Second transmission cooler on 2015 Corvette C7 Z06 further reaffirms the major design flaw of rear mounted coolers and automatic transmission overheating

As much as +Tadge Juechter  and +General Motors marketing department like to brag about superior performance of automatic transmissions, both six and eight speed, there is never a sentence given to address a well documented by now problem with overheating of automatic transmission during high performance endurance driving.  The problem certainly is there, it has been there since the beginning of Stingray production and it certainly did not go away with the newest Z06.

Unlike with the previous generation of Corvette, the transmission cooler resides now in the rear, hopefully scavenging air flow from the quarter panel mounted ducts or even worse, from under the car, in the case of convertible models.

The instances of overheating transmission indicate that both the location and capacity of the cooling systems are inadequate.  Only a brilliant engineer like Juechter would expect a rear top or bottom mounted inlets to provide air flow equal to front mounted location, LOL.  The fact that both the discontinued and the new eight speed transmissions use smaller diameter converters and higher stall speeds makes the matter even worse.

Why was this done?  Certainly not to improve cooling characteristics.  The real answer  is WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION.  Contrary to popular belief, the junk such as AFM, dual mass flywheel and semi VVT add enough weight to cause weight distribution problems.  Relocating as much of hardware as possible to the rear is a necessity, not a gesture of performance considerations.

Thus, the cooling systems for the differential and transmission have been moved to the rear.  Juechter can bullshit as much as he wants but the fact remains that this is the only reason why anyone would even consider moving these systems to the rear of the vehicle.

The problem here is that there is no efficiency needed in these locations and things become even worse with the new Z06, apparently to the point where GM could no longer ignore complaints from the base car owners and decided to be proactive and attempt to keep the automatic transmission cooler.  The fact that the Z06 porker adds even more weight up front, must have made this decision even easier.  Hopefully the automatic Z06 can now make more than one lap on a track?  LOL

However, what does this do for the buyers of base 2015 Stingray and 2014 model year?  Absolutely nothing, they are still screwed and with no remedy on horizon.  Maybe the aftermarket can make more money here?