Photo Credits: General Motors

Posing Can Be Expensive.

For the last decade and change, the automotive sector has experienced convergent evolution like never before. Every corner of the market from Hyundai to Ferrari saw engines shrink and sprout turbos – since 2014, The Prancing Horse’s signature midengine supercar has gone from a 4.5L V8 to a 3.9L twin-turbo V8 to a 3.0L twin-turbo V6. In many cases, manufacturers turned to hybridization in the pursuit of enhanced efficiency, filling torque gaps, and sometimes even used batteries to replace internal combustion power all together.

These market conditions led to a substantial identity crisis at General Motors, a firm so immersed in the production of high-displacement eight-cylinder powerplants that it earned the nickname “The Small Block Company.” While The General was siphoning every dollar – to the tune of $35 billion – toward trying to be something it’s not and selling products that nobody wanted, the core of the lineup stagnated.

The legendary LS V8s that grew from 5.7L to 6.0L to 6.2L and even 7.0L between 1997 and 2008 were left reheating 376 cubic inches through 2026. Likewise, bread-and-butter half ton trucks and the associated SUVs that pay nearly all GM’s bills were left with the same two options 5.3L V8 and 6.2L V8 for 18-20 model years (depending on date of adoption for the 6.2 option) with nothing to show but a couple minor power bumps and a significant dropoff in reliability as time marched on into the 2020s.

The Inflection Point

Things started to turn around for Detroit’s largest automaker in 2023 when the C8 Corvette Z06 debuted GM’s first go-fast V8 with a displacement other than 6.2L since the retirement of the C6 Z06’s LS7 in 2015. This powerplant, dubbed LT6, took the high-revving naturally aspirated formula that Ferrari abandoned with the 488 GTB and cranked it up to eleven: 5.5L (a full liter more than the Italians ever implemented) and a free-breathing V8 record of 670 horsepower. Two years later, the largest turbos ever fitted to a production car meant that GM was officially back in the shock and awe business with the 1,064-horse ZR1.

While the unique 5.5s were, and continue to be, incredible demonstrations of what GM can do, they were reserved for exclusive $100,000+ applications while the working-class stuff soldiered on with the same 5.3 and 6.2L V8s. Well, that finally changed with the introduction of the 2027 Corvette Grand Sport that ushered in an all-new sixth-generation Small Block V8 that grew half a liter of displacement to 6.7L and spawned a new pair of truck motivators that respectively displace 5.7 and 6.6L. Power and torque are up across the board, and, while it remains to be seen, GM insists that a return to the bulletproof dependability its V8s were always know for was a top priority – all in all, the new Small Block is a “be true to yourself” tale worthy of a children’s movie.

Diesel Warfare

While LS and LT V8s are GM’s most celebrated combatants in the horsepower wars, automotive battles aren’t just fought with performance V8s. No, there’s a second front in these wars, and since 2001 it’s been more hotly contested than Michigan/Ohio State, Coke/Pepsi, Hatfield/McCoy, or Yankees/Red Sox. Given their now ubiquitous nature on American roads, it’s hard to believe that diesels, especially GM’s offerings, were once seen as niche utilitarian products that were too noisy, smelly, and specialized for use outside of farms and dedicated construction zones. In 2001, GM set out to change that when they partnered with Isuzu and Allison to produce the revolutionary ‘Duramax’ diesel, a turbocharged 32-valve direct injected V8 that instantly superseded anything Ford or Dodge could offer at the time with 300 horsepower and 520 lb-ft of torque along with car-like quietness and a smoother operational feel.

The first Duramax (LB7) was in production for four years before Ford and Dodge/Ram could catch up, then, between 2004 and 2011, GM introduced four ever-escalating generations of its heavy duty diesel in a tit-for-tat mêlée for torque superiority with its cross-town rivals before slowing things down and hanging its respective hat on a boring “doing more with less” mantra while the Blue Oval and newly independent Ram continued throwing haymakers. The 2011 (LML) Duramax stuck around through 2016, making it the longest-tenured generation until its successor, the still in-service L5P, hit the scene in ’17 with GM first class-leading power numbers since the first six months of LML production with 445 HP and 910 lb-ft of torque. That lead was, again short-lived with both Ford’s Power Stroke and Ram’s Cummins exceeding 910 lb-ft within the year and reaching an unbelievable four-digits of twist by 2020 (Ram got there first in ’19).

While GM has tweaked the solid but long-in-the-tooth LML to 470 HP and 975 torques and added a trick 10-speed transmission to the mix, all headlines have belonged to the competition with Ford’s “Scorpion” Power Stroke now boasting 500 HP and 1,200 lb-ft. and Ram not far behind with a stump-pulling torque rating of 1,075, GM truck fans have had to sit out bar and barber shop debates for the better part of a decade.

The Gauntlet

But that’s all about to change, with the greatest sign of GM’s return to sanity that we’ve seen in the awe-inspiring post-C8 Z06 ramp-up. On Monday, the Chevrolet and GMC divisions took to YouTube to announce their intentions to return to the unbeatable, no-excuses ways of the original Duramax with an all-new seventh-generation diesel displacing an absurd 8.3L that they’re calling the Mongoose. Output figures for this “Megamax” (you know it’s going to be good when it’s already garnered multiple nicknames!) remain undisclosed, but the entire 37-minute teaser made it pretty clear that The General was calling time on Ford’s “Scorpion,” because “nature had engineered a better predator… bigger, stronger, more powerful.”

Per their own words, the 8.3 turbodiesel is built to dominate, not compete, not offer similar performance to its rivals, straight up dominate. That’s exactly the frame of mind GM proved it could still muster with the ZR1, and the one diehards have been patiently waiting for the company to rediscover and apply to its mainstream products since it started the thankfully brief but completely ill-advised corporate detour through the fantasy land of electric vehicles. With the new 6.7L LS6, 5.7 and 6.6L V8s, and 8.3L Duramax, General Motors as we once knew it is officially all the way back and the entire industry has been put on notice!

Source:
General Motors

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