Three years into production of Corvette C7 Stingray and General Motors still fails to replace C7.R LS7 motor with its LT1 racing successor

If anyone is still in doubt about the failure of the latest generation of Corvette, nothing shows it clearer than +General Motors Corvette racing program. 

When the sixth generation of Corvette added to its line up Corvette C6 Z06 back in 2006, the newest powerplant LS7, developed concurrently with LS3 was adapted immediately to racing needs and found its place in the C5.R replacement, Pratt and Miller's built Corvette C6.R.  This alone was a great advertisement for the car and provided acceptable validation to GM's claims about racing credibility for the C6 Z06 car.

These days, approaching TEN years since this event happened, the C6 generation is no more, has not been produced for over three years and yet somehow, in spite of the typical marketing bullshit, the only thing that the newest C7.R car has with the current "RACE PROVEN" C7 Z06 are the idiotic fangs and direct injection.  As a matter of fact, even the chassis of the newest car is based on the previous one, in spite of what +Tadge Juechter may be spouting off, nauseating not just hardcore motorsports fans but general public as well.

Unlike with the previous generation and C6 Z06, the current flagship is a completely unsuitable car for anything even remotely related to the race track, right down to its supercharged engine.

The real question here is what is stopping GM from using the new engine from being used as the 5.5 l LS7 racing replacement?  After all, if the newest is really the greatest, this engine should have been adapted and adopted long time ago, back in 2014 since as Juechter claims, the street C7 cars draw directly from the racing technologies.  What is stopping GM and Pratt and Miller from taking that step? Obviously the LT4 piece of overheating shit cannot be of any use to racing but what is exactly the excuse with its LT1 normally aspirated version?

The answer or at least a part of it can be found in the activities of a company called Katech.  This company claims it developed a 427 variant of the current LT1 engine and this engine can produce in excess of 700 hp.  However, even though Katech made the 427 "track attack" back in January of this year, the engine is still not available for sale and the company claims "it is still ironing out some kinks". 

From what Katech has already disclosed, there is a difference in the new offering, the heads are not simply ported factory heads as with the predecessor.  This time, Katech advertises its own CNC machined free flowing heads, with of course, eliminated ATF hardware and bullshit VVT reduced in its operations through more restrictive cam phaser.

However, these elements alone should be done months ago so what is happening?  According to several renowned engine builders GM failed to design adequate cooling passages not just in the heads but block itself as well.  The new Katech engine uses 12.5 compression (their LS7 track attack ran at 11.4:1) and DI, running lean and hot, requiring extremely well designed cooling passages and if the statements from engine builders are true, it is actually inferior to MPFI LS predecessor.  Considering this part, it is easy to figure out why Katech fails to finalize that LT1 based 427, at the cost south of 30k, it has to deliver not just performance but durability as well and when engine cooling passages are inadequate, the durability part cannot happen.

Katech seems a lot like that clown Juechter and his team of numbnuts, claims are made but failing to gain real life validation, just like the bullshit Nurburgring record claimed by GM.

Will the Corvette C7.R ever use an LT1 derivative?  This part is very unlikely to happen, due to the problems with the block design.  The time is running away, problems with LT1 and LT4 continue to grow and the alleged C7 Z06 racing counterpart continues to soldier on powered by the "obsolete" LS7.

Incidentally, the fact that LS7 engine is still used tends to touch the nerve with C6 Z06 because against the marketing bullshit, GM never chose to apply the valvetrain improvements applied to the C6.R and C7.R powerplant, the C6 Z06 LS7's were never upgraded to prevent the ongoing drivetrain failures-so much for the bullshit of the racing Corvettes sharing that racing experience.  Fortunately for Juechter and GM, Corvette buyers can be easily fooled and distracted, thus, the bullshit continues (except for this blog, of course)-all Juechter and GM have to do is show the Corvette numbnuts that C7.R CAR COVER and they will follow like sheep or lemmings would. The real funny part is the fact that the car depicted on that cover uses the previous generation's drivetrain, right down to the engine.  HAH!!!