Corvette Z06 Coupe

Make
Chevrolet
Segment
Coupe

YouTuber, drag racer, and Corvette enthusiast Emelia Hartford recently revealed the world's first twin-turbocharged C8 Corvette Z06, and now her latest video has revealed what the insane setup sounds like.

After beating Chevrolet's claimed quarter-mile times with a loaner Z06, Hartford recently took delivery of her own example, which she claimed she would leave stock.

But in just a couple of days, she and her team fabricated a custom exhaust for the car. That sounded raucous, but it wasn't enough, and Hartford has now strapped a pair of Precision 6266 turbochargers to the Z06. You can see the majority of the installation in the below video, with the completed install and first startup embedded further down.

The Z06's engine is a specially developed flat-plane crank LT6 V8 producing 670 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. Still, its layout in the car is almost identical to that of the Stingray's 6.2-liter LT2 V8, which Hartford has previously strapped a pair of turbos to, creating the quickest C8 Corvette on the planet (at the time - others have gone quicker since).

Thus, to save time (and since this twin-turbo setup is not intended to be permanent), Hartford and her team unbolt the kit from her Stingray and reuse what they can to fit the turbos to the Z06. Since nobody is quite sure how strong the internals of the LT6 are, particularly the connecting rods, the softest possible springs are put in the wastegate, breathing out the dump tubes once the setup reaches just 1.5 psi.

As you can see, there are some problems with using the kit from the Stingray instead of fabricating a custom solution; the center-exit quad exhaust tips from the Z06 cannot be retained, so the Stingray's tips are temporarily fitted so that the heat from the turbocharged engine can escape in a way that minimizes the risk of fire.

The next video from Hartford will reveal how the twin-turbo Corvette Z06 drives, but if its aggressive sound on startup and revs is anything to go by, this will be one feisty machine.

Let's hope the final iteration looks a little more Z06-specific and produces enough extra power to justify the effort. And will it work? GM said last year that it would not help tuners crack the ECU of the C8, and only recently have some come to grips with it.

Turbocharging complicates things further, so we expect a piggyback system to feature. Stay tuned - this surely won't be the last twin-turbo Z06.