Central Valley Corvettes of Fresno - December 2017

As Juechter describes
it: “You’ve got no air
gap between the
engine and the hood,
you’ve got no hood
blanket, you’ve got no
construction between
the hood inner and
outer. All that stuff
usually stacks on top
[of the engine], but we
consumed all of that
and then let the
engine crawl out
another inch, inch and
a half.” Adds Bennion: “It was a challenge to get that hood right. It could get real
backwoods on you real fast.” While you can now see the right side of the car, the view
from the driver’s seat is still plenty dramatic: Luke Skywalker’s as he zooms down the
trench toward the Death Star’s exhaust port. And, Juechter promises, it’s even more
dramatic when you start the car. “[The engine] moves around on you. You step on it,
you can see the engine trying to pick the front of the car up and come out of the hole.
Every twitch of your foot, you can see how the driveline is moving. It’s part of the
charm.” In much the same way a great white chomping on the bars of your dive cage
is part of the charm. We’re also told the LT5 will shoot flames from its exhaust, so
there’s even charm for the
people behind a ZR1. That
last bit is a conveniently badass
byproduct of the engine’s
new fuel-delivery system,
which uses both port and
direct injection. At the other
end of the combustion cycle,
there’s another benefit to
Corvexit: louder exhaust. U.S.
pass-by noise regulations
allow more decibels than do
the European Union’s. In
addition to the electronically
controlled butterfly valves in a Z06, the ZR1’s exhaust system incorporates a newly
patented internal valve that Juechter likens to the flap on top of a semitractor’s exhaust
pipe. A spring holds it closed under light loads, but as exhaust flow grows more urgent,
it overcomes the spring pressure and pushes the valve open, allowing for a smoother
rise to the volume than the all-or-nothing character of the butterfly valve alone.