Cooling down the coolant for the two intercoolers are two big radiators. Each radiator looks bigger than those that came on a ’90s Civic. The ZR1 peaks at 24psi of boost. Doing some quick math with some assumptions (3.0 pressure ratio, 75% compressor efficiency, 50lbs/min airflow), each intercooler radiator needs to reject about 70hp of heat. So yeah, about how much heat that would need to be rejected from a 90s Civic engine. This setup is similar to my 718 Cayman T, but the Corvette has much larger airflow openings to feed air to the radiators.
The whole front of the ZR1 is loaded with heat exchangers in the corners and the middle. That center duct is pretty fancy and tries to diffuse the airflow to the top of the heat exchanger stack.
Heat exchangers are stacked in front of heat exchangers. In the corners, the A/C condensers are stacked in front of the coolant radiators. This is also like Porsche, but there are only so many ways and locations to place heat exchangers. In the middle are two more massive radiators. I’d guess one is dedicated to the oil cooler’s coolant loop.
Ford brought their super crazy EV ‘truck’. It recently set an insane lap time at the C&D Lightning Lap at VIR. Ford somehow made a 3-element front wing/spoiler contraption work. The GoPro mount does seem to be in a place where it would affect cooling and aero the least.
Big power needs big cooling. Big cooling requires big airflow through heat exchangers. The winglet thing on the A-pillar is interesting.
3 comments
Great article. I´ve used to them being a lot longer though.
Silicone compressor outlet hoses are sometimes used on high boost diesel engines.
E.g. VW CUAA, a 2litre biturbo diesel with 236hp and 369 lbf⋅ft from 2015.
Makes sense on the higher boost diesels. More boost, higher temps.
There’s just not as many interesting cars that the LA Auto Show as there use to be unfortunately. None of the German makes show up anymore, so no Audi, BMW, Mercedes, or Porsche.
Most car shows in recent years have been snooze fests, especially the ones in Europe, just a whole bunch of soulless, political correctness on wheels on display.
The only car show in recent years that I find even mildly interesting is the 2023 Japan Mobility Show, but it was mostly a bunch of cool looking concept cars instead of cool production cars though.