Driven5
PowerDork
10/15/24 3:44 p.m.
The Corvette hit 233 mph with the engine at redline in sixth gear.
Edited for 6 vs 8 speeds: With an 8-speed, that would actually imply not gearing limited unless they were artificially limiting it to 6th... Perhaps for some reason other than not enough power, like executive safety, 7/8 gear strength, tire limitations, cooling limitations, or perhaps even just not enough real estate? If they were able to top 6th going BOTH directions, this could be the beginning rater than the end.
Alternatively, out of my element here, but would the downforce producing features also induce additional drag beyond the advertised Cd as speed increases? For airplanes the induced drag decreases with speed because the angle of attack needed to maintain altitude decreases. But a car is more like a plane being held at a constant angle of attack and altitude while being forced to just go faster, causing things like earlier flow separation with speed, which I'm not sure conventional automotive advertised Cd methods account for.
It was all of that styling that slowed it down.
In reply to Snrub :
Might just be the way they're geared. They both might have the power to reach higher speeds, but the gearing/redline doesn't allow it.
The weird thing is it said it was at redline in 6th, which implies near peak power. Maybe it's just redline limited and 7th is a super economy gear and unable to take it faster?
rough math shows with good gearing it should be able to go much faster than 233
In reply to TravisTheHuman :
Not terribly weird. The 6 speed C4s (and F bodies) hit top speed in 5th, not 6th.
Heck, even the early RX-7s, which did not have particularly tall 5th gears, hit top speed in 4th, which was redline at 120. They could maintain that speed in 5th but they wouldn't accelerate. I may have verified this once... a day...
No, its not terribly weird (although I'm surprised there are 2 economy gears), especially for Corvettes.
That said, if they wanted to make a big deal out of a top speed, I would think they'd choose the ratio(s) a bit differently *shrug*
Almost every car review I read through the years, the top speed is set using a gear closer to 1:1.
The Corvette still has to help the corporate CAFE numbers, so the gearing reflects that. It's only been since the proliferation of 8, 9, or even 10 spd gearboxes that you could have tremendous acceleration through the first 6 or 7 gears, and still have a few gears for cruising/fuel economy.
BTW: Here's a 6-minute documentary from Chevrolet about the top-speed run.
