. A hot Viper, Ferrari, or Porsche? Nah. How about an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet? In this modern-day reprise of an '84 Motor Trend cover story we celebrate two very different brands of performance: a ground runner that's fast enough to fly and a flyer that would surely own the land-speed record - if only it wouldn't leave the ground in the process.
Professional performance freaks live on one-upsmanship. A few years back, Lingenfelter Performance Engineering (LPE) built a 650-hp Corvette brawler that ran the quarter mile in 10.8 sec and didn't stop accelerating until our timing gear said 226 mph (MT, March 2000). Shortly thereafter, Viper tuner John Hennessey upped the ante with a twin-turbo Viper GTS that cut a 9-sec quarter-mile time, setting a new benchmark for the quickest non-racing car we'd ever tested (June '01). You can guess what happened then: a new twin-turbo smog-legal Corvette package from Lingenfelter. Car owner Steve Dumler's instructions to LPE were to لا only up the bar, but raise it by a solid margin. Getting our Nomex firesuit into Dumler's Vette would be easy. Putting our arms around the jet would take a little more work.
Aside from a special fuel-pressure regulator, one would be hard pressed to tell that the engine was anything but original. However, hiding beneath those stock Corvette engine covers is a لا-so-original V-8, good for more than 800 smog-legal (at least in Texas) horsepower on the LPE dyno. The original LS1 engine was removed and stashed. A special 7.0L GM Performance Parts LS1-style racing cylinder block was the starting point for an all-new 427-cu-in. torquemonster. Special 4.125-in.-bore sleeves team with a custom 4.0-in.-stroke crankshaft, hence the 80-plus-cube increase over stock.
http://www.motortrend.com/june02/vette/vette2.jpg
From there, an LPE GT2 hydraulic roller camshaft sends valve-opening cues to heavily massaged Z06 Corvette LS6 cylinder heads. To top off the combo, a pair of Garret ball-bearing-style turbochargers force in 14-psi boost in street trim and, given the right gas, can be programmed for 20 psi.
The engine package is remarkably smooth at idle, is quieter than a stock Z06 on the cruise, and passes the sniffer at the local (Texas) smog station. In street trim, generating solid acceleration numbers proved fruitless as the Lingenvette would smoke its 345/30ZR19 rear tires past 100 mph. In search of traction, during testing we added a set of Mickey Thompson E.T. Street 26x11.5-16 "cheater slicks." Could this Corvette outdo the Hennessey Viper's stout 9.99-sec record? It didn't take long to find out.
With 866 lb-ft of torque on tap, the key to a solid time is to, in drag-racer parlance, "keep it hooked up," so I launched with a relatively timid 1800 rpm. In spite of a bit of fishtailing and some nasty-sounding tire squall, the first run netted a 9.58-sec e.t.-breathing through catalytic converters, no less. A bit of fiddling and some adjustments to my driving technique brought even more impressive numbers: a best quarter-mile run of 9.24 sec at 150.27 mph. Perhaps more impressive, the 0-60 mph run -- the Holy Grail of acceleration measurements -- took less than 2.0 sec. No lie, no typo. Sorry, Hennessey.
So, how does a 1.97-sec 0-60 run feel? Kind of like being hit from behind by a cement truck.
A look at the test numbers reveals that the Lingenfelter Corvette conquered the quarter mile in less time than the jet. But that distance is just where the F/A-18 really begins to gain momentum. It thrives on high-speed blasts, as evidenced by a stall speed (about 125 mph)-to-Mach 1.0 (750-plus mph) test that took us a scant 41 sec. While the Vette generates an impressive 1.01 g on the skidpad, the F/A-18 can routinely deliver 8g corners for as long as a human brain can retain blood. Clearly my brain was somewhat anaerobic on that day, but I did appreciate the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the seriously brutal power of a jet fighter.
http://www.motortrend.com/june02/vette/vetteeng.jpg
John Lingenfelter is as good a Corvette tuner as any -- actually, better than most. He's always happy to let us (and others) test his cars against all comers, bring what they may. So this time, we brought something that would give his latest road rocket a run for its proverbial pink slip. A hot Viper, Ferrari, or Porsche? Nah. How about an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet? In this modern-day reprise of an '84 Motor Trend cover story we celebrate two very different brands of performance: a ground runner that's fast enough to fly and a flyer that would surely own the land-speed record - if only it wouldn't leave the ground in the process.
Professional performance freaks live on one-upsmanship. A few years back, Lingenfelter Performance Engineering (LPE) built a 650-hp Corvette brawler that ran the quarter mile in 10.8 sec and didn't stop accelerating until our timing gear said 226 mph (MT, March 2000). Shortly thereafter, Viper tuner John Hennessey upped the ante with a twin-turbo Viper GTS that cut a 9-sec quarter-mile time, setting a new benchmark for the quickest non-racing car we'd ever tested (June '01). You can guess what happened then: a new twin-turbo smog-legal Corvette package from Lingenfelter. Car owner Steve Dumler's instructions to LPE were to لا only up the bar, but raise it by a solid margin. Getting our Nomex firesuit into Dumler's Vette would be easy. Putting our arms around the jet would take a little more work.
Aside from a special fuel-pressure regulator, one would be hard pressed to tell that the engine was anything but original. However, hiding beneath those stock Corvette engine covers is a لا-so-original V-8, good for more than 800 smog-legal (at least in Texas) horsepower on the LPE dyno. The original LS1 engine was removed and stashed. A special 7.0L GM Performance Parts LS1-style racing cylinder block was the starting point for an all-new 427-cu-in. torquemonster. Special 4.125-in.-bore sleeves team with a custom 4.0-in.-stroke crankshaft, hence the 80-plus-cube increase over stock.
http://www.motortrend.com/june02/vette/vette2.jpg
From there, an LPE GT2 hydraulic roller camshaft sends valve-opening cues to heavily massaged Z06 Corvette LS6 cylinder heads. To top off the combo, a pair of Garret ball-bearing-style turbochargers force in 14-psi boost in street trim and, given the right gas, can be programmed for 20 psi.
The engine package is remarkably smooth at idle, is quieter than a stock Z06 on the cruise, and passes the sniffer at the local (Texas) smog station. In street trim, generating solid acceleration numbers proved fruitless as the Lingenvette would smoke its 345/30ZR19 rear tires past 100 mph. In search of traction, during testing we added a set of Mickey Thompson E.T. Street 26x11.5-16 "cheater slicks." Could this Corvette outdo the Hennessey Viper's stout 9.99-sec record? It didn't take long to find out.
With 866 lb-ft of torque on tap, the key to a solid time is to, in drag-racer parlance, "keep it hooked up," so I launched with a relatively timid 1800 rpm. In spite of a bit of fishtailing and some nasty-sounding tire squall, the first run netted a 9.58-sec e.t.-breathing through catalytic converters, no less. A bit of fiddling and some adjustments to my driving technique brought even more impressive numbers: a best quarter-mile run of 9.24 sec at 150.27 mph. Perhaps more impressive, the 0-60 mph run -- the Holy Grail of acceleration measurements -- took less than 2.0 sec. No lie, no typo. Sorry, Hennessey.
So, how does a 1.97-sec 0-60 run feel? Kind of like being hit from behind by a cement truck.
A look at the test numbers reveals that the Lingenfelter Corvette conquered the quarter mile in less time than the jet. But that distance is just where the F/A-18 really begins to gain momentum. It thrives on high-speed blasts, as evidenced by a stall speed (about 125 mph)-to-Mach 1.0 (750-plus mph) test that took us a scant 41 sec. While the Vette generates an impressive 1.01 g on the skidpad, the F/A-18 can routinely deliver 8g corners for as long as a human brain can retain blood. Clearly my brain was somewhat anaerobic on that day, but I did appreciate the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the seriously brutal power of a jet fighter.