How the Corvette ZR1 Works

The 2009 Corvette ZR1 combines several technical innovations to produce a turbo-charged, eight-cylinder engine. Learn more about the Corvette ZR1 in this HowStuffWorks podcast.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Get smarter in sixty seconds with brain Stuff from how
stuffworks dot com. Hi, I'm Marshall brain GM has announced
the two thousand nine Corvette z R one and it
looks spectacular. The most obvious thing that you can see
from the outside is the amount of carbon. The hood,
the front fenders, and the roof are all made of

(00:21):
carbon instead of fiberglass. All that carbon makes the car lighter.
The second thing you see from the outside of the brakes,
which are massive and made of carbon ceramic compound. The
third thing you see is the engine, part of which
is visible through a small window in the hood. Opening
the hood, you can see it in all its glory.
It's a six point two leader eight cylinder power plant

(00:43):
able to produce six and twenty horsepower. The key to
producing that much horsepower is a supercharger. Think of a
supercharger as a big air pump that pressurizes the air
coming into the engine. More air coming in means that
the engine can burn more a saline per stroke. To
make it even better, there's an intercooler attached to the supercharger.

(01:06):
The intercooler is a system that cools down the pressurized
air to make it even denser. Add all this together
and you have a light car with huge power that
can go over two miles per hour. It should be
able to go from zero to sixty in less than
three and a half seconds. Do you have any ideas
or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me

(01:27):
an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.
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