Manoli Katakis 
Believe it or not, the Corvette development team “hasn’t tried” fitting the Blackwing V8 engine into the C8 mid-engine Corvette, according to GM President Mark Reuss.
“We can do anything with enough time and money, but we’re not sure we want to do (that) because it’s Cadillac exclusive,” said Reuss last month at a Cadillac event. The 4.2L LTA V8 engine he is referencing, nicknamed Blackwing, introduces a new DOHC V8 engine architecture exclusively in the engine bay of the 2020 Cadillac CT6-V. It produces a very robust 550 horsepower and a thunderous 627 lb-ft of torque. We’d say that’s good enough for a mid-engine Corvette, but even upon its reveal just over a year ago, former Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen also made it clear to the automotive media that the Corvette would not get this engine specifically.
Digging a little deeper, MC&T has come to understand that the all-new mid-engine Corvette will indeed not get the LTA V8, but it will see even higher-output versions of the engine architecture in upcoming variants. After all, General Motors wouldn’t go through the trouble to develop a single engine from a new architecture, and then put it in a low-volume sedan with a highly questionable future. Well, it might. But thankfully that’s not the case here.
Rest assured, other (extremely powerful) DOHC V8 power units are coming. Just don’t expect them at the C8 Corvette reveal on July 18, 2019. Additional evidence that this is indeed a forthcoming plan is that this new 4.2L Blackwing engine is suspiciously assembled by hand next to Corvette engines in Bowling Green, Kentucky. So the tooling is already down there, ready to use for when higher-output Corvette models launch with DOHC V8 engines of their own.
The new Corvette will start with a familiar formula – a small block pushrod V8 similar to the 6.2L LT1 found in the C7 Corvette, as well as the Chevrolet Camaro SS. However, in this mid-engined application, the engine is called LT2. We’re not sure just yet on its output, but we’re likely to know in nine days.
