This is the new American face of shock-and-awe horsepower tactics: a pushrod engine whose power density and output make the European exotics look foolish for all their overhead-cam trickery. It's such a typically American engineering tour de force that I'm surprised the valves don't have little flags stamped into them. As you can see by this cutaway, they don't. Maybe in the next ZR1?

Let's explain what you're looking at when you peer inside the LT4.

First, the displacement is the same 6.2 liters as the LT1 V8 it's based on. In case you missed the total output figures, they're an even 650 hp at 6400 rpm and 650 lb-ft at 3600 rpm. A completely insane 457 lb-ft is available just off idle. The torque curve has a lot to do with the 1.7-liter supercharger screwed on top of the engine—it can rotate as fast as 20,000 rpm thanks to smaller rotors, which produce boost at lower rpm.

The valves? Titanium. The compression ratio is 10:1, quite high for a forced-induction engine thanks to direct-injection technology. And as you can see, at the center of the engine, it's still cam-in-block—a technology most companies abandoned decades ago.

And here it is, the most powerful GM production motor ever, putting the fear of cheap torque into the Italians and Germans.

If you thought the horsepower wars were drawing to a close, think again.

Click the image below to view the LT4 in hi-res.

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