Last month, Motor Trend published from frankly unbelievable dyno results for the 2020 Corvette C8. The numbers raised a lot of eyebrows and the publication quietly started an investigation to determine what was what.
As you may recall, the tests originally suggested the Corvette’s 6.2-liter LT2 V8 engine created up to 656 hp (489 kW / 665 PS) and 606 lb-ft (821 Nm) of torque. That’s 161 hp (120 kW / 163 PS) and 136 lb-ft (184 Nm) of torque more than Chevrolet’s official rating for the Stingray Z51.
That’s a pretty big discrepancy, so the publication had the test done a number of times. Even at the low end, the dyno suggested the engine produced around 562 hp (419 kW / 570 PS) and 640 lb-ft (867 Nm) of torque.
That’s still a significant difference and the publication initially believed the engine produced a lot more power than advertised. However, they admitted “We still don’t know” how to explain the “huge discrepancy.”
Also Read: 2020 Corvette Stingray Delivers Unbelievable Numbers On The Dyno
Fast forward to today and Motor Trend has released the results of their investigation. According to the publication, the dyno operator used two settings that were incorrect. The first was road-load horsepower at 50 mph (80 km/h) and, given the time crunch, the number was estimated at 12.6. However, Chevrolet says it should have been 15.4.
That’s understandable and the estimate was made using C7 data. However, the second error is a bit more perplexing as the dyno was “set to assume all-wheel drive.”
Since the original dyno results had to be scrapped due to the mistakes, the magazine poured over their data to try to calculate a so-called “road dyno” result. This suggested the Corvette developed around 500 hp (373 kW / 507 PS).
However, the publication got a second Corvette to test and this road dyno result suggested the model had a “shade under the rated output” of 465 hp (347 kW / 471 PS) and 412 lb-ft (558 Nm) of torque in second- and third-gear.
While you can always expect some variation in the results, Motor Trend says “we’re convinced our red test car was certainly making every bit of its rated output of 495 hp (369 kW / 502 PS) at 6,450 rpm and 470 lb-ft (637 Nm) at 5,150 if not slightly more.”
Of course, fans probably aren’t too worried about a few more or less horsepower. At the end of the day, they’re probably more interested in the $59,995 base price and 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of 2.9 seconds.
