[1]At its heart, even the most expensive and complicated engines are essentially large air pumps, sucking in oxygen and cranking out usable torque. Yet there are incredible differences between the first automotive engines, and the high-tech monoliths of horsepower that fit under the hood of cars like the Corvette ZR1. It can be hard to appreciate the intricate differences and all the complicated machinery involved in these high-horsepower engines.
Lucky for us, CorvetteGuys [2] put together this nifty little animation of how the Corvette ZR1’s 638 horsepower LS9 engine comes together, and works together.
GM has made it well known that each and every Corvette Z06 and ZR1 engine is put together by a single highly trained technician. The General even offers would-be Corvette buyers a chance to build their very own engine [3], and pick their car up from the Bowling Green factory in Kentucky where the Corvette is built.
But this brief little animation is nifty, putting the LS9 engine together piece-by-piece and showing each part in motion, illustrating how it interacts with other parts. There are hundreds of separate components in each engine that need to come together, and in a high-performance application like the LS9, there is a lot more at stake. The video shows the crankshaft, camshaft, valves, pistons, supercharger, and more all working in sync to help propel the fastest production car GM has ever built. We thought this was a really cool video to suck up a few moments worth of time, but how about you guys? Would you like to see more stuff regarding the intricacies of monster motors like the LS9? Or is it all too “techie?”