LT5 Engine Guide: Specs, Features, & More

Front view of LT5 engine bay

Chevrolet LT5 Engine Ultimate Guide

Over the last several decades, the Corvette has served as a haven for all with a special affinity for speed. Few can even begin to question the iconic American sports car’s performance merit, as each successive generation of production brings with it an ever-increasing level of output. It is evident to most, that GM’s engineering staff lives and dies by an “if some is good, more is better”, style of ideology, as it pertains to further development of Corvette bound powerplants.

There are perhaps few better examples to illustrate this unrelenting drive toward performance dominance than the LT5 equipped C7 ZR1 Corvette. Upon its release, the ZR1 became instantly revered as one of the most remarkable performance cars to have ever been placed into production. At the heart of the ZR1, resided the supercharged 6.2L LT5, small-block V8, an engine like nothing to have ever found its way into the Corvette’s engine bay, up until that point.

LT5 History

Orange ZR1 Corvette with LT5 engine

The Corvette’s seventh-generation had much to offer for the unabashed performance junkie at heart. The C7, in its base form, featured the LT1 small-block, which produced 455 HP. The Z06 C7 Corvette, first offered in 2015, churned out a mind-numbing 650 HP, on behalf of a supercharged LT4 power plant. While GM’s engineering team could have stopped there, without so much as the first complaint being uttered, good enough was simply not worth settling for.

Members only$35 / year

Keep going. This is where it gets good.

CorvSport Membership is for people who'd rather spend an hour inside one engine option than skim ten headlines. The rest of this story — and every other one like it — is a few seconds away.

  • Every members-only story

    Deep history, market reports, buyer's guides, and the full archive back to 2010.

  • No ads. None.

    The whole site reads like a magazine, on every device.

  • Every model year, 1953 to today

    Production numbers, VINs, RPO codes, colors, options — one page per year.

  • 30% off the shop

    Every CorvSport shirt and piece of merch, all year.

Join CorvSport — Keep Reading

$35 a year. Cancel anytime, no hoops.
Already a member? Sign in

BY CORVETTE PEOPLE, NOT A CORPORATION. Your membership keeps a small independent team of historians, photographers, racers and writers doing this.

Join — Keep Reading $35/yr