21.11.2006
Corvette Racing's V-8 wins prestigious award

GM's small-block V-8 added another accolade to a long list of honors when Corvette Racing's LS7.R engine was named "Global Motorsport Engine of the Year" at the Professional Motorsport World Expo in Cologne, Germany. The race-prepared LS7.R engine, which shares its architecture with the production LS7 small-block V-8, propelled Corvette Racing to its fifth GT1 class victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 18, 2006. The 7.0-liter engine also powered the Compuware Corvette C6.R race cars to the 2006 American Le Mans Series manufacturers, drivers and team championships with a perfect reliability record.

"Winning this award is another milestone in the history of the GM small-block V-8," said GM Racing director Mark Kent. "The championship-winning LS7.R has evolved to a very high level of development, yet it retains the longstanding virtues of compact size, simplicity, reliability and high specific output that have made the GM small-block V-8 the world's most successful production-based racing engine."

The 2006 Race Engine of the Year Awards were organized by Race Engine Technology magazine. The editors made three nominations in each of four categories: Grand Prix Engine of the Year, Global Motorsport Engine of the Year, North American Race Engine of the Year, and Alternative Power Race Engine of the Year. The magazine then invited votes from 50 key race engine engineers representing the spectrum of motorsports.

The LS7.R is the heir to the GM small-block V-8's winning tradition that began in 1955. The small-block V-8 is the foundation of the hot rod and high-performance industries and the cornerstone of racing series around the world. GM has produced approximately 90 million small-block V-8 engines with a combined output of 27 billion horsepower.

GM Powertrain developed the production 512-horsepower LS7 small-block V-8 that powers the Corvette Z06 using many competition-derived components and design features. The LS7 bristles with race-inspired technology from Corvette Racing, including titanium connecting rods and inlet valves, a dry-sump lubrication system, CNC-ported cylinder heads, a forged steel crankshaft, and a big-bore aluminum block with plate-honed cylinders.