Comments on: Chevrolet engineers say BMW’s V10 was inspiration for LS9 motor

By: Veda

Veda — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 11:15:37 +0000

jjt: Hardly, BMW is known to have comparable reliability to Audi and that’s not a good thing at all. The greatest money makers are the japs just because they know how make their vehicles last in real volatile areas of the world.

By: C6Racer

C6Racer — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:44:09 +0000

GM doesn’t only share transmissions, they actually make them for the various European manufacturers.

By: jayjc08

jayjc08 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:19:18 +0000

deutschetouring1337- So what if it isn’t direct injection? It makes more power, better fuel economy, better hp per liter, better miles to a gallon, better weight, less cylinders and better sounding (in my opinion, maybe not yours) than any BMW V-10.

trooper- I think everyones missing the point. When GM says they used BMW’s V-10 as a benchmark, they don’t mean the actual mechanics but the performance, and they did much better. And once again, read what I just said before. Maybe the reason why the Germans won’t admit they’re copying an American design is because their too proud (consider that for a second).

Not to mention, Gm is sharing it’s suspension system with Ferrari, and transmissions with numerous German manufacturers.

By: jackjimturkey

jackjimturkey — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:54:15 +0000

LP640: you clearly know your Greek.

By: LP64O

LP64O — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:40:10 +0000

I’M A TOTAL DIP**** AND I THINK YOU WOULD ALL AGREE. I TOOK AN M5 V10 AND AN LS9 APART BECAUSE I IMPLY THAT I KNOW HOW TO REBUILD ENGINES AND FOUND NOTHING IN COMMON. GOD, JUST KILL ME NOW.

By: Z06ified

Z06ified — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:07:04 +0000

I’m still waiting for facts. LP640 can only come up with childish puberty name calling? I think he’s a pedophile…

By: Z06ified

Z06ified — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:42:40 +0000

LP640 – you speak from your ass, as usual. Name ONE design element that GM “copied” from the BMW V-10.

If you can’t name one, then STFU.

And use FACTS – don’t pull it out of your ass – we’ve seen enough crap from you already – we don’t need anymore.

Why are you hear trolling this board anyway? Don’t you have some traffic to play in?

By: SwerveEarly

SwerveEarly — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 18:18:00 +0000

Only a dick would bag on the most succesful engine in the History of man.
They did not Jap out and look to BMW to steal design ideas for their motor. They used the V10 as a performance bench mark.
It does not make a lot of sense to me because its numbers are more AMG 6.3 (calm, low end torque, mild rev limit) then the BMW v10 (hyper, peaky, high rev limit). Different philosophy entirely.
Comparing different motor layouts in competeive cars is a fact of life. There is always compromises, cost, weight, reliability, packaging and NVH

By: jackjimturkey

jackjimturkey — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:21:48 +0000

Veda: using BMW as a benchmark will make your customers happy.

By: Hari

Hari — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:08:07 +0000

LP640 you obviously must be some kind of troll… The LSx series engine has NOTHING in common with the M5’s V10. They were talking about looking to BMW’s 500+ HP for inspiration in order to EXCEED it. Open your eyes! BTW, before you call me a GM fanboy, I’ll have you know I own an E34 BMW… the last good 5-series.

By: Z06ified

Z06ified — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:48:51 +0000

trooper – WTF are you talking about? I said it before and I’ll say it again: this article is B.S.

WHAT INSPIRATION was drawn from the BMW V-10? NAME IT. There are virtually NO SIMILARITIES between the two engines at all! So how can there be “inspiration drawn?”

You don’t see the stupidity in this article?

By: lyndon_h

lyndon_h — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:25:21 +0000

I have to agree with you there Renton.

By: corvette

corvette — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:23:13 +0000

wow this engine is amazing more than 600hp and still getting more than 20mpg.

By: lyndon_h

lyndon_h — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:21:55 +0000

Read between the lines, friends. This is all a ploy to help justify the price of the ZR1. In reality, the engines probably have little in common.

By: Renton

Renton — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:16:13 +0000

GM Powertrain has some badass engineers. They looked to right company for inspiration.

Best engines in the world come from

Honda, BMW, Ferrari, GM abd VW

By: trooper1

trooper1 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:08:15 +0000

Its sad that a company like GM can’t find its own inspiration within the company to build a good engine. Of course they look to the superior German engines for inspiration. You will never hear German automakers say that an American engine was their inspiration for designing a motor because domestic engines offer nothing that is technologically advanced. Every advancement in engine tech comes from Europe and Japan, then the domestics just copy it and brag about how high tech their cars are. Fuel injection, turbo, supercharger, variable valving, the internal cumbustion engine itself comes from across the ocean. And the MPG this engine boasts is bull because they give these cars a useless 6th gear with such a tall ratio that you would need atleast 1000hp to get some performance use out of it. In reality GM’s sports cars with 6spd are actually 5spd’s, the 6th gear does nothing for performance. Still this vette motor sounds good, too bad GM does not have enough originality to build a motor without outside inspiration.

By: CHEVEL67NI

CHEVEL67NI — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:01:40 +0000

Hell who cares about German pedigree, Ill take a fire breathing American V8 any day, than take whatever the Krauts have to offer. Face it German pedigree isnt what its cracked up to be. Take a look at the ****ty quality the krauts built in the last 10-15 years. My father had a ‘96 S420 and before that a ‘86 S420, you would have thought Detroit built those cars. Ill take American pedigree all day long, we can admit we fukced up and turn it around.

By: global_lightning

global_lightning — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:36:02 +0000

I look forward to the day when BMW engineers look to GM products for inspiration:
“Ve dumped das sophisticated but complex double VANOS after being awestructen by the vastly superior but simpler pushrod OHV engines in das Corvette. Uber Alles!”

By: roger426

roger426 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:35:08 +0000

LP640…when GM says it was there inspiration, it does not mean they set out to copy it, or for that matter did copy it. I read the article this was based on, and all the GM engineers said, the performance numbers BMW are creating with there v10 has inspired them to keep up. NO WHERE does it say they took the v10 and copied it…take the motors and compare them, find anything they copied that was exclusive to BMW…and then you can make your child-ish remarks with no backing to your word!

By: SS4LIFE

SS4LIFE — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:21:20 +0000

It’s funny how BMW engines are sooo superior if their V10’s only push out 507hp and get a miserable 17mpg while the simple pushrod LS7 V8 can push out 505hp and get over 20mpg. Who’s inferior now?

Also I can’t explain it and I never could but the Corvette just gets really good gas mileage, (for a car in its class)and it has for years. It must be a combination of the engine, weight, aerodynamics, and gear ratio.

Also it’s a wonder to me that they were able to achieve a “high 20mpg” highway figure in a 600hp+ 6.2L V8 S/C engine. S/C’s usually suck down gas especially on a V8. All I have to say is that the engineers at GM are really doing a good job on this. Wow I wish they could do this with the rest of the company.

By: roger426

roger426 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:02:41 +0000

@Rotman
yeah…they really should not be comparing these two motors. Supercharged vs. Natural, is very unbalanced.

By: roger426

roger426 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:00:20 +0000

@Rotman
I dont know for sure for sure how it is done with the ZR1…but I know with the Z06 they acheived 26 highway mpg mostly with the final gear ratio, and the lean mixture. But I am sure the aerodynamics and weight played a part.

By: Z06ified

Z06ified — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:53:13 +0000

This article is B.S. How could the BMW V-10 be an inspiration for the LS9, when the two engines share absolutely NOTHING in common in design, other than they are both internal combustion gasoline engines?

The LS9 has more in common with the LS7, which has more in common with the rest of the LS series pushrod V-8s, all of which were conceived in 1997, long before the BMW V-10 existed.

I don’t know who wrote this original article, but there’s no way it’s accurate.

By: livelyjay

livelyjay — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:52:51 +0000

@roger426
That was something I assumed, and heard as rumor-type information. I can’t find anything on it. How do they do it then? I mean the Vette is lightweight for a supercar. Is it just the combined effect of a long final gear, good aerodynamics, and a lean fuel mixture, or is there something else to it?

By: Rotman

Rotman — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:50:38 +0000

@roger426

No problem at all with superchargers. I’m just indicating that using a supercharger makes it a lot easier to reach high hp numbers than without. Therefor a comparison is kind of unbalanced.

By: roger426

roger426 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:29:46 +0000

@Rotman…corvettes DO NOT shut off half the motor(cylinder De-activation). That option is avalible on some of GMs vehicles but definentley not the corvettes. So liveljay is wrong. Yeah mpgs really dont matter in this class but the fact that they can reach figures like this with 620 hp is amazing…is there some sort of problem with a supercharger?

By: Rotman

Rotman — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:24:42 +0000

@roger426

Who gives a rat’s ass about mpg when you’re in the market for a car with one of these engines? Besides, see livelyjay’s comment on how they get that. Also, you forget they need a supercharger to reach that 100hp per liter, while BMW does it N/A.

By: roger426

roger426 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:18:10 +0000

Yeah Lp640 they copied right off the bmw…except its a v8, not a v10, and it makes 620 hp not 507, and it gets 20+ mpg not 17…and oh yeah 100hp per liter.

By: livelyjay

livelyjay — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:04:33 +0000

GM is able to get in the high 20s for highway mileage because they turn off half the engine on the highway when you don’t need all 8 cylinders.

By: Get Real

Get Real — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:31:17 +0000

This better not build another “Northstar” engine.

That great GM product is 3 hundred pounds of scrap if it has a problem.

GM itself will not rebuild it, you buy a new one.

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:28:43 +0000

Damn…say what you want, but GM really pulled all the tricks it knows with this engine…it’s f*cking awesome!

By: vincenzo

vincenzo — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 08:19:45 +0000

I assume you already have experience with this engine to know it’s inferior to German motors, 5280?

By: Stridder44

Stridder44 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:41:15 +0000

American car companies moving on the right track (no pun intended)? My God. What next? An actual good president? The rising of the dollar?

Seriously though, very good to hear that GM, Ford, etc. are looking to the better competition for ideas. Raising the bar is a good thing.

By: deutschetouring1337

deutschetouring1337 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:14:46 +0000

Guess still no Direct Injection and what a 7spd and still only 2 valves per cylinder ? Seems like BMW numbers were a benchmarck and Nascar is still the testing ground. The whole HP war was started between Audi, BMW then Merc, GM and will end with Japan joining also.

By: Impulsive

Impulsive — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:59:09 +0000

Nice.

LLN, end the annoying Workopolis ads. They’re bull****.