How The 2020 Corvette Achieves Its Fastest 0-60 Ever
### How the New Corvette Achieves Its Fastest Zero-to-Sixty Time: An In-Depth Analysis
#### Introduction
In this video, we delve into how the new Corvette is set to achieve its fastest zero-to-sixty time ever. While the 2019 Corvette ZR1 currently holds the title with a claimed zero-to-sixty time of 2.95 seconds (tested at 3.0 seconds by Motor Trend), it’s maxing out its potential. The new Corvette, even in its base version with the Z51 package, is capable of achieving a sub-three-second zero-to-sixty time. This improvement is largely due to the relocation of the engine from the front to the back, which significantly enhances the vehicle's performance.
#### Comparison with the 2019 Corvette ZR1
The video begins by acknowledging the impressive performance of the 2019 Corvette ZR1. With a 6.2-liter V8 engine producing 495 horsepower and 475 foot-pounds of torque, the ZR1 is no slouch. However, its zero-to-sixty time is limited by its front-engine layout, which doesn’t allow for optimal weight distribution. The new Corvette, on the other hand, benefits from a rearward engine placement, shifting the weight distribution to favor the rear wheels.
#### The Role of Engine Relocation and Weight Distribution
The key to the new Corvette’s improved performance lies in its 40/60 weight distribution. By moving the engine closer to the rear, more weight is placed on the driven wheels, maximizing traction and acceleration. This shift in weight distribution allows the new Corvette to achieve a higher maximum potential acceleration compared to its predecessor.
#### The Importance of Power and Transmission
While engine placement plays a crucial role, power and transmission are equally important. The new Corvette’s 6.2-liter V8 engine provides ample power, but it’s the vehicle’s dual-clutch transmission that really sets it apart. For the first time in Corvette history, the car features an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission, which offers aggressive gearing for quick acceleration and seamless gear transitions without any negative torque.
#### The Significance of Tires
Tires are another critical factor in achieving a fast zero-to-sixty time. The new Corvette’s Z51 package includes Michelin PS4S tires, which are wider and more capable than the previous Pilot Super Sport tires. These tires provide excellent grip, allowing for faster acceleration and better braking distances. Motor Trend previously tested the previous generation Corvette and found it could stop in just 90 feet, a testament to its impressive braking capabilities.
#### Mathematical Analysis of Acceleration Potential
The video goes into detail about the mathematical analysis behind the new Corvette’s potential acceleration. Using equations involving frictional coefficient, normal force, and center of gravity, the engineers calculate the maximum possible acceleration for both the previous and new generations. The results show that the new Corvette has a higher potential acceleration, translating to a faster zero-to-sixty time.
#### Predictions for Future Variants
The video concludes with predictions about future Corvette variants. With improved tires and possibly a slightly different center of gravity, the next generation could achieve an even faster zero-to-sixty time, potentially as low as 2.5 seconds. Additionally, the new Corvette is expected to maintain its reputation for excellent braking, possibly achieving stopping distances shorter than 90 feet.
#### Conclusion
The new Corvette’s improved performance is a result of careful engineering and strategic design changes. By relocating the engine and optimizing weight distribution, powertrain, and tires, Chevrolet has created a vehicle that delivers impressive acceleration and handling. The excitement around the new Corvette is palpable, with enthusiasts eagerly anticipating its release and the chance to experience its capabilities firsthand.
Thank you for watching! Let us know your thoughts on the new Corvette in the comments below.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone and welcome in this video we're gonna be talking about how the new Corvette is going to achieve its fastest zero-to-sixty ever and you might be wondering wait a minute Jason what about the 2019 Corvette zr1 which Chevy claims to have a zero to sixty of two point nine five seconds and in fact Motor Trend has tested that at 3.0 seconds so perhaps the current 2019 Corvette zr1 is currently the fastest Corvette from zero to 60 however it's maxing out its potential whereas the new Corvette in base version with the z51 package is able to achieve a zero to sixty of under three seconds and that's the base version we're certainly going to have additional variants in the future which will be faster thanks to relocating that engine so in this video we're going to be talking about how simply moving the engine from the front towards the back is going to enable this vehicle to achieve a faster zero to 60 time than the current generation Corvette and what 0-60 time we might be able to expect from future variants of the Corvette now of course the engines location alone is not enough to have something accelerate from zero to sixty very quickly one of the elements you of course need is power so this has a 6.2 liter v8 engine producing 495 horsepower and 475 feet of torque with the Performance Exhaust great it has horsepower step number one is complete next we need a quick transmission so for the first time in the Corvettes history it has an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission there is no manual offered very sad however this dual clutch transmission does help improve the Corvettes zero to sixty times so first of all it has very aggressive gearing so Chevy states that first gear is used for launching it's a really aggressive first gear ratio and then gears two through six are close ratio so when you're on a track you can keep that peak rpm keep it within the power band put down lots of torque and then gears seven and eight give you the flexibility of dropping that rpm really low while you're cruising around on the highway to help improve fuel economy so aggressive gearing to help accelerate quickly you have constant torque because this is a dual clutch transmission so you're even gears are on one shaft you're odd are on another chef and when you switch gears you're actually closing one clutch while you're simultaneously opening the other and by doing so you're never actually having negative torque or zero torque you actually always have positive torque being applied so you can be applying to both two and three at the same time as you're switching gears as a result of the layout of this dual clutch transmission so you've always got positive torque as you're accelerating up to zero to 60 which of course is a benefit and of course much quicker than a manual transmission and these shifts happen in less than 100 milliseconds so a quick dual clutch transmission aggressive gearing all the torque you get up to 60 miles per hour very quickly great now I hope you didn't think you can get through an entire engineering explained video without me talking about tires so tires are of course very important in achieving a quick zero to 60 time especially if you are only driving two of the wheels on your car and so here we have on the z51 it has Michelin ps4s tires the successor to the previous pilot super sports which were on the Corvette up in the front two 45s in the rear the important ones for driving this vehicle 305 millimeter wide ps4s tires so a big fat tire there in the rear to help accelerate our car and one of the really cool things about the Corvette is it has one of the best braking distances out there Motor Trend tested the previous generation and was able to get a 60 mile per hour to zero distance of just 90 feet and that was using those previous tires the pilot super sports now not everyone is crazy about math I get that so I wrote some numbers here on the board but we can kind of gloss over them and just pretend that we don't have to go through all the crazy math if you like the equations there they are if you don't like the equations we can learn from this break distance of 90 feet that the Corvette is able to stop with an acceleration of 1 point 3 3 6 G's which means the frictional coefficient I'm sure that's what everyone was very curious about of these tires is 1.33 6 ok why do we care about the frictional coefficient well we have our friendly equation force equals frictional coefficient multiplied by normal force and what this tells us is the maximum force that a vehicle will be able to accelerate with is equal to the frictional coefficient of the tires in this case the 1.33 six multiplied by the normal force the weight that you've got coming down on those tires and so the more weight you can place on those tires relative to the total weight of the vehicle itself the faster you're able to accelerate with of course the weight that's on those front wheels isn't doing us any good because those front wheels are not driven so we want all of the weight on the car on those back tires if we can do it in order to have the maximum potential acceleration possible so perhaps now you've had your ha moment as far as why Chevy has decided to move that engine towards the back now the question we need to answer is what is the maximum potential acceleration for each of the two configurations the new 2020 Corvette configuration versus the previous generation Corvette configuration and in order to find this out we need to do a little bit of math I know you're just as excited as I am that's not true I'm more excited than you are either way let's look at some quick numbers here so for the 2018 Corvette it had a 50:50 weight distribution great we need to know that in an interview with Auto week the Corvettes executive chief engineer said that I had about 60% of the weight on the rear tires so a 4060 split for the new Corvette the center of gravity current driver measured at 17.5 inches or about 445 millimeters off the ground for the previous generation we don't know what that is for the new generation so we're just going to use the same number as the last generation keep things even we need to also know our wheelbase which was to 7 1 0 millimeters for the previous generation and just 12 millimeters longer for the current generation now with this information we can fill out these little fun diagrams here and so basically all we're looking at is the vehicles wheelbase the center of gravity's height and then where that center of gravity falls within that wheelbase and so with those numbers and using our little reference right here we can fill out this formula for maximum acceleration G's now if you want to know where this comes from I have a separate video covering this in much more detail which I will include in the video description so in this video we're just going to skip right along so if we fill out this equation right here and our frictional coefficient we're just going to use 1.3 a little less than our max right here which we measured previously but we're just going to give a little bit of a conservative estimate and say 1.3 1.3 is a very high frictional coefficient either way so we can fill out these numbers for our two individual cases and so with our first case with the 2018 here we have the example for the 2020 the first one with the 2018 we're going to have a maximum acceleration of 0.8 to six GS now we know that velocity equals acceleration times time and so because we know what our acceleration is and we know what we want our velocity to be 60 miles per hour we can solve for time and time is then going to be equal to three point three one seconds so that is the maximum potential three point three one seconds for the previous generation base Corvette to accelerate to 60 miles per hour based on where that engine lies in its weight distribution and its center of gravity height okay so what about the next generation Corvette what's its maximum potential acceleration and remember all we're really doing here the wheelbase is about the same we're assuming the center of gravity is the same all we're really doing here is just moving that engine back and shifting the weight from a 50/50 balance to a 4060 balance and simply by doing that we do this little math equation right here fill out those numbers and we get a maximum peak acceleration of point nine nine G's meaning a potential zero to sixty of two point seven six seconds now I don't think the base Corvette is going to hit 0-60 in two point seven six seconds I don't think it has the power for it but that would be the potential if you were to increase the power on this engine you could potentially get a zero to 60 time as low as two point seven six seconds which as you can see is significantly higher than the previous Corvettes potential okay so now you're frustrated you're thinking Jason your math is wrong if the maximum potential of the previous Corvette is the zero to sixty and three point three one how in the world are they getting 3.0 with motor trends zero to 60 time well two things here first of all we're looking at true zero to sixty we're not worrying about that roll out nonsense that all the magazines do including Motor Trend sorry Motor Trend but you know we should all use real zero to sixty s not the one foot of rollout the second part of that is this zr1 has much grippier tires so it's got Michelin cup twos on it which will help increase that frictional coefficient which will help reduce that zero to 60 time and then the third thing we need to think about here is the zero one could potentially have a slightly higher center of gravity you've got that supercharger that you're putting on it and so if you do slightly raise that center of gravity that's going to allow more weight transfer to those rear wheels under acceleration which will allow it to accelerate faster so we are able to get a you know slightly quicker than this theoretical three point three one not by a whole lot especially once you consider rollout and think about this this is a car that starts at a hundred and twenty two thousand dollars and we're comparing it to a car that starts at sixty thousand dollars and they're basically going to have pretty much the same 0 to 60 time that is amazing that's extremely cool and they're doing it you know simply by moving this engine back physics is very cool you move an engine you change the weight balance and as a result you can get a much quicker 0 to 60 time now the fun doesn't end there I want to make a prediction because I think we're going to see a better 0-60 time than 2.76 seconds so as mentioned this is going to be on the michelin ps4s tires rather than the previous Pilot Super Sport tires and so I think we're going to be able to improve the frictional coefficient on these tires I think it's potential that you know with the zr1 or the 0-6 we could be seeing grip levels at one point for for the frictional coefficient perhaps using cup two tires and you know perhaps a slightly different center of gravity height so if we assumed we were able to get a frictional coefficient in the 1.4 region we have a maximum forward acceleration of 1.0 eight nine G's zero to sixty this is what my guess is going to be the maximum potential for the zr1 is going to be 2.5 seconds which would just be absolutely awesome if we were able to see a 2.5 second Corvette very cool and the other thing here is the Corvette is one of the best braking vehicles out there already braking with an aka not EA K gonna talk about reliability here one of the quickest decelerating vehicles out there and as a result of moving in that center of gravity back one of the very cool things about it is you're going to have a more even weight distribution under heavy braking and by having a more even weight distribution under heavy braking you're able to have a slightly higher frictional coefficient on your tires because that weight is evenly distributed so I think the new Corvette will be the best braking vehicle of all time is far as production cars I think we're going to see the best stopping distances we've ever seen in a production car with the new 2020 Corvette I know I don't know that for a fact but I do believe it will happen and so we're going to see that of less than 90 feet there are a few cars out there which are capable of less than 90 feet Porsche gt3 or Porsche gt2 RS I believe did it in 87 feet and I think we may be able to beat that with this 2020 Corvette which is very cool something that's starting at just $60,000 so this thing is awesome I'm really excited about it I can't wait to try one out and it's just so cool that's something you know this advanced this powerful this quick this well you know just just well designed well engineered product is going to be available at such a reasonable price the performance is hopefully going to be as insane as it seems on paper I'm pumped about it let me know what you guys think about the new Corvette in the comments below thank you all so much for watchinghello everyone and welcome in this video we're gonna be talking about how the new Corvette is going to achieve its fastest zero-to-sixty ever and you might be wondering wait a minute Jason what about the 2019 Corvette zr1 which Chevy claims to have a zero to sixty of two point nine five seconds and in fact Motor Trend has tested that at 3.0 seconds so perhaps the current 2019 Corvette zr1 is currently the fastest Corvette from zero to 60 however it's maxing out its potential whereas the new Corvette in base version with the z51 package is able to achieve a zero to sixty of under three seconds and that's the base version we're certainly going to have additional variants in the future which will be faster thanks to relocating that engine so in this video we're going to be talking about how simply moving the engine from the front towards the back is going to enable this vehicle to achieve a faster zero to 60 time than the current generation Corvette and what 0-60 time we might be able to expect from future variants of the Corvette now of course the engines location alone is not enough to have something accelerate from zero to sixty very quickly one of the elements you of course need is power so this has a 6.2 liter v8 engine producing 495 horsepower and 475 feet of torque with the Performance Exhaust great it has horsepower step number one is complete next we need a quick transmission so for the first time in the Corvettes history it has an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission there is no manual offered very sad however this dual clutch transmission does help improve the Corvettes zero to sixty times so first of all it has very aggressive gearing so Chevy states that first gear is used for launching it's a really aggressive first gear ratio and then gears two through six are close ratio so when you're on a track you can keep that peak rpm keep it within the power band put down lots of torque and then gears seven and eight give you the flexibility of dropping that rpm really low while you're cruising around on the highway to help improve fuel economy so aggressive gearing to help accelerate quickly you have constant torque because this is a dual clutch transmission so you're even gears are on one shaft you're odd are on another chef and when you switch gears you're actually closing one clutch while you're simultaneously opening the other and by doing so you're never actually having negative torque or zero torque you actually always have positive torque being applied so you can be applying to both two and three at the same time as you're switching gears as a result of the layout of this dual clutch transmission so you've always got positive torque as you're accelerating up to zero to 60 which of course is a benefit and of course much quicker than a manual transmission and these shifts happen in less than 100 milliseconds so a quick dual clutch transmission aggressive gearing all the torque you get up to 60 miles per hour very quickly great now I hope you didn't think you can get through an entire engineering explained video without me talking about tires so tires are of course very important in achieving a quick zero to 60 time especially if you are only driving two of the wheels on your car and so here we have on the z51 it has Michelin ps4s tires the successor to the previous pilot super sports which were on the Corvette up in the front two 45s in the rear the important ones for driving this vehicle 305 millimeter wide ps4s tires so a big fat tire there in the rear to help accelerate our car and one of the really cool things about the Corvette is it has one of the best braking distances out there Motor Trend tested the previous generation and was able to get a 60 mile per hour to zero distance of just 90 feet and that was using those previous tires the pilot super sports now not everyone is crazy about math I get that so I wrote some numbers here on the board but we can kind of gloss over them and just pretend that we don't have to go through all the crazy math if you like the equations there they are if you don't like the equations we can learn from this break distance of 90 feet that the Corvette is able to stop with an acceleration of 1 point 3 3 6 G's which means the frictional coefficient I'm sure that's what everyone was very curious about of these tires is 1.33 6 ok why do we care about the frictional coefficient well we have our friendly equation force equals frictional coefficient multiplied by normal force and what this tells us is the maximum force that a vehicle will be able to accelerate with is equal to the frictional coefficient of the tires in this case the 1.33 six multiplied by the normal force the weight that you've got coming down on those tires and so the more weight you can place on those tires relative to the total weight of the vehicle itself the faster you're able to accelerate with of course the weight that's on those front wheels isn't doing us any good because those front wheels are not driven so we want all of the weight on the car on those back tires if we can do it in order to have the maximum potential acceleration possible so perhaps now you've had your ha moment as far as why Chevy has decided to move that engine towards the back now the question we need to answer is what is the maximum potential acceleration for each of the two configurations the new 2020 Corvette configuration versus the previous generation Corvette configuration and in order to find this out we need to do a little bit of math I know you're just as excited as I am that's not true I'm more excited than you are either way let's look at some quick numbers here so for the 2018 Corvette it had a 50:50 weight distribution great we need to know that in an interview with Auto week the Corvettes executive chief engineer said that I had about 60% of the weight on the rear tires so a 4060 split for the new Corvette the center of gravity current driver measured at 17.5 inches or about 445 millimeters off the ground for the previous generation we don't know what that is for the new generation so we're just going to use the same number as the last generation keep things even we need to also know our wheelbase which was to 7 1 0 millimeters for the previous generation and just 12 millimeters longer for the current generation now with this information we can fill out these little fun diagrams here and so basically all we're looking at is the vehicles wheelbase the center of gravity's height and then where that center of gravity falls within that wheelbase and so with those numbers and using our little reference right here we can fill out this formula for maximum acceleration G's now if you want to know where this comes from I have a separate video covering this in much more detail which I will include in the video description so in this video we're just going to skip right along so if we fill out this equation right here and our frictional coefficient we're just going to use 1.3 a little less than our max right here which we measured previously but we're just going to give a little bit of a conservative estimate and say 1.3 1.3 is a very high frictional coefficient either way so we can fill out these numbers for our two individual cases and so with our first case with the 2018 here we have the example for the 2020 the first one with the 2018 we're going to have a maximum acceleration of 0.8 to six GS now we know that velocity equals acceleration times time and so because we know what our acceleration is and we know what we want our velocity to be 60 miles per hour we can solve for time and time is then going to be equal to three point three one seconds so that is the maximum potential three point three one seconds for the previous generation base Corvette to accelerate to 60 miles per hour based on where that engine lies in its weight distribution and its center of gravity height okay so what about the next generation Corvette what's its maximum potential acceleration and remember all we're really doing here the wheelbase is about the same we're assuming the center of gravity is the same all we're really doing here is just moving that engine back and shifting the weight from a 50/50 balance to a 4060 balance and simply by doing that we do this little math equation right here fill out those numbers and we get a maximum peak acceleration of point nine nine G's meaning a potential zero to sixty of two point seven six seconds now I don't think the base Corvette is going to hit 0-60 in two point seven six seconds I don't think it has the power for it but that would be the potential if you were to increase the power on this engine you could potentially get a zero to 60 time as low as two point seven six seconds which as you can see is significantly higher than the previous Corvettes potential okay so now you're frustrated you're thinking Jason your math is wrong if the maximum potential of the previous Corvette is the zero to sixty and three point three one how in the world are they getting 3.0 with motor trends zero to 60 time well two things here first of all we're looking at true zero to sixty we're not worrying about that roll out nonsense that all the magazines do including Motor Trend sorry Motor Trend but you know we should all use real zero to sixty s not the one foot of rollout the second part of that is this zr1 has much grippier tires so it's got Michelin cup twos on it which will help increase that frictional coefficient which will help reduce that zero to 60 time and then the third thing we need to think about here is the zero one could potentially have a slightly higher center of gravity you've got that supercharger that you're putting on it and so if you do slightly raise that center of gravity that's going to allow more weight transfer to those rear wheels under acceleration which will allow it to accelerate faster so we are able to get a you know slightly quicker than this theoretical three point three one not by a whole lot especially once you consider rollout and think about this this is a car that starts at a hundred and twenty two thousand dollars and we're comparing it to a car that starts at sixty thousand dollars and they're basically going to have pretty much the same 0 to 60 time that is amazing that's extremely cool and they're doing it you know simply by moving this engine back physics is very cool you move an engine you change the weight balance and as a result you can get a much quicker 0 to 60 time now the fun doesn't end there I want to make a prediction because I think we're going to see a better 0-60 time than 2.76 seconds so as mentioned this is going to be on the michelin ps4s tires rather than the previous Pilot Super Sport tires and so I think we're going to be able to improve the frictional coefficient on these tires I think it's potential that you know with the zr1 or the 0-6 we could be seeing grip levels at one point for for the frictional coefficient perhaps using cup two tires and you know perhaps a slightly different center of gravity height so if we assumed we were able to get a frictional coefficient in the 1.4 region we have a maximum forward acceleration of 1.0 eight nine G's zero to sixty this is what my guess is going to be the maximum potential for the zr1 is going to be 2.5 seconds which would just be absolutely awesome if we were able to see a 2.5 second Corvette very cool and the other thing here is the Corvette is one of the best braking vehicles out there already braking with an aka not EA K gonna talk about reliability here one of the quickest decelerating vehicles out there and as a result of moving in that center of gravity back one of the very cool things about it is you're going to have a more even weight distribution under heavy braking and by having a more even weight distribution under heavy braking you're able to have a slightly higher frictional coefficient on your tires because that weight is evenly distributed so I think the new Corvette will be the best braking vehicle of all time is far as production cars I think we're going to see the best stopping distances we've ever seen in a production car with the new 2020 Corvette I know I don't know that for a fact but I do believe it will happen and so we're going to see that of less than 90 feet there are a few cars out there which are capable of less than 90 feet Porsche gt3 or Porsche gt2 RS I believe did it in 87 feet and I think we may be able to beat that with this 2020 Corvette which is very cool something that's starting at just $60,000 so this thing is awesome I'm really excited about it I can't wait to try one out and it's just so cool that's something you know this advanced this powerful this quick this well you know just just well designed well engineered product is going to be available at such a reasonable price the performance is hopefully going to be as insane as it seems on paper I'm pumped about it let me know what you guys think about the new Corvette in the comments below thank you all so much for watching\n"