Ah, the C8 Corvette! Often overhyped but for good reason, the first mid-engine sports car from Chevy is a revolution rather than an evolution of the ‘Vette even though the LT2 small-block V8 doesn’t differ too much from the LT1 before it.
Better at carving corners and putting the power down to the blacktop than its predecessor, the eighth gen is often yet mistakenly described as a supercar. A vlogger even had the audacity to call it better than a Ferrari, but that’s like saying an apple is better than an orange. Totally different segments.
The question is, how does the C8 Corvette stack up against cars that are a little more affordable? Cars like the Ford Mustang GT and the Toyota Supra, for example. Well, let’s start off with the ‘Vette versus a 500-hp Supra.
How did the Japanese sports car get so much suck-squeeze-bang-blow? The answer to that is an E85 tune and a fuel pump kit by LG Motorsports. According to Briank03’s Racing Channel, these mods have lifted the Supra’s rear-wheel output ratings from 311 horsepower (315 PS) and 330 pound-feet (447 Nm) to 494 horsepower (501 PS) and 543 pound-feet (736 Nm).
Insane numbers for a vehicle this light, but you’ll be surprised how good the ‘Vette is against it. “We raced three times from a roll and also two runs from a dead stop,” and as you will see in the following video, the results are somewhat mixed. What is more than obvious, however, is that the C8 accelerates better off the line and the E85 Supra catches up at higher speeds.
Now let’s look at a different E85 Supra against a different ‘Vette as well as a Ford Mustang GT tuned by Palm Beach Dyno to a fair degree.
The pony is running E85 as well as an X-pipe and an axle-back exhaust system in addition to drag radials at the rear. Even with this setup, the ‘Stang apparently has trouble putting all that go-faster goodness down to the road. The Japanese interloper has no trouble at all against both rivals, proving that the inline-six turbo from BMW is more than adequate for tuning.
On that note, can you imagine the C8 Corvette with E85 and drag radials? A rematch against both Supras and the Mustang is dearly needed.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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