The Corvette Z06 is, without question, the most powerful car that GM has ever produced. The CTS-V is hot on its tail, but isn’t built for the same mission.

“There is no internal, corporate rule that says the Corvette has to have the top horsepower,” stated Tadge Juechter, Corvette Lead Engineer. Before the CTS-V was announced ahead of the Detroit Auto Show, we had a strong feeling from seeing spy videos and photos that it was ultimately going to employ the Corvette Z06’s supercharged LT4 engine, and rightfully so, because the previous model utilized the LSA, which was closely based off of the LS9.

“We do share that technology; you do see a lot of trickle-down from Corvette on Camaros, and on Cadillac V-series, but really, every car tries to be as good as it can be…,” explained Juechter. “Packaging reasons, for example; on a big sedan where you might have more room for less restriction on the intake system, but it’s quite possible that the Cadillac could have more horsepower. In fact, it has a higher top speed than the Z06 because it has a different mission.”

The Z06 is based around track performance, while the CTS-V is based around being luxurious, but harnesses promising track capabilities from the factory. The two cars share a lot of the same technology, but are very different, which isn’t a bad thing at all. We’re really pleased with the Z06, and now we just have to get our hands on the new CTS-V to see if GM’s mission has been accomplished.