Unlike with the body crevices, a Hole is not necessarily just another hole when it comes to cars...  As a matter of fact, when Air Flow is involved, any inlet hole requires an outlet to keep things balanced.

If +Tadge Juechter , the current chief of Corvette program at +General Motors kept this simple guide line in mind while signing off on the latest Corvette flagship, C7 Z06, perhaps the issue of the heat soak and overheating plaguing the newest flagship could have been kept at bay (to a degree of course).

But of course, good ole Juechter dropped the engineering ball and at least according to him, the aerodynamics and buyer baiting aesthetics took precedent and the newest flagship's cooling abilities have been somewhat compromised to achieve a more balanced car.

In reality, what Juechter says is a complete bullshit, as usual.  The aerodynamics even on the base car suck (or more accurately, blow) and the limited air flow in and through the engine compartment is partially responsible for very persistent heat soak and overheating problems.

As mentioned just recently, there is a race of sorts among the aftermarket "Corvette power brokers" to come up with meaningful cooling upgrades to finally allow the piece of shit cpaalled C7 Z06 to last beyond a low speed hero lap at a road track.  Even though so far, the solutions are a great match to the original GM stupidity, offering nothing of value, apparently the contenders continue their quest.

Here is another one, perhaps capitalizing on a slower business at Callaway and using Reese's jig saw to hack out more holes on the flagship, this time in the front bumper.

Unlike with the Katech's upgrayedd that more or less utilizes the original front air intake opening, the LG Motorsports idea ventures out to the outer portions of the front bumper, resulting in two rather large holes and cooling improvements stuffed directly behind them.  To make clear, these are not extra openings MOLDED into the front bumper, they are two holes hacked out in the OEM bumper.

So what does LG intend to stuff behind these holes?  An actual AIR TO OIL engine oil cooler?  Nope, this solution would be too complicated apparently, requiring actual engineering work, involving an interface with the idiotic coolant to oil heat exchanger, using thermostats and bypass circuits to allow for effective engine cooling under track duty conditions (perhaps removing the heat exchanger altogether for those who do not worry about street driving?)

As it is, and as with the retarded attempt from Katech, these geniuses chose to cure the effect instead of addressing the cause, making removal of the obstructions from the air path leading to the radiator the main objective.  Subsequently, the "holy" locations will most likely house the relocated intercooler and possibly extra radiator or automatic transmission cooler.

Even though this approach is not very surprising and just as retarded as with Katech, it may be actually worse, not necessarily due to the actual cooling components or lack of such but instead, the locations themselves.

Through the generations of Corvette, starting with C5, the perpetual battle between cooling and aerodynamic priorities in car design, started to sway in the direction of aerodynamics, leaving the matter of cooling behind.

This part is very easy to see observing the changes in the front bumper design, from the relatively flat and wide C5 front end, through more angular and pointy C6 front, all the way to fully pronounced pointy snout of C7.

The idea of course is to decrease the frontal area of the car, creating less resistance and air drag, thus, making the car faster.  The price that is paid for this approach is of course a shift in air flow, concentrating the high pressure zone in the center of the car.  What this means in the real world translation is the effectiveness of air intake decreases away from the centerline of the front bumper.

Again, this is good for the aerodynamics but horrible for cooling that depends on the air flow.  This is why the newest generation of Corvette has a relatively small front intake when compared to the previous generation.



Although other automakers caught on with the cause and effect of aerodynamics on cooling (this is why latest Lexus and variety of european cars have relatively tall front air intakes for models with pointy front bumpers, +Tadge Juechter and his +General Motors crew completely ignored this aspect of design, making the buyers of C7 Stinkray and especially C7 Z06 flagship the ultimate price, mainly LIMP MODE.



Apparently Katech caught on while LG Motorsports chose to copy Juechter's retarded approach.  Thus, their proposal includes a couple of big holes in the bumper, in the areas where the air flow is severely reduced.  One cannot help but get a big chuckle out of this latest exercise in futility,  inviting the owners to cut up their bumpers while enjoying severely reduced benefits.

Has the crew at LG based their idea on perhaps Chevrolet Camaro?  If they did, they really do not understand the difference in the impact of bumper shape on the air flow and subsequent location of air duct intakes.

On the bright side, there should be a few Corvette C7 Z06 owners willing to cut out these holes in their cars, with this blog enjoying the entertainment.